14 hours ago, WRB said:

How do you know if a bass is active or inactive, if the strikes your lure it isn't inactive

 

Really!

 

A bass that has digested or nearly digested its last meal & is now in a feeding mood or actively looking for food.

 

It doesn't necessarily mean they are running around the lake searching for food.

 

It is impossible to determine if a bass is in a feeding mood or not, simply because it struck your lure.

 

Can a "inactive" bass be irritated, or aggravated into striking your lure absolutely.

 

When talking about finding a "school" of bass with our electronics we are not talking about a wad or ball like baitfish or stacked up like crappie. We are looking for those cotton balls scattered along structure but are still in close proximity to each other.

 

It is quite common when fighting one of those bass to the surface to see streaks on our screen coming up to investigate. It is quite common to see one bass trying to take the lure away from the hooked bass & is why we end up with two bass on one crankbait.

 

We can sit there & catch everyone of those bass in a short period of time. Working that pattern is how we catch 50-100 bass a day.

   To me, "Neutral" and "inactive" are different.  I think bass can sleep during the daytime. But this video makes it weird.      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55YwDntyKu0

    Fish start at about 2:50.   Also   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_in_fish  This talks about fish being "unresponsive" and having an "arousal threshold".  Are bass any different?????    

  jj

Somewhere on bassresource I saw a post that suggested that if you don't get a bite in 10-15 minutes, move. I've been watching closely and so far that advice is really good. I'm sure it is not always right, but here's the thing - the number if times I wish I had moved sooner instead of fiddling around throwing something new at them is -almost- 100%. And the skunks in 2019 were 100% staying in the same spot too long. 

 

One of the things I've noticed about covering water is this - occassionally I'll get grumpy and drive around dragging more aggressive swimming presentation (chatterbait or crankbait or lipless) and I very often will catch fish when I do it, even if I haven't caught anything that day. But I'm covering a lot of water, and usually a little deeper or further from shore than where they are supposed be. 

 

But it requires a few things to be true 1) I know what depth they are generally at/where they are holding in the column 2) I have a few presentations tied on that are appropriate to that spot, at least some of which are high confidence for the situation. An example here might be it is a windy day where fish should be keyed on baitfish and are likely holding in the weeds. If I fish through it with a chatterbait and a keitech and a lipless with no bites, I might throw a senko at higher percentage spots on the spot - best structure, weed points, more defined dropoff, etc. And might run the same pattern on a different location with similar characteristics. If that doesn't work I've had the best luck trying one step earlier or later in where they 'should' be. You could use a similar approach holding on bottom - if they won't bite a worm, a ned rig, or a jig, across a few different presentations, I need to go find other fish - I keep wasting time being convinced I'll figure it out and get them, but I'm not good enough to do that. 

 

The $300 for a Deeper Sonar (chirp model) is seeming more and more like a good buy. I can get sonar into any size pocket or situation without trying to drag a boat over fish in 5-8 FOW. "wide" setting is a cone the same as the depth. It's castable. Basically it is a searchbait with no hooks, working in reverse - I can cover a lot of water very fast and know there's no fish there. 

 

Related to all this I've been thinking about color changes a lot, and how a lot of people here suggest that it is one of the least important changes most of the time. My personal experience is piling up that that is spot on. For the 10% of the time it really matters, it really matters a lot. But the rest of the time it doesn't seem to make much difference. 

 

There's one particular scenario that I'm still struggling with - mid-column suspended florida strain (or heavy hybrid) bass. If a jerkbait or a fluke doesn't work, I'm done, they are just laughing at me. 

 

There are a bunch of exceptions to all this, but net net I'd catch more fish if I moved more.

47 minutes ago, txchaser said:

I keep wasting time being convinced I'll figure it out and get them, but I'm not good enough to do that. 

    Join the club, 'cause you sure as heck ain't the only one!     ?     jj

A lot of times I’ll try something different AND move. Still don’t catch them like I want to. 

I dont think you got the answer you were seeking because its a hard question to answer . We all just sort of play it by ear .

1 hour ago, scaleface said:

I dont think you got the answer you were seeking because its a hard question to answer . We all just sort of play it by ear .

pretty much

IMO if the fish are on the bottom I can get them to bite 1/2 the time; if they're suspended I move on.