Pattern Fishing

[greentrout]

I recently read an article from a young BassMaster in Bassmaster magazine who advocated to forget Rick Clunn's Pattern Fishing. Instead, "pitch your bait to any and all areas where a bass could hide".  

 

What is your definition of pattern fishing? Is it a part of your bass fishing strategy when you are bass fishing? 

 

Good Fishing

[Pat Brown]

I think pattern fishing can be a really good way to efficiently target larger groups of fish that are active on any given day out on the water. But if your goal is to catch a very large fish, you definitely don't need to pattern fish.

[gimruis]

I definitely pattern fish.  I generally fish the same lakes during the same portions of the season, year after year, so I've developed a pretty decent pattern based on the water temps, feeding habits, and local conditions that are presented.

 

Some of those conditions have permanently changed over the years, so I've had to try and adjust to them.  One example being the increased water clarity, which often sends fish deeper and makes them more difficult to catch.  I have approached this with longer casts and attempt to fish them on cloudy days instead of sunny ones.

[Tennessee Boy]

Pattern fishing is searching for a repeatable pattern so you don’t have to pitch your bait to any and all areas where a bass could hide. The lake down the road from me has 22,000 acres of area where a bass could hide.  Pattern fishing saves me a lot of time. 😉

[PaulVE64]

I wont say he's wrong. But what if fish statistically prefer similar conditions in water. Makes sense then that patterns work.

 

Not that I dont start my day as a junk fisherman

[Mike L]

Every time a bass fisherman (or any type of fisherman) throws a line they’re pattern fishing. 
You know what you have tied on,

You know where you threw it,

You know how you presented it. 
 

What happens if you catch fish?

You try to mirror everything you just did! That’s a pattern. 
 

What happens if you change something and gets bit or not?

Thats looking for pattern. 
 

What happens if you don’t hook anything?

That’s a pattern not to be repeated. 
 

 

 

Mike

 

[Team9nine]

A bit nuanced, but there were two types of patterns involved in the early Bassmaster years. Rick Clunn’s system was based on ‘seasonal’ patterns, fish repeating areas of use year after year during the same time of year, like the back of creek arms in the fall, and in some cases, then eliminating cover alternatives within those areas.
 

The other type which is being mentioned was Roland Martin’s ‘pattern fishing’ which largely revolved around ‘cover’ options. Fish are ‘in the pads,’ or ‘on the laydowns,’ or ‘on the riprap,’ etc. Roland is usually the one credited with coining the term ‘pattern fishing.’

 

Neither is arguably obsolete, and if anything, “pitch your bait to any and all areas where a bass could hide" sounds more like junk fishing. Patterns vs junk - I don’t know. Both have their time and place…and now there is FFS which gives us the ability to ignore all of the above and simply target ‘the fish’ irrespective of location.

[Swamp Girl]

I always launch with six or seven rods recently rigged for where I'm going, the weather, and time of year. I cycle through all the rods, but when I establish a pattern, I don't just stick with that pattern. I figure there's another pattern and so I keep using the other lures too. I'm happier with a fishing session where I catch bass with four lures than just two. Catching bass with different lures in different places adds to my understanding of the bass in that lake at that time of year. I have an excellent memory for how and where and when I catch fish.

[gimruis]

1 minute ago, ol'crickety said:

I always launch with six or seven rods recently rigged for where I'm going, the weather, and time of year. I cycle through all the rods, but when I establish a pattern, I don't just stick with that pattern.

This is me too.

 

Except the part about not sticking with a pattern that works.  Once I find that pattern/presentation, I beat it into a pulp.  Strike while the iron is hot.

[Jar11591]

I am of the opinion that “pattern” fishing is one of the most overused, overstated phrases in bass fishing, as if fish have a hive mind. I don’t believe that every bass in the lake collectively agrees to something such as “we’re only gonna bite a jig that hops 3 times. If it hops less or more than 3 times, we’re going to ignore it” or something like that. Patterns certainly exist, I just don’t believe it’s to the extent, or to such specific circumstances that many bass anglers claim. I think back to a Tactical Bassin video in which Matt stated that sometimes he’s fishing a jig and if he does a double hop he will not get a single bite, but if he does triple hops with the jig, he can’t keep bass off his line. To me that seems like a silly notion. 

[casts_by_fly]

I've started thinking about bass a lot differently over the past couple years.  It kinda goes with the adage 'they are where you find them'.  I grew up thinking that the bass were immobile creatures.  They were either tight up to a log or they weren't there that day.  If there is cover around they are on it or they aren't.  Black and white.

 

In reality, bass are more like electrons around an atom.  They aren't in hard defined places.  They roam.  They might be more likely to be around certain general areas but they still move and can be anywhere at any given moment.  Different conditions may push them tighter to a location.  For instance, if the water temp is 36 degrees but there's a rock bank that's holding at 42, you can be pretty sure they are going to spend most of their time in the warm water.

 

That's how I see a pattern.  On a given day they might be more likely to be around the wood docks nearer the creek mouths than way up in the creek or out on the main lake.  So sure, you want to work around those wood docks at the mouths.  But don't be beholden to them and fish at least some ways on either side of them.  Sure, they might be keying on the transition from lily pads to milfoil, but you can be sure I'm going to toss a frog all the way back into the pads just to be sure.  They are where you find them.

[Mr. Aquarium]

Here’s an example. I went out couple weeks ago in Massachusetts. Last time I fished before the freeze. I went with the normal shallow pond baits. Jerkbaits, glides, lipless cranks. Didn’t catch a thing. All the fish I caught were  on a  flipping jig with rattles and a strike king rage bug, flipping shallow trees. That to me is a pattern. 
Heres another example. Last month i went out. Another shallow pond in MA. Wasn’t a great day but I caught some fish on lipless and jerkbaits. It was random. I couldn’t figure out a pattern. They were on the wind blown shore but that’s the only thing that had consistency. One fish on the jerkbait was up shallow the fish on a lipless were out a bit deeper in a different area. 

[Swamp Girl]

@Jar11591, you make a compelling argument. Bass aren't bees or ants with a queen controlling them with chemicals. They have shown an ability to learn and therefore some know more and some know less and some are better hunters, which means some are hungrier and some are full. And so on. In the end, I think a pattern is us merely pretending to know more than we know. 

 

39 minutes ago, casts_by_fly said:

Sure, they might be keying on the transition from lily pads to milfoil, but you can be sure I'm going to toss a frog all the way back into the pads just to be sure.

 

Me too. I'll toss that frog and other lures just to be sure. I like the mystery. I never settle into the assumption that I know what the hundreds of individual bass are going to do.

[Pat Brown]

Every spring there's the old spawning pattern.

 

Every day there's the old feeding pattern.

 

Every day there's the old inactive pattern.

 

But there's patterns within patterns that can help you *in the moment* be more likely to catch a bass *sometimes*

 

I don't go out expecting to hit a pattern but on the lakes I fish, if you get on one....ride it out til it's bone dry because it's tough tough tough most days.

 

Sometimes the pattern is that there is no pattern and you do the best doing a little bit of everything.

 

This kinda stuff is probably what makes bass fishing fun!

[Catt]

Geez y'all make it hard to answer.

 

Patterns definitely exist

 

That's not to say "all" bass are doing the same thing at the same time. There's is however a substantial percentage that do. Depending on the size of the body of water there can in fact be multiple patterns. 

 

Bass being mobile or stationary.

 

Again depending on the body there is a portion of the population that stays within 30 yds of the bank. There's a portion of the population that never see a bank their entire life. And then there's a portion of the population that moves between the two.

 

[WRB]

Pounding the bank by casting a lure of your choice to anything looks good to is fishing blind imo.

How do you know what the bass want and where the bass are located. You may catch a few bass or may blank and never know why. 

All the locations you can’t see are more then likely where the are located. The lures or colors you didn't try where those bass were located was probably the pattern you missed.

Tom

[scaleface]

 I dont start out the day fishing a pattern but usually finish it fishing a pattern.

[Swamp Girl]

I like @Catt's post; it's a solid summation. And I like @WRB's post, for it acknowledges the mystery in bass fishing. 

[Tennessee Boy]

Looking for patterns is the most important mental exercise in bass fishing, in my opinion. Recognizing a real pattern and rejecting false patterns is the key to success. Failure to reject false patterns is probably the most common mistake. It’s rare to find a very solid, specific pattern at the end of the day. It’s usually more of a hunch about certain tendencies. If I’ve caught 3 fish on the north bank and none off the south bank after a few hours of fishing, that’s not a solid pattern. As long as I’ve got plenty of north bank to fish, that’s probably where I’m going to be fishing for the rest of the day. It would be a mistake to leave with the firm belief that fish only bite on the north bank during this time of year.

[Bankc]

Pattern fishing is the best way to catch fish.... assuming you know the right pattern.  If you're fishing a pattern that's wrong, you're better off pitching your bait to any and all areas.  Often times fishing at random can lead you to the pattern that works.  

 

So both methods have a time and place.  A smart angler knows when to rely on each.  

[king fisher]

Being observant and figuring out a pattern, is what makes great anglers different than average anglers.  If I catch a few bass in 10 feet of water, I may assume the pattern is fish 10 feet deep.  I go to a dozen other spots that are 10 feet deep and don't catch any fish.  The problem isn't there was no pattern, the problem was I wasn't observant enough to notice what the pattern was.  In reality the place I originally caught the bass was a main lake rocky point, with a strong current passing by.  I could have caught bass in 5 feet of water off that rocky point, but I quickly assumed depth was the pattern, and didn't take in the rest of the information I should have noticed from catching those first few bass.  I could have spent the remainder of the day fishing rocky points with current and catching bass, instead of going to random places in the lake that were 10 feet deep.  This example is an extreme over simplification, and doesn't  take in to account the pattern may change as the sun angle, wind, current, or many other factors change, but the idea is the same.  I may catch two bass and not notice any similarities between the two, but a great angler may notice a multitude of things the bass had in common.  A great angler will also notice a pattern where he is not having success, and will not continue to fish similar places. 

     There will usually be some kind of pattern, it may be as simple as fishing the end of the lake that has open water, while the other end is covered in ice, or as complex as fishing for bass on beds, on a south facing bank, protected from a west wind, with a gravel, bottom in 65 degree water on a full moon next to isolated wood, with a white soft plastic.  The important thing is to observe the soundings and use any and all information available to determine similarities and develop a pattern.

[Catt]

37 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

I like @Catt's post; it's a solid summation. And I like @WRB's post, for it acknowledges the mystery in bass fishing. 

 

Ran out of likes a long time ago!

 

The problem with patterns is about the time you think you have them figured out you don't.

[A-Jay]

After reading the responses here,

combined with the "How are you different ?" thread,

I honestly have no idea how I manage to catch a single bass.

Seems my basic & routine approach is so wildly contradictory to so much of the best deals.

And yet somehow, I get a few.

This hard water season is getting longer and longer.

A-Jay

 

[Swamp Girl]

Oooh, @king fisher, I love your post.

 

 

[Choporoz]

2 hours ago, casts_by_fly said:

In reality, bass are more like electrons around an atom.  They aren't in hard defined places.  They roam. 

This was a difficult lesson for me.  Bass move. Sometimes they move a lot.   It isn't all that hard to understand when you can tell from surface activity.  Other times (like slick/quiet or good chop) it isn't obvious.   It was only after last couple years of fishing for hours and hours from a dock that I began to appreciate how often fish can move in and out of a smallish area.  In a boat or yak, it isn't as apparent, or maybe as significant because I am always moving to the fish...or trying to.  The fact that active fish are moving in and out isn't as noticeable. 

   The lesson is reinforced by watching FFS'ers cover hundreds of yards of open water in fairly short period, chasing same fish

 

1 hour ago, ol'crickety said:

  I'll toss that frog and other lures just to be sure. I like the mystery.

Mr. Blauket approves