Bass

[Norcal angler]

I’m in norcal. I fished the delta today. I caught around 30 fish, but none were over 12”. Didn’t matter what I was throwing or where I was or how deep, they was all small. Why is this?  How do I find the bigger fish? Have they just completely moved out of the area? 

[JackstrawIII]

I live in NY so I can't speak to your specific geographic location, but when you're stuck catching dinks you have to change something. Usually that involves moving to a new area of the body of water that you're fishing. Unless you're fishing a stunted pond full of small bass, there ARE big bass around, but big bass (in my experience) tend to congregate around the best structure/areas and the dinks take the other spots. The trick is finding where the big ones have settled, which is easier said than done. 

[king fisher]

I started fishing a lake a few years ago, and all I could catch were dinks.  I could catch them along the entire shore line, and even out in the middle of the lake away from any structure, or cover.  At first I thought I needed to try bigger lures, I still caught only bass less than 1 pound.  I tried fishing jigs, because they have a reputation of catching big bass.  

 

Then one day I found a tree in deep water.  First cast with the same spinnerbait that I was catching dinks with hooked a giant bass but I lost it.  I returned to the same spot a week later and caught 2 bass over 10 pounds, one on a spook, the other on a spinnerbait.  The water dropped exposing more trees, and I caught more big bass.  I will still catch dinks off of those trees, but only on days when I don't catch any big ones, or I have caught a big one or two first.

 

The big bass seem to hit right away, and if I keep pounding the spot I may catch a few small bass.  Sometimes I hook a small bass on one of my first few casts, but most of the time if I'm going to catch a big bass it will come right away.  One time I hooked a small bass, and I giant bass came up and ate it two feet from the side of my kayak.  It was then I realized the dinks don't want to hang out with the big bass because they may not survive if they do.

 

If you catch a couple dinks off of a spot I would give it a few more casts, there may be a big one you missed.  If you catch many baby bass, I would recommend going somewhere else.  You can try a different bait, or retrieve, but most likely you are in the wrong spot.

[Pat Brown]

I agree that the big bass are probably in their special spots doing their things most of the time and probably roam around a lil more in search of food very early and later in the day and at night.

[J._Bricker]

Hey @Norcal angler, it’s been a complaint from anglers fishing the delta for awhile now. In my opinion the spawn is towards the end of its cycle, a lot of those smaller fish you caught are probably fry guarders with the bigger females trying to recover off the bank. And in the State’s aggressive efforts to eliminate all vegetation the bass use as cover, predation by sea lions during the spawn haven’t helped the fishery.

Unfortunately, I haven’t been on the water in over a month so I can’t offer any help from recent trips. But judging by recent tournaments bigger bags are showing up with most guys covering water until they find them.

And welcome to Bass Resource and the Forums 

[WRB]

The Delta is a tidal fishery making timing critical. Juvenile bass and adult size usually don’t mix because they are a prey source.

Lots of juveniles indicated a good recruitment  year class which is good.

The Delta the bigger bass target jigs that look like crawdads and juvenile bass avoid crawdads.

Tom 

[Fishing_Rod]

Greetings All,

On 6/26/2024 at 5:51 PM, WRB said:

the bigger bass target jigs that look like crawdads and juvenile bass avoid crawdads.

The bigger than typical bass that I've caught have frequently been on crawdad sized imitations (grubs on jigs, and related soft plastics). These seem to do better than the other size presentations. I generally find keeping the baits in the 2-4 inch size range is helpful to keep me more in the catching rather than just casting. THXs Tom for that characterization. Go get'em!

[Bazoo]

Howdy and welcome.

 

 

On 6/26/2024 at 1:51 PM, WRB said:

The Delta is a tidal fishery making timing critical. Juvenile bass and adult size usually don’t mix because they are a prey source.

Lots of juveniles indicated a good recruitment  year class which is good.

The Delta the bigger bass target jigs that look like crawdads and juvenile bass avoid crawdads.

Tom 

Why do juvenile bass avoid crawdads? Just the size of the meal vs size of the mouth?

[WRB]

If you have handled Crawdads you know their pincher claws can hurt. Crawdads use these claws for defense when a predator comes close and juvenile bass are not big enough yet to defeat the crawdad.

Tom

[Pat Brown]

Yeah a large bass can make a large crawdad into crawfish etouffee with its crushers in seconds.  One gulp.  Small bass gonna have problems with a bigger crawdad.

[Team9nine]

If you look at diet studies done on largemouth, you’ll find that while there are always a few bass of most any length that will consume crayfish, they tend to take on greater importance once a bass reaches the 8”-12” length. Prior to that, and if available, grass shrimp can be an important substitute or stepping stone. The key from an anglers perspective is to keep your jig size proportional to the bass. If you want to catch a bunch of smaller bass (“dinks”) on jigs, use a micro jig and craw, or a small crankbait like the Rebel Wee Craw.

[gim]

They have done stomach content studies here with inland water smallmouth and found that up to 80% of their diet consists of crayfish.

 

In the Great Lakes and connecting tributaries, it’s a lot of gobies.

 

There is an invasive/non-native species of crayfish here called the rusty crayfish. They tend to get bigger and are more aggressive than the native strains. I could definitely see why a 13 inch bass might reconsider messing around with an adult crayfish. Food that bites back is not real desireable.

[12poundbass]

14 minutes ago, gimruis said:

Food that bites back is not real desireable.

I’d have to disagree. The spicy burrito I had Thursday bit back but I’d have another one. 😁

[gim]

[Catt]

News flash 😉

 

Just like all bass aren’t the same size, not all crawfish are the same size. Oh yeah guess what the Shad, the bluegill, & the rest of their food source also comes in various sizes. They hatch, they grow, they die!