When you approach a log with turtles and they all jump in, do you go ahead and fish that log?  I cant remember ever catching a bass after turtles dive off a log.

No, I go right on by.  Never have either.

Ever caught a bass with a small turtle in its mouth?  I have.  😉

I think turtles and ducks are early warning systems for bass. Those laydowns always seem to be less productive.

Yeah I do not think of it like that at all personally.

 

Bass eat small turtles and bugs and do not vacate areas that attract lots of life - they tend to be attracted there for the same reasons +/-.

 

Also this time of year ain't nothing moving bass off the shallow spots they are on.

I'll take a wake wave over a log full of diving turtles.

Spawning Carp is another place I steer away from.

Now that you mention it, I don't recall many instances of catching a fish off a log that a bunch of turtles just jumped off. When I'm fishing the James River (or any similar system), I skip whole sections if there's a bunch of turtles in it. Logic being that the turtles want the areas without current and the bass tend to want sections with some flow. 

If you fish big Glide baits you learn pretty fast that loud splashdowns don't seem to effect the fish nearly as much as we anglers think they do.

 

Moreover in some cases I think it actually helps fish notice the bait.    

 

I've caught plenty of fish skipping a whacky rig under a dock where turtles just dropped from.   

 

Doesn't stop me from fishing those places at all.   Can't hurt at minimum.   Casts are free last time I checked 😀

I’ve never noticed any correlation between turtle behavior and bass. I haven’t ever considered that a turtle jumping into the water would scare bass off. As a frequent hucker of heavy spinnerbaits, I can’t imagine a turtle could be louder than a 1oz spinnerbait slapping into the water and there are times where I get bit the second the bait hits the water. In general, I haven’t found bass to be anywhere near as spooky as they are made out to be. 

 

" a 1oz spinnerbait slapping into the water and there are times where I get bit the second the bait hits the water."

 

All too true. A small group of friends has had a debate going on for 40+ years. Two guys are in the boat fishing and the first guy casts a spinnerbait with a 4" grub into a gap in the pads and then does it two or three more times with no reaction from a fish. As the boat slowly drifts by, the second guy throws the same kind of spinnerbait and grub into the same place three or four times and catches a nice fish. Sometimes a 6# or even an 8+.

It happens all too often. Sometimes it takes six casts each while we joke about tossing out the anchor.

 

The debate? Did it take that many noisy casts to wake up and anger the big fish who was there all along? Or did it take that much commotion to get a big fish to come from some distance away to investigate?

  Ive cught bass with baby turtles in them .

 

  I'm not referring to a single turtle slipping in the water. I'm referring to a lot of turtles scurrying in. I have always fished said logs but dont expect to catch anything from them . Thats just been my expierence . YMMV.

I don't pay attention to the turtles and i fish it anyways. Spotted bass aren't very spooky. They are so aggressive around here last trip out the wife was swimming off the back of the boat and I was casting out the front and catching lots of spots set up on a point.

1 hour ago, scaleface said:

  Ive cught bass with baby turtles in them .

 

  I'm not referring to a single turtle slipping in the water. I'm referring to a lot of turtles scurrying in. I have always fished said logs but dont expect to catch anything from them . Thats just been my expierence . YMMV.

That's what I was responding to......a log full of turtles, say 10 or more diving in at the same time.

I try to sneak up without scaring them but if they bail, so do I.

i

One or two turtles? Sure. A full log I leave alone.

we have so many turtles and so few logs that EVERY log in every lake I fish has at least a couple on every single day I fish it.  I'd have to stop fishing like 6 trees if I didn't fish when a turtle flopped in.

17 hours ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

If you fish big Glide baits you learn pretty fast that loud splashdowns don't seem to effect the fish nearly as much as we anglers think they do.

 

Moreover in some cases I think it actually helps fish notice the bait.    

 

I think it's kinda like the guys who say "color only matters when it does." Your splash or lack of splash only matters when fish are in a certain mood. Maybe on a Wednesday when the lake's pretty empty, a bigger splash attracts fish and you catch more. Maybe, on a tournament Saturday with 100 boats on the lake, no splash catches more. 

 

Generally speaking, I think you have the highest odds of catching big bass when they don't know you're there. So I try to be as subtle as possible with my baits entering the water. I 100% think a big splash in shallow water when you're flipping catches fewer fish than a quiet entry. 

 

16 hours ago, Johnbt said:

" a 1oz spinnerbait slapping into the water and there are times where I get bit the second the bait hits the water."

 

All too true. A small group of friends has had a debate going on for 40+ years. Two guys are in the boat fishing and the first guy casts a spinnerbait with a 4" grub into a gap in the pads and then does it two or three more times with no reaction from a fish. As the boat slowly drifts by, the second guy throws the same kind of spinnerbait and grub into the same place three or four times and catches a nice fish. Sometimes a 6# or even an 8+.

It happens all too often. Sometimes it takes six casts each while we joke about tossing out the anchor.

 

The debate? Did it take that many noisy casts to wake up and anger the big fish who was there all along? Or did it take that much commotion to get a big fish to come from some distance away to investigate?

I've noticed the opposite. When I'm fishing with someone else and we're both throwing spinner baits, the guy with the consistently quieter entry always seems to catch more. 

On 5/7/2025 at 1:57 PM, Bird said:

I'll take a wake wave over a log full of diving turtles.

Spawning Carp is another place I steer away from.

I have never caught a bass in the same shallows where I've seen a bunch of carp splashing around.

I avoid lots of turtles,carp and gar.

not wasting time fishing around them just to pull water and no bass.

I have gone swimming myself and had bass still tearing up the surface all around me.  I've had a bass catch a buzzbait before it hit the water. I've seen bass take a shot at a low flying bird while I was wading nearby. I'd be willing to bet money that some days they're spooked by the slightest little thing.

 

But there's only one way to know which type of day it is.