My new hotels are being built on the GA National Fairgrounds and within the grounds are a few ponds that I bank fish now and then. In one of them, I've had good success and caught spotted bass up to 3 pounds and largemouth bass up to 4 pounds.

 

The water in these ponds is crystal clear. The edges of many of the banks are lines with sediment and in many places there is a 6" - 18" band of shallow water only 3 or 4 inches deep. It's quite easy to observe the baitfish all along the bank. There's no cover or structure along the banks.

 

With that, what I have noticed this summer is the way that the bass are feeding. The spotted bass will be in groups of 3 or 4 and swim parallel to the bank about 5 or 6 feet out. When they see baitfish and want to feed they turn in as a pack and attack the baitfish, then swim out to deeper water.

 

The largemouth bass, on the other hand, will launch a solo attack and when they do they come in directly perpendicular to the bank. They never attack at an angle. It's always perpendicular to the bank.  I'm amazed at how fast they hit the bank, feed, and then dart right back out to deeper water.

 

I've seen these same feeding patterns whether they are hitting baitfish or hitting my lure. For the largemouth, I'm sure there actions are predicated upon the water temperature and the fact that there is no cover to ambush from. But I find it fascinating that their attacks are always directly perpendicular to the bank as I can see them coming from 40 feet or so away.

One thing that I forgot to add is that even when retrieving a bait close and parallel to the shore, the largemouth still hit it perpendicular to the bank. They come in like a freight train straight for the bit and if they miss it they turn directly around and head to deep water still perpendicular to the bank.

 

Again, this might be just a summer pattern or unique to this situation. But it gives me some insight if I want to throw a follow up bait.

 

For example, when I get a blow up and miss on a frog, I notice that if I throw it back in that same spot I don't get immediately bit gain. So I assume the bass immediately retreated to deeper water and didn't hang around.

Ain't nothing finer then getting to watch them eat in full on kill mode.

FM

Cool observations! I wonder if the largemouth were trying to make their time in the shallow water as short as they could to avoid aerial predators and this is why they would only attack perpendicular to shore. Maybe the spots felt safe in numbers so they would not mind being up there as much.

Watching fish react in shallow water is some of the most fun fishing in my opinion. I snuck up on a group of small largemouth with my kayak last year and got to throw different lures at them for a while and watch their reactions. This is part of the reason why now I mainly pitch with heavier (1/2oz-1oz) weights even when I don’t need to punch through cover. They would only hit my d-bomb if it was falling very fast so they didn’t get a good look at it. Also once it was on the bottom they wouldn’t touch it.
Sight fishing bass not on beds is also some of my favorite fishing especially for smallmouth. 

1 hour ago, 10,000 lakes Bassin said:

I wonder if the largemouth were trying to make their time in the shallow water as short as they could to avoid aerial predators and this is why they would only attack perpendicular to shore. Maybe the spots felt safe in numbers so they would not mind being up there as much.
 

 

Maybe, but I'm inclined to believe it's the heat. If I get out there, it's for 20 minutes or so around midday and we're running a 105 - 112 heat index. Most of the bigger lakes around here re reporting lake temperatures of 90 - 92 degrees.

 

But even with that extreme midday heat I'm still getting them to hit a frog, even with bluebird skies. I even got them to hit a jitterbug. I haven't been able to get them to hit a spinnerbait or a swim bait or even a minnow.

 

That's OK, because this week I'm breaking in a new Kistler Helium 7' 6" 5H rod. I love this rod. The hookups are solid and it really imparts action when walking a frog.

I think you’re observing very efficient hunting/feeding behavior where cover is absent.  Attacking perpendicular to the bank uses it to cut off the most obvious avenue of escape (away from the bass), and whether the baitfish swim left or right they are essentially the same distance away from the attacker.  
What is interesting is that spotted bass seem to be hunting in a ‘pack’.  I’d be curious to know if when they turn toward the bank is there any separation among the 3 or 4 to create more panic among baitfish and expand their ‘strike zone’.

So the spotted bass are patroling parallel to the bank, and when they attack they turn towards the bank in the same manner that the LMB does?

 

Very interesting discussion, thanks for sharing.

1 hour ago, OldManLure said:

I think you’re observing very efficient hunting/feeding behavior where cover is absent.  Attacking perpendicular to the bank uses it to cut off the most obvious avenue of escape (away from the bass), and whether the baitfish swim left or right they are essentially the same distance away from the attacker.  
What is interesting is that spotted bass seem to be hunting in a ‘pack’.  I’d be curious to know if when they turn toward the bank is there any separation among the 3 or 4 to create more panic among baitfish and expand their ‘strike zone’.

They attack as a pack. In the really shallow water their backs on dorsals are out of the water and you can see 3 or 4 feeding.

Fascinating.  Thank you!