15 minutes ago, TOXIC said:

Logic tells me a bass has to have some idea what they are eating otherwise they’d be chowing down on sticks, rocks, weeds, or anything else that is in the water.  We have a tendency to overcomplicate things.  If it looks like something they eat and moves like something they eat, they eat it.  

I agree. The bass are predators who are seeking prey. They are opportunistic feeders, instinctive feeders and reactionary hittters of live creatures or artificials we throw with the intentions of killing that particular creature.  
I love crankbaits fishing as much as the next guy, probably more. You won’t find me fishing  real image crankbaits (baits with a real picture of a fish on it), they do not work. They don’t work for me. I don’t waste my time with them. BUT, they work for other, Im sure of that. I’m a Rapala junkie and back some years ago when they came out I had to have the live image Smallmouth Bass in the DT and Shad Rap. Bigger Smallies and Greenies had to hit that small live image. Bigger fish eat little fish. One of my most productive crankbaits to this day is the Rapala original bluegill. The bait is a basic looking bluegill. Tried fishing the live image bluegill. There is no comparison between baits. The real image is a dud in comparison.

In a heavy stain water condition (not muddy) a solid black or a dark green olive crankbaits has been a great producer on the river. The sound and profile draw the bite. 
Total Realism and exact color matching means little to me. 

3 hours ago, TOXIC said:

Logic tells me a bass has to have some idea what they are eating otherwise they’d be chowing down on sticks, rocks, weeds, or anything else that is in the water.  We have a tendency to overcomplicate things.  If it looks like something they eat and moves like something they eat, they eat it.  

My thing is, I feel like as long as it looks like something that’s alive, it could work. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a representation of a prey item they’ve eaten before.

One of my favorite quotes came from the late Tom Mann “Think Like a Bass” in fact it’s the title of his book!

The truth is we don’t have any idea what bass think! Don’t know how their brain interprets colors, shapes or sounds. All we can do is try to fool the bass into eating our lures by guess by golly.

In the bass underwater world they live by eating prey and avoid getting eaten by bigger predators.  
Bass are not well developed animals they are lower on the brain department then most other other animals but equal to most other fish.This means they do not have a temper it’s beyond their ability to have that emotion. They do have a high survival ability to find prey, avoid being eaten and good at reproducing their species.

In the basses world if it moves and looks like prey it must be prey but…they can be selective targeting to most preferred prey avoiding critters they had negative experiences trying to eat.

Ask the bass what it’s thinking!

Tom