I hear it all the time, "find the baitfish, and you'll find the bass." How do you find the baitfish? How do you know when you have found them? Any tips on tracking baitfish would be greatly appreciated.

I know in windy conditions they say the baitfish will be on the windy side of any type of structure.  The wind blows the plankton, which the bait fish feed on. So the baitfish move to follow the plankton, and then bass move to follow the baitfish.

Use your graph.  You are looking for "ball shaped pods" of blackness.  There are places where the baitfish will school up, creek channel bends,etc

I searched for Part I and could not find it, some help please.    I did find Pt. 2, but one is just as important.

http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1134662267

Bass Snatcher,

        I am a firm believer that if a person knows the habits and seasonal migrations of shad and other baitfish,  finding bass and unlocking the pieces of the puzzle becomes second nature.

I hope this helps.

Matt

Bass Snatcher,

      Pt. 2 is an example of what shad do during warmer months.      It is normally agreed that there are 3 good biting period in a day.

Early morning shallows, afternoon bite, and late evening bite.

As Pt 2 shows, in the warmer months, as the sunsets, shad migrate to the shallows for safety in some sort of cover, thus the late evening shallow bite.    Bass know the patterns of shad and they will wait along the migration route to ambush the shad as they come in to the grasses from ditches, tree lines , creek channels and other contours or structures.

The early morning bite occurs has twilight occurs, again as reports normally read, throw top waters early, and that usually shuts down as the sun starts to rise and shed more light upon the shallows, the reports say, work the sub surface until that bites shuts off, and start backing out to deeper water as shad leave the shallow for the comfort of deeper water during the day.

Know that shad migrate to and from deep water in low light conditions explains why shallow bites early and late are prime times.

Beng able to track them to deep water is key on finding active fish during the day.

Hope this helps, learning where they should be takes the element of searching out of the game sometimes.  Cloud cover could keep bait fish in shallow and experience will teach you this also.

Matt.

I had not seen Parts I or II.  Excellent read.  Thank you.