Bass Behaviour
Greetings fellow lure obsessed angler and welcome back to Drift’s Guide to Bass Fishing with Lures. This week we’re focusing on the unpredictable nature of the fish themselves. Bass are an apex predator of their environment, so they actively hunt prey which makes lure fishing for them incredibly exciting. If you’ve stayed up to date with our blog series, you’ll be more than prepared to make your first trip! Which is why we think it’s the right time to discuss the behaviour that makes them such special fish to target.
As always, you’re going to get contradicting opinions from different corners of our community, which goes to show that there is no definitive answer to catching Bass. With that being said, we’re going to cover the commonalities between these opinions to give you a greater starting point.
Tides
One of the more important factors to consider when heading out is the tidal changes in an area you want to fish. Bass have naturally evolved to be super intuitive and act in line with the tides. You will find marks that act differently, but I’ve always felt that with a ebbing tide (heading out), you’ll find that bass will be in and amongst weed beeds feeding on the vacating bait that’s also heading for deeper waters.
On a flooding tide the fish will be following bait in. Anglers tend to focus on flooding and ebbing tides to throw up fish. When fishing from a boat the theory is that the current flow enables Bass to bully their prey around. During slack water, Bass would have to work that much harder to achieve the same result. As we know, all predators want to expend the lowest amount of energy whilst maximising their return. So bear that in mind when choosing your state of tide.
Experimentation is key, try a combination of tide times - one session just fish the flood, another session go and fish the ebb. Try two up and two down, compare which state of the tide seemed more fishy.
Times
Hearing that alarm ringing at 4am (or earlier), rubbing your eyes open and dragging your aching body out of bed for another sunrise session. It can be hard, but the best things come to those who put the hours in. Depending on your commitment, you may want to consider getting out as early as possible for those sunrises when the Bass seem to feed. They clearly love hunting in the dark or very pale light of early morning / late evening.
Something beautiful happens in those early hours, though. When you suddenly take stock of where you are, what you’re doing, and that you can’t see another human around. It’s just you at the mercy of nature, you are in their habitat. It’s an absolute pleasure and makes that slog to get out so worth it.
I realise now I’m not writing about Bass behaviour! Let’s move on…
Weather
The weather plays such a huge part in dictating what lures you use. There are many differing opinions on when to use what, but I’ll simply tell you what has worked for me over the years. First, what is the sun doing?
Sun’s out - This might be controversial for some, but I’ve always found surface lures to be incredibly fruitful in these conditions. Some wouldn’t go near a topwater when the sun’s out, but that isn’t my experience. If the water is like a mill pond, that’s my first lure on and last lure off. I prefer to use a colour that’s more natural, a khaki or blue. A mackerel looking lure would do wonders for me, you can see the shine from the sun reflecting from it. When a Bass strikes from underneath your lure and you feel the rod bend, that’s when you can have every confidence that they’re taking from the top in sunny conditions and I’ve had that a lot.
Cloud coverage - I’ve not had much luck on the top with surface lures in these situations (at least on my marks). I’ll opt for something bright, pink or redheads, white or lemon bodies - with lots of movement. Trying to get the bass chasing the vibrations you can make in the water.
There’s no rhyme or reason to much of what we’ve all noticed in Bass behaviour. The trick is however, spotting patterns. Recording what mark you’re at, what the tide is doing, the time of day and how the weather is. Recall all of these subcategories of behaviour and you’ll be well on your way to a greater understanding of Bass in your area!
Blue skies (please) and tight lines!