The odd ball

[John Bales]

Frank Hamill used to say there are always one or two fish doing something the rest are not. I guess you could call them stragglers. Anyways, the bluegill always spawn in stages, 2-3-4-5 times a season. They come in by the hundreds right in front of my house for every year and about the time you think it is over, another wave comes in. I can hardly believe it but there is another group doing their thing right now. This is the odd thing. There are 2 1/2 and 3 lb bass swimming around all over the place in one foot of water as though they were spawning also. I don't see this many during the spawn!!!!!! I hear the bass guys talk about locating the bluegill beds and fishing on them for the bass. Have never used that for a guideline but my question is why are the bass here when we have been catching the bass in 15--16 foot of water for a good while? Maybe they are there for an easy meal. Where they are at is 200 yds from any deep water. Deb was raving how many nice bass were swimming around and wouldn't pay any attention to a pop-r. I told here I'll get her a un-weighted sinko and she might get one. First cast I could hear her say , "here comes one". The fish sucked it right in and she got a nice 17 inch bass. She was tickled and I watched her reel it in and took it off for her. There is a group of young boys that walk the bank and cast unweighted worms under everyone's pontoon boats. When I asked them how they were doing, they said they were catching a lot of big bass. Imagine that. I guess you can never tell a bass where it has to be. John

[Team9nine]

I see this a lot walking ponds. When the bluegills move in to spawn, you always see some bass just hanging out and cruising through the area. Pretty sure it’s just some of the bass population taking advantage of all that “food” piled into one area. Easy pickings. A wacky worm is a great bait for catching these fish, or a swim jig at times fished just outside the bedding areas in slightly deeper water. As for when the gills move in, it seems the waves are usually tied to the moon phase, typically starting on either a new or full moon, give or take a day. Weather and water conditions play a part, but the moon thing has been surprisingly accurate for me over the years. Like you said - odd .

[John Bales]

Brian, Observing and trying to learn by what you see is a big part of getting better. I know that the livescope has given me a view that cannot be even visualized by the fisherman till they actually see it. You can visualize a structure in its shape when you go about mapping it but never before forward facing sonar came along have you been able to see the fish (live) , swimming around right where Mr. Perry said they would be. Seeing them and knowing where to place your cast is another aid you have like never before. Fan casting was the only mechanical way to eliminate the unproductive water when you already know where they will be when they are active. Another thing that is happening is looking at the fish and not being able to get them to take even after you have used every speed control you can throw at them. And then there is this thing about fish becoming active once or twice a day and that's usually when we catch them. There is also something in the green book about putting a lure in front of a fish at zero speed and the fish might suck it in. This I have experienced a lot after a year of playing with this new tool. Even if they are not active, if you can put something like a drop shot in front of their face, they will take it. After a while, I can get to a point where the position of the fish will tell me if they are in this activity period or not, and one cast will prove that. It's easy to pluck 10 or more from one group if they are active but if not, maybe none or one or two. There can be sections of a lake any time of the year where you will have a great looking structure with no fish using it. You can find this out in a few minutes. And there will be other features that will be loaded. All fish species are using it at the same time. It is obvious that the fish are where they want to be at this time of the year and maybe void of fish at another time. It seems to be this way all times of the year. I think I remember Mr. Perry saying that 90% of the lake has no fish, something like that. Most everything I learn, some guy in North Carolina has written it already, and without the use of a fish finder for many years. His observations were good. John

[CHAMP]

Hey thanks for the complement, John.
I learn, some guy in North Carolina has written it already

[Steve Craig]

Actually John,
There seem to be odd balls in nature all the time.
Take coyotes for instance. Normal breeding season is always Jan-Feb, with pups being born in March-early April. Yet over these many years I have seen young puppies in Late August- Early Sept.
I have seen the same thing in Bobcats with seeing young kittens in November. Totally not the norm.
Elk calves that should have been born in the Spring time, and now seeing little bitty calves in Oct.

It doesnt make any sense. It is just happening.

[John Bales]

Your welcome David. Pretty sure Mr. Perry said with all species, they never do their thing all at once just in case something in mother nature was not lining up at that time. If done in waves, it protects the species. The fish didn't read the same book we did with the guidelines. Sometimes the bluegill will come in heavy and there will be a major front with wind and lightning and you figure the next day they will be run out. You look and there are twice as many. Big question mark on that one. Most of the time, they are predictable but not always. There are too many variables in fishing to guess right all the time. Shallow, deep or somewhere in between. Bob Lang wrote an article in Fishing Facts about jig fishing the weeds. He made this statement that the bass are either shallow in the weeds, deep in the weeds, or somewhere in between in the weeds. In both situations, its up to us to figure it out. Isn't that the fun part anyways. John