Have you noticed bass aren’t in spawning as shallow as they once did? That might be because they’re tired of being hit with baits. The key for anglers is to know how to adjust.
So much emphasis is placed on bullying in schools today that students can spot a bully much more quickly than they can spot an action verb.
How they learn to deal with those tyrants will go a long way in determining how successful they will be in life because life is full of bullies.
Should victims simply run away?
Maybe it’s time victims stand up for themselves and fight.
Perhaps a victim can avoid a bully by finding another route home or another place to hang out.
Like intimidated students, spawning largemouth bass are tired of being bullied.
Unfortunately for them, they can’t put up much of a fight — and flight is out since their instincts bring them right back to their beds.
That leaves avoidance.
And as bass anglers all across Louisiana have learned in the last few years, bass seem to have mastered the art of avoiding bank-beating bullies.
One angler has some advice that, in an ironic twist, is for the bullies rather than the bass.
To hear Covington-based tournament angler Jason Pittman talk about bass fishing nowadays, you would think he is a life coach for bass bullies.
“There is definitely a change happening that nobody seems to be able to put their finger on,” Pittman said. “Call it global warming, El Nino, La Nina — whatever — the whole landscape of bass fishing is evolving right before our eyes.”
And, yes, Pittman added bass being the victims of bullying to that list.
Bank-beaters are notorious for coming out during springtime, and they stay on the bank like a tick on a Catahoula cur. Thinking they have to fish shallow, these one-track-minded anglers have harassed spawning bass so relentlessly that the fish have had enough.
“Anglers have put so much pressure on them, and Mother Nature has thrown them so many curveballs that bass have become conditioned in many waters to avoid shallow water all together,” Pittman hypothesized.
Pittman believes another reason fish are changing how and where they spawn is that modern technology has lapped the bass.
Ten years ago, anglers trolled down a bank hoping they could catch some spawning bass on a spinnerbait. Today, they mark fish on their structure scans and down-imaging to the point that it has become almost impossible for them to hide.
“It’s really hard to say what’s going on,” Pittman said, “but it’s almost like here in Louisiana we have had to relearn the spawning habits of those fish.
“It’s like they have been told from birth to not go up shallow because there are baits up there and they’ll fall for one.”
Pittman pointed to the widely known rice fields on the Tchefuncte River near Madisonville as a prime example of how drastically fishing has changed.
History has proven up until around 2004 or 2005 that anglers were able to consistently fish the rice fields during the spawn when bass were on the beds and know they were going to catch keeper fish in very predictable areas.
“You could go through there and call your shots,” Pittman recalled. “Know you’re going to catch one off that log or this laydown. Blame it on whatever you want to, but it has gotten thinner and thinner in there, as far as trying to catch quality fish.”
Toledo Bend is another perfect example. Sure, somebody is always going to sack up some giant bass no matter what the conditions, but historically low water levels for a few years will force anglers to adjust their fishing now that the lake is back up.
“I would think the lake level will be from 167 to 169, barring any huge rains,” Pittman predicted. “Those fish haven’t seen water that high in a while, so I think they’re going to spawn in places where last year it may have been 3 feet, but this year it’s going to be 5 feet.”
In other words, bass are simply doing their business in deeper water.
Caney Lake just south of Chatham in North Louisiana is another great example as to how bass have come to learn to avoid shallow water during spring.
During the late 1990s and early 2000s, sight-fishermen bum-rushed the lake with tower boats, push poles and polarized sunglasses. It wasn’t uncommon to find 10 to 15 bass all locked on beds in one pocket.
The problem was that every angler who spotted these spawning bass tried to catch them, and one fish after another got stuck several times a day.
Figuring the best way to beat this bully was to just avoid him all together, bass started spawning in deeper water.
Where you used to not be able to troll 10 yards without spotting a bass on a bed, by 2003 or 2004, you were lucky if you spotted one spawning bass per pocket.
Maybe there is some kind of evolution happening that has caused bass to condition themselves not to get trapped in shallow water.
In places like the Pearl and Tchefuncte rivers, where tidal ranges go from as high as anybody has ever seen before to as low as anybody has ever seen before, bass might have learned the inherent risks of spawning in shallow water.
“In areas where the water fluctuates so much, those fish have to ask themselves why go up there and build a nest in the spring and take the risk of the water falling out,” Pittman speculated. “Why not just come out here to 5 feet of water and hope for the best?”
Whether they are trying to avoid their beds drying up because of water that falls out over night, the constant barrage of baits hitting them on the head or some other invisible force that we don’t even know about, the springtime bass-fishing game is changing.
It’s up to the springtime bass angler to change with it.
For Pittman, that means first checking shallow water to see if bass are there without being so hardheaded that he stays there if they are not.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that I’m going to the bank first,” he said. “If they’re there, I want to get a good look at them, snatch them off the bed and put them right back.
“But a lack of bass is going to force me off the bank to look for deeper fish.”
Case in point was this past January. Pittman was fishing Toledo Bend, and he admitted to fishing where he wanted the fish to be so he could catch them how he wanted to.
After two days of beating his head against the wall, he backed out to 15 feet of water and cast to where his boat had been sitting the two days before.
“I tripled my catch,” Pittman said. “So adjusting to these deep fish is as simple as backing off the bank a cast length and fishing where you used to put your boat.”
But for anglers who have grown up like bugs attracted to a blue light, the allure of the bank is too strong to pass. It’s instinctual in nature, and Pittman recognized that the hardest thing for these folks to do is back off to where they don’t feel comfortable.
“That’s why I recommend making some casts out the front of your boat, parallel to the bank if you just can’t break that bond,” he said. “You’ll be putting your baits in places where bass have probably pulled out to, and it won’t freak you out in the process.
“Baby steps.”
When Pittman pulls off the bank, his mind-set goes from target-specific presentations like pitching and flipping to an open-water search process.
“Instead of dragging a worm around, I’ll change to something like a Live Target Lipless Rattle Bait or maybe a small, flat-sided square-billed crankbait — maybe a jerkbait,” he explained. “Then when I find fish or some kind of cover, I’ll slow down and pick it apart with a Mister Twister Poc’it Paddle Tail worm.”
And how does Pittman figure out where the hidden cover is if he can’t see it?
Easy, either he catches a fish or two, or he gets hung up.
“If you get hung, that’s a clue,” he said. “People get aggravated that they’re hung up, but in hindsight, if I get hung then I know I’m around some stuff that’s likely holding some bass. You’ve got to get comfortable fishing stuff you can’t see — and getting hung reassures you that there’s something good down there.”
Perhaps the easiest way for anglers to break into fishing cover they can’t see is to find a few trees that have fallen over into the water. Rather than just blowing through them casting to where the tree meets the water, back out and fish the underwater limbs you can’t see.
“You know they’re there because the end of that tree didn’t magically disappear,” Pittman said. “Most of the time, when you’re fishing that juncture of the trunk and the water, your boat is sitting right on top of were you really ought to be fishing.”
In the end, we’ve got to give credit to bass for figuring out how to deal with bullies. Their intelligent avoidance maneuvers have kept them one step ahead of our dumb attempts to intimidate them where they don’t even exist.
Fair warning, though, Mr. Bass. Don’t get too comfortable in your new surroundings because there are bullies waiting on you to let down your guard.
You can run, but you can’t hide because the best bass bullies just aren’t going to stop.