Bob Underwood's book Lunker which is relatively older debunked some long held bass fishing beliefs but yet is largely ignored. To this day you rarely hear any talk of it. He followed bass underwater in their natural habitat and came to some conclusions such as:

1. Electric motors do not bother bass at all.

2. Finding bass in various locations and temperatures all but proved water temperature alone as a guide for finding fish is inaccurate.

3. That casting to a bass repeatedly to anger a strike is one of the poorest ways to get them to bite.

4. Bass will indeed bite soon after breaking off with a lure in its mouth. He learned that they do indeed bite quickly again.

5. Light does not bother the eyes of a bass.

6. Size and color of fishing line made no difference in number of bites and fish caught.

Pretty wild stuff. Not sure of how credible the book is but it makes one wonder just why it was ignored then and still is. BAss Angler Magazine which is a great publication had a good article about it all.

Cool post
I dunno about the last one maybe lighter line changes the action who knows.is it on audio book I hate reading

Interesting read

I'm particularly fascinated by number 3. Would like to read how he elaborated on that topic, and in what condition he observed the bass. I suppose there is an exception to every rule, such as bed fishing, in this case?

3 Is the only one I'd like to see explained further. Last winter one day really has stuck in my mind. I could 't catch squat unless I pitched small openings in lay downs 6-10 times each. Ended up sticking a six pounder and several
other good fish.

I have not read the book yet but I plan to get a copy of it. Looks like an interesting read.

Good post, Mark. Should offer some good topics for discussion.

The two that stood out to me the most that I particularly disagreed with were 6 and 3.
#3: while bed fishing, especially for fish that are highly pressured, a lot of times we can't get a fish to bite unless we are casting directly on top of it and dropping the bait in front of it's face. In situations where dragging, shaking and hopping the bait through the bed won't yield bites, this is sometimes the only way to get them to go. Sometimes when I get on a squarebill bite, i'll make 10-15 casts to on specific target before getting bit. Same goes for flipping and pitching. It seems like in tougher conditions the best way to generate bites is to make repetitive casts to high percentage targets.
#6. I've seen it time and time again where type of line or line size was the determining factor of which person in my boat caught more fish. I had a trip this summer where a customer was using straight braid on his swim jig, and my other customer was using fluorocarbon. The guy using fluoro got more bites and caught more fish out of the back of the boat. I've seen the same thing on finesse presentations, where lighter line will almost always get you more bites, but I think that has more to do with the fact that light lines makes small baits act more naturally.

Just my two cents!

I don't think he was referring to bed fishing in relation to casting multiple times to entice a bite. That's pretty much standard bed fishing 101...

And line size has become a factor now with fishing pressure. In the 70's it probably didn't matter since the fish weren't conditioned to lures and line

I think there is a lot left to interpretation.

I know number 4 is true! Last month broke off a shaky head fish, retied and caught the fish with same bait in his mouth very next cast.
Obviously it wasn't a long fight the first time though. Broke me off pretty quick.

Those are some really broad statements and I know I've seen at least half of them not hold true at one time or another.

1975!! It's a different world for bass fishing and I'd say it's outdated info in at the least some of the content.....pressure, equipment, and competence has changed exponentially...

Wrong all 6 times......

Bass fishing is a very fluid undertaking, so to speak. It is always changing "in the moment" and there are few statements that can be made about it that are always reliable.

One thing is for certain though. Bass are adaptable and will become more wary of certain things as fishing pressure increases. They will become alerted to certain things that they may have previously ignored.

I'm thinking 5 of the 6 are wrong. #5 is the only one I agree with. I don't think light bothers their eyes, but being a predator (and prey), being visible in clear water is a big disadvantage for bass. They seek shade and/or cover for their ambushing and protection, not so much cause their eyes don't like the light and they can't wear Ray Bans.

In my experiences, the other five are inaccurate.

#1. Many times i've put the TM down and as soon as I hit the button, water boils as fish are leaving the area.
#2. Finding water 3-4 degrees above or below the surrounding areas has produced some concentrated groups of fish, especially in the dead of winter or the heat of the summer.
#3. I've made 10 or more casts with the same bait, different angles, to the same exact spot, cause it looked fishy. I've caught fish on that 10th cast before.
#4. Maybe a dink will bite again after being hooked, and I've heard of folks catching fish with their lures in the mouth just after getting broke off, I've yet to have it happen.
#6. This is the funniest one. Go throw a jerk bait on Table Rock with braid while someone throws one on 10 lb FC and see if there's not a difference. I've seen fish get shy with 12 lb line and flash a bait, but would bite it on 8 lb line.

Maybe someone needs to debunk that debunking