Spawn and Cruising Bass

This weekend I went way back in a creek and saw 25 plus bass in it. Most of the bass were smaller males, with the occasional female, and one big female around 8 lbs. I did see several empty beds and one with a male sitting on it. After 30 minutes or so I caught the male that was sitting on a bed. My question is, are the fish cruising around catchable or are they on a mission? I tried throwing a few things at them and they seem to avoid my lure like the plague. They didn't spook from my lure, just swam around and passed it. When are they catchable and when are they not?

Thanks

No way to know, they may be post spawn, just in a comfortable area, or looking for beds. Best thing you can do is sneak in there and long cast senkos or flukes and try to get one to eat before they know you are there.

Good idea Jaret. I didn't think about tossing a fluke across the creek. I will give that a shot next time.

Once the wolf pack sees you they won't bite anything.

I’ve had good success catching these fish that are cruising both during the spawn and after. Try a suspending jerk bait fished very slowly. Sweep it down and let it sit for 20 to 30 seconds before popping it. There’s something about a suspending hard jerk bait sitting right in front of their face they have a hard time resisting.

Try to get ypur bait to the bank so it doesn't make any noise and then bring it to them. Long cast and very very quiet with the boat.

I had success with dragging bait from the bank into the water , slowly crawling it along

It is hard to say, won a tourney the last hour catching cruising fish, sight fishing them. They were cruising around but super aggressive. We sat right on top of them and everything we dropped in front of them they ate it. We had one keeper in the boat until that point. Got lucky and found some clear water and saw tons of males cruising around. Typically I would have never thought we would have caught them but we did.

Sometimes they are guarding fry you can't see.

From what I am reading on this site, facebook and a few others. It seems to be hit or miss on the activity level.
I fished Belton friday afternoon, saw a few along the bluffs with sharp drop offs. Got back in some creek
channels and didnt see anything. Water temp was between 66-68 from Cedar ridge to the north.
Talked to a few other anglers and it was either "we caught 20, but only two keepers/vs/we caught three all day and they were all keepers.
I was doing more mapping then fishing and only had two bites.