Which is it?

The hunt, the bite or the fight, that makes you love bass fishing?
I know most will say it is all three, but I for one enjoy that tump or pull of the bite most, then then fight.

the bite

Blowups on top



Thump on a jig is a close 2nd though...

The bite.

The fight if I'm at Falcon, Monticello or Camelot Bell. Those fish pull like no other largemouths I've caught.

just the going,..

I enjoy solving the puzzle. Putting all the pieces together to identify a pattern. Weather/depth/conditions/location/timing/lure/presentation.

I have several reasons why I love bass fishing:

1. I love the anticipation of the strike...
2. Also, a few lakes that I fish around here, I know on any cast I could set the hook on a 10 pounder.
3. I have a love/hate relationship with the intense moments between hooking the fish and landing it.
4. I always feel like I would get bored if I don't catch a fish on every cast, but at the end of a trip where I've only caught 1 or 2 fish, I say to myself "huh, I didn't get bored.."
5. I love a good topwater or spinnerbait bite.

Spending all my money.

The bite after you have started to figure out the puzzle. So rewarding

All of it

I thought it was the catching but it must be more. I keep going back after "no catching"! :-)

Figuring it out every now and then. I love catching fish and all that stuff but I love more when I figure it out to the point that I have confidence in what I am doing. This happens so rare for me and the confidence is usually short lived but I love it when it happens. The other reason I love fishing is that I think about nothing but me and the fish for however many hours I am out. I don't think about work or anything else. I don't try to do that it just happens and it lets my mind relax and rejuvenates me mentally(might be weird but it is true for me). For those reasons, I have loved fishing for whatever swims since my Grandpa and Dad took me almost any time I wanted to go as a boy in Oregon! I would rather fish than eat and I love to eat!

The serenity of getting on the water by myself with phone off and no way for anyone to find me for awhile. Being able to actually enjoy my coffee in the morning. Everything else is a bonus. Then the jet fleas show up with the ski boats and party people and I realize that I would rather deal with my life than those people. I just love bass fishing so it is a good 3-4 hours even without the bite or fight for me.

Solving the constantly changing and living puzzle of bass.

The bite!

All of it.

Fishing with a frog...

All above. I(sometimes) dream about fishing when am sleep. On the weekends I have to get out or even going to a pond or something.

More than one... Dan

For me, it is the hunt also. Nothing like going to a new lake or body of water and putting something together to catch a few. If it were just the bite or the fight, I have ponds I can go to where those are pretty much guaranteed.

When I go fishing, it is not necessarily the fish I am after.

Like I said I enjoy the bite but just being on the water is my nerve pill. Due to the weather it's been a few day's in port and I don't like it. I watched all my fishing shows and day time t v sucks.

The hunt is the reason we go, the bite is the goal, the fight is the reward

JSEAGO very well said!

It's the fight,I love to see bass jumping out of the water. It makes me worry when I'm in a tournament thou.

The fight is ok .... I grew up in South Fla. and spent most of my time fishing for Snook .... that's a fight! Bass fishing and tournament bass fishing is a skill test to me, sorta like golf, you will fish your entire life and never run out of room to improve.... it drives me crazy trying to figure these fish out and I am very competitive and challenge driven.

Who goes out and flips docks all day with a beaver and screw lock with no hook just looking for a bite to locate the best docks?

It's figuring them out to me, it very rarely happens but getting dialed in on them to the point that you can just skip over a bunch of good looking areas to line up for the one cast that you know there will be one there, that does it for me.

Knowing my wife doesn't like to go.

The fact that on the next cast you could catch your personal best. and
memories of spending time with Dad on the lake.
Both are interchangeable as # 1 reason.

I don't want to think about anything while I fish but fishing. Bass fishing is different than other fishing. There is less time to think about other stuff.

This is why I do it!

all of the above lol

Bite first, fight second.

over all of those however, is the camaraderie with the fellow angler/anglers in the boat.

Agreed. BIL came down from Massachusetts with his friend Teddy Barnicle. Teddy was just recently inducted into the Massachusetts Fishing Hall of Fame. He also was a Top 10 Draft Pick in the MLB Draft in 1976. Just being in the boat and listening to his stories was worth the day even though we didn't catch much. And he still gets excited when he catches a fish as you can see by his smile.

I love the bite, but I love setting the hook most of all!