I've read a lot and practiced a little. The science of bass fishing is the most interesting part for me. When I fished as a kid with my dad he would explain why the fish were biting here but not over there, why the temperature mattered, what colors mattered when and why, and how it all fit together to make it so everytime we went out he put us on fish.

Now that I'm older and *cough* wiser... I'm learning that some of what I "know" is only partially correct.

I'm going to write things like this occaisionally for two purposes. One to be educational for me and other anglers and two to help pull the veil back on what's myth and what's fact in regards to the science of fishing. I don't have the answers, this will hopefully be a community effort, not specific to any one lake and people will share what they know in a generic way as opposed to "Hay fish here i find fish, you find fish!" I personally want to know how to find fish based on a set of knowledge that doesn't include some one elses GPS coords.


So, first topic I thought would be applicable to our current seasons is temperature.

Seems a common thing to say "it's hot, fish go deep to get away from hot" There are a couple of points in there to hit on and this is what I 'think' I know.

First: Bass are cold blooded, temperature effects their metabolic rate. higher temp = higher consumption of energy.

With that there are two outcomes. The hotter a fish gets the more it needs to eat or the less it needs to work. In reality it's most likely a balance of the two, they'll eat aggressively but only when it offers the easiest meal that they don't have to work for quite as much. What I think is that this combination makes for very lazy bass that aren't very picky about what the food looks like, just that it's easy to catch. From that I would assume slow presentations would be best, things like slow falling worms precisely placed, jigs played slowly or mid/top water baits placed in the strike zone and moving slow enough to present an easy meal. I don't think size is as big a factor here as ease of the catch for the bass. I think if they can snatch it up they'll eat it as long as they don't have to chase it much.

Second: Water temperature/Bass temperature. Bass have the most effecient use of energy in the 75-85degree range according to various studies I've run across. based on that you're not really seeing any reason for the bass to become less active in the summer or have any reason to run deeper. The water at the surface is going to get up to 90 but for hte most part will be in the mid to high 80s which should be the 'prime' spot for bass so the temperature shouldn't be effecting the fishes depth as much as people make it out to. Also, keep in mind even on still water with little veg you go 5 feet down and you get anywhere from 5-10 degrees of temperature drop which handily brings the temp into something perfectly good for a bass. However... forage is a different story. The things that the bass are eating are not nearly as tolerant of higher temperatures and they lower oxygen levels it produces so the forage is going to move. Anyone that tries to catch shad in the summer will tell you this is a fact, bait fish get out of the shallows if there's not a suffecient level of veg to oxygenate and cool the water. The bass, wanting those easy meals are going to move to areas that the forage are. Not because the bass need to move because of the temp but because the bass need to move because of the food.

Third: structure relation. Bass like to eat, it's easier for them to eat when there's food readily available. Bass don't tight school quite the same way other fish do for hunting, it happens but as I understand it's more rare than not. They tend to be ambush predators. Tight veg or structure that offers the best opportunity for passing food will be where they set up their camp. The higher temperatures, more open water, and lower oxygen levels will also drive bait fish and other forage into looser schools due to oxygen consumption and make those schools move through the water covering more ground than normal. What all of this would result in is a much more spread out population of bass as they set up along a road bed, long point, channel, or ledge waiting for the little delivery of bait fish to swim by so they can get their munchy. This is all assuming the bait is deeper and there isn't any good structure in shallow water.
Even with hot water if you've got vegitation and shade you've got increased oxygen levels, decreased temperature, and good hidey holes for the bass and the forage. you've also got other types of forage other than bait fish like insects, crawfish, frogs, etc, that will be hanging in those shallow veg areas which should mean they are still perfectly viable for bass fishing even in summer months.

Final: so based on these assumptions the ultimate goal isn't to find bass, it's to find where the most likely place for an easy meal is for the bass and then the bass will simply be there.. if it's deep they'll be spread out and even in shallows you'll probably find them in smaller numbers scattered through. Slow presentations will attract more bites because they're on lazy mode to conserve energy but in cooler periods of the day they may be more likely to hit a bigger lure with a more aggressive presentation. No need to go deep if you have shade and/or veg cover in the shallows and while they may be 'deeper' than during spawn that doesn't really mean they'll be in 30ft of water unless the bait is there, instead of 2-3ft they could simply be in 6-10feet which really isn't "deep" when you think about it. My dad used to tell me, you fish the spawn then when the spawn is over you fish where your boat was sitting during the spawn. basically moving it out of the super shallow to hit the slightly cooler water.

So, that was long winded... I'd love to hear feedback, I'm expecting to be told I'm wrong, there's a reason this is titled "What I 'think' I know" because I'm not a pro and I don't have enough time on the water to confirm a lot of the things I'm speaking to. What I do have is a lot of time on the internet reading multiple sources and cataloging the information for the next time I DO get on the water. So, pros, what do you think?

In my opinion your pretty much on the money. Thanks for sharing.

I think....WOW you could have added another 30 post to your post count with this one, LOL.

But seriously, I liked it. Well thought out and put together. I see nothing wrong with that approach or theory. Obviously your gonna run into different situations on the water, but I think for the most part the info in your post is pretty accurate to how the fish are relating during this time of year.

Good job!

Good read and you pretty correct - every lake is completly diffrent and what works one day sometime will not work the next day. this is what keeps me interested and constantly learning new patterns. I grew up thinking 15 ft was deep and now I am catching bass up to 40 ft deep constantly.

Understanding Crawfish & Their Behavior

I would like to share this article, it's very interesting and suggests that crawfish do move between shallow and deeper water. I enjoyed your post, but I wanna help 'beef' it up because I like your thoughts on wanting to understand how to catch fish rather than be told how....

I like where you're going with this. add current/wind to that formula somewhere also

I am soooooooooooo confused.......

Very good post. Makes a lot of sense.

I think for the most part it's accurate but I honestly don't think we will ever figure it out....The other day I caught bass in a foot of water up to 3lbs during the middle of the day 103 degrees...Kind of made me rethink things....and it also depends on the lake and the wind....I say this time of the year it's where the shad are...no matter how deep or shallow

Bfrenzy,

that supports the basic concept. Bass may be shallow if the food they're after is shallow.

Also, I was reading something interesting about "no mans land" between two major structure points. A man was fishing a lake with two points about 200 yards away from each other. He would fish one, go over to the other and fish, trying to figure out the pattern based on wind. He stopped between them where there was virtually no structure and started nailing fish left and right.

The fish were basically sitting between the two structure points catching the bait as it moved between the two. it goes on to explain a lot about the wind and what not which had a major play. I'll be doing one of these on wind and current soon. I'm working on my knowledge base for that right now.

Obviously this doesn't cover all the different factors in bass movement and activity, just temperatures. I tried to focus on one major factor and will for the rest of the things I write in the future.

Wind, temperature, barometric pressure, moon phase, moon and sun location in relation to the horizon.... there are a finite number of natural forces we can break down. I started with temp cause it's the easiest to explain it's effects on water and fish in general. I'll probably be touching on wind and barometric pressure next. I wanted to see this one run a little bit before I threw another big post out there. I also wanted to see if people agreed with my assumptions or why they didn't if they thought I was wrong.

oxygen and PH play a large factor as well.

Spot on Wallen.

I agree that temperature alone is not a huge factor in bass positioning from late spring to late fall -- once the water is warmer than say 70 (arbitrary number) and they're done spawning, they're guided primarily by food and cover. Water quality characteristics, like oxygen availability, takes care of itself because the forage bass are usually chasing are not as tolerant to low dissolved oxygen or screwy water chemistry as they are.

good post, I firmly believe in the food chain process as I call it. I have learned thru the years both Offshore Fishin and Bass Fishin, if you find the "BAIT" you will find the "FISH" !! Of course catchin em is a different story !!

What color do y'all think the crawdads are in east Texas right now? I think Ronnie might know since one landed on his deck the other day. Thanks

Understanding Crawfish & Their Behavior

I would like to share this article, it's very interesting and suggests that crawfish do move between shallow and deeper water. I enjoyed your post, but I wanna help 'beef' it up because I like your thoughts on wanting to understand how to catch fish rather than be told how.... [/quote]

Start with what you know... What color jigs have you been catching them on? What color plastic craws have you been catching them on? Start there and check every fishes mouth when you catch one on either of those baits, sometimes you get lucky and they cough up one of these... This is one from west tx, water temp around 84 degrees, slightly stained to clear water in rocks that were a sandy brown.