by David A. Brown - LIVETARGET Lures
Transcription
by David A. Brown - LIVETARGET Lures
The umbrella rig and modern electronics have motivated anglers to take a second look at the relationship of baitfish schools with predatory bass, and the methods by which bass attack, separate and feed on them. Lure manufacturers are getting into the act with tackle designed to mimic “pods” of bait cut off from the pack. We asked pros and biologists to weigh in on the schooling baitbass relationship to help you capitalize on their interaction. by David A. Brown ILLUSTRATION BY MARK SUSSINO, PROVIDED BY WILDWINGS (WILDWINGS.COM) Safety in numbers – it’s a basic survival instinct that can’t be overstated in the life of a baitfish. They know predators are never far away, and they’ll sense impending danger even before they see it. As the drama builds and the threat level rises, the frightened baitfish draw tighter into one homogenous mass. 65 This survival strategy is not infallible, however, and all bets are off when nature fires up that green-backed missile with the big mouth. A bass charges headlong into the baitfish bounty and the school shatters as clusters of frightened forage closest to the predator scatter in panic. Within this short period of mass chaos occurs fleeting moments of white-hot opportunity for anglers wellpositioned to take advantage. “Schooling among baitfish is a defense mechanism,” says Gene Gilliland, the assistant chief of fisheries with the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation. “A big school presents an intimidating silhouette, so predators must break up the school to identify smaller, more manageable targets. A small pod is edible.” The notion that predators target small wads of baitfish is nothing new among biologists, but the bass fishing world has only recently started dialing in its focus on how this deal works – and more importantly, how it can impact fishing productivity. The past couple of years have seen wildfire development in umbrella rig styles and techniques, as this multiarm tool opened the door to previously unaccommodating fish by imitating those bait clusters. A byproduct of the umbrella-rig rage has been a new focus on exactly how bass feed, and the theories have taken center stage in the form of new lure designs (See Tools for the School). Each year brings a new round of latest-and-greatest lure innovations with flavor-of-themonth buzzwords, but suffice it to say that this bait-ball concept has staying power. First, a little perspective from under the water. Dining Habits We often hear the term “opportunistic” when describing the feeding habits of bass. But it doesn’t mean that bass simply wait somewhere for food to come along and then take advantage of the opportunity. “Opportunistic is not lazy,” Gilliland says. “It’s all about energy conservation – calories out versus calories in. If an easy meal swims by while I’m resting in the brush pile, that’s more calories in than expended in the capture. But if bass always waited for food to come to them, they would probably starve to death.” Forage type also influences bass feeding habits and positioning. Dr. Mike Allen, a University of Florida Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences professor, says that bass definitely display different feeding habits in waters with pelagic schooling prey such as shad. “I’ve seen ponds where there’s only bluegill and you’d catch bass all along the shoreline, but when shad are introduced into the lake, the bass move offshore,” Allen says. “The bass school in response to baitfish schools. They get into groups where they work together. I don’t think it’s necessarily a conscious decision to work together, but what they learn individually is that if they form a school they can do more damage. “Baitfish schooling is really effective because it’s hard for the predators to focus on any one thing because the school looks like a single object,” Allen continues. “So, if the bass can break this up into these smaller groups, then they’re more efficient at capturing prey.” Allen also says that school-busting strategy is not just a deep-water behavior. He’s observed the same behavior in shallow Florida lakes such as Kissimmee and Okeechobee. Wherever this occurs, Allen says, lures and rigs that mimic the momentary clustering scenario climb right into the bass’ wheelhouse. “The umbrella rig looks exactly like what they want, which is a small school that’s broken off from the bigger school,” he says. “You hardly ever see Bigger Bites The concept of bass busting up bait balls extends beyond smaller prey such as threadfin shad and emerald shiners. Keystone Light pro Casey Martin says that grass beds on his home waters at Lake Guntersville often attract schools of hefty gizzard shad – mouthfuls too big for any except the largest bass. Martin says he has witnessed bass rushing the gizzard shad to splinter the school so they can pick off one or two of these favored foods. In any lake with a sizeable population of gizzard shad, it’s not uncommon for an angler to catch a bass with the tail of a hefty shad protruding from its mouth. Straight Talk pro Scott Canterbury (at left) has observed similar behavior from bass staking out panfish during summer months. “I’ve seen them sit around bream beds, and if there’s a ton of bream in the area, the bass just sit there,” Canterbury says. “But if one bream slips off the bed, or slips out away from the rest, the bass attack. Again, that’s their opportunistic nature. They like to pinpoint their target rather than going after that huge group. If there’s a whole bunch of them in there, and they make a charge and bream go everywhere, that might throw them off. But when one gets out on his own, that’s when the bass attack.” FLWOUTDOORS.COM I MARCH 2014 Got a Big Mouth? We’ve got you covered. Nationwide Coverage on America’s Largest and Most Dependable Networks Phone and Plan Sold Separately Get Unlimited* talk, text and high speed data for the first 2.5 GB of data use and Unlimited* data at 2G speeds for the rest of your 30 day cycle. Check out the latest Terms and Conditions of Service at StraightTalk.com. Follow Team Straight Talk on the FLW television show airing Sundays on Available in select stores *30 day Unlimited Plans include 2.5 GB of high speed data per 30 day cycle. After 2.5 GB, your data speed will be reduced for the remainder of the 30 day cycle. High speed data is restored once a new 30 day service plan is redeemed at the end of the 30 day plan cycle. Other limitations, terms and conditions of service apply. Straight Talk reserves the right to terminate your service for unauthorized or abnormal usage. Please refer always to the latest Terms and Conditions of Service at StraightTalk.com for more details. “Same Phones. Same Networks. Half the Cost” are based on the service comparison of the largest contract carrier’s monthly online published prices for individual contract plans and Straight Talk 30-Day Unlimited talk, text, data and 411 service plan, excluding the costs of the phones. A month equals 30 days. Plan features, coverage, and limitations vary. Carriers’ website as of May 2013. ©2013 TracFone Wireless, Inc. All Rights Reserved. The stylized spiral logo and Straight Talk are registered trademarks of TracFone Wireless, Inc. Android, Google Play, and other marks are trademarks of Google Inc. The Android robot is reproduced or modified from work created and shared by Google and used according to terms described in the Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution License. All other trademarks, service marks, and trade names referenced herein are the property of their respective owners. schools of five shad swimming around in the wild. Either you see no shad or else big schools of shad.” Straight Talk pro Scott Canterbury’s firsthand experience with schooling baitfish supports the scientists’ findings. His observations suggest that looking for areas with more baitfish to locate bass might work on a basic availability level, but strategically, massive numbers of bait can present an overwhelming challenge. “Sometimes you’ll see thousands of shad, and the bass are just lethargic,” Canterbury says. “But when a small group comes by, it does trigger them. “I’ve seen wolf packs of bass that will sit around and watch huge schools of bait go by, but when that bait breaks into a smaller group, I’ve seen them attack,” he adds. “They can pinpoint them a lot easier that way instead of when they look up and the whole surface of the water is covered with bait and they don’t know exactly where to go to attack.” Feed the Need On Tennessee River lakes such as Lake Chickamauga – the site of his 2013 Walmart FLW Tour win – Keystone Light pro Casey Martin uses the phrase “getting fired up” to describe how bass respond to the sudden availability of baitfish. The mood, he says, goes from interest to active participation in a split second. “When bass see another fish eating, they know that it’s feeding time and there’s other bait around – like a big ball of bait on the ledges when they move from the channel onto the flat,” Martin says. “I think that triggers those fish to be extremely competitive for food. I think that’s when you can catch multiple fish on a variety of lures. And not just an umbrella rig – I’ve caught them two at a time on a Strike King Pro-Model 6XD for four or five casts in a row. “Those fish know it’s feeding time, and it’s almost like they work together to pinpoint and narrow down that bait and attack them,” Martin continues. “It’s kind of like what wolves do in the wild: They’ll attack the pack of prey to try and split them up and then go after the weakest one.” Tobias Wiegand is the lead designer for the Koppers LIVETARGET BaitBall Series, which incorporates multiple baitfish images into its crankbait, jerkbait and topwater designs. Wiegand says that there is an instinctive followup element to bass feeding. The decade of development that yielded a best-inshow award for hard baits at ICAST 2013 included countless hours of underwater video showing that when bass attack a group of baitfish, there’s always another bass trailing right behind, looking for an opportunity to feed. “That is the basis for the whole concept,” Weigand says. “Once one predatory fish has gone into that bait ball and has busted the bait ball, there’s potentially a second or third predatory fish that is after that group that got separated. We believe that is the underlying system behind it all. Tools for the School While the umbrella rig most clearly resembles an isolated bait pod, various state and tournament regulations prohibit multilure rigs. It’s currently not allowed in Walmart FLW Tour competition, and is restricted to five wires, five lures, five spinners and three hooks for Rayovac FLW Series and Walmart Bass Fishing League events (presuming state regulations allow). Two- and three-arm versions, such as the YUM YUMbrella Double Up Rig and Ultralight Tripod, present options for broader compliance, but a handful of new lures take creative approaches to incorporating the appearance of a bait cluster into what remains classified as a single lure. According to Keystone Light pro Casey Martin, if bass are already crashing clusters of real baitfish that have been separated from the school, a single lure – as long as it’s the right lure – will draw strikes. But, if you’re looking for ways to imitate a cluster in other scenarios, have a look at the following selection of lures. Koppers LIVETARGET BaitBall Series – Vividly depicting clusters of actual baitfish – threadfin shad, emerald shiners and glass minnows – the BaitBall Series of hard baits employs a solid form to mimic a fractured bait pod. $16.99 (livetargetlures.com) 68 Mann’s Three-For-All – A trio of soft-plastic minnow bodies connected with the patented Mann’s HardNose molding process has a single weedless jighead hooked into the middle body. $8.99 (mannsbait.com) FLWOUTDOORS.COM I MARCH 2014 “You have to start with how fish perceive their environment,” he adds. “Every predator fish knows exactly what’s going on around it. Any predator looking for food is going to focus on a group of fish, rather than a single fish. This allows the bass to target its food easier and quicker. So it was not the actual school that we incorporated into the bait; it was that cluster that separated from the main group. That’s the group that the bass will go after.” Angling Application The collective wisdom of scientists and Walmart FLW Tour pros leads to an important conclusion: You don’t necessarily need a big school of bait to attract bass and flip their feeding switch. According to Canterbury, fall fishing on the Tennessee River lakes and most of the nation’s impoundments is often as simple as graphing bait schools and then fishing for the bass that will undoubtedly surround them. However, bass won’t hesitate to attack what “ Every predator fish knows exactly what’s going on around it. Any predator looking for food is going to focus on a group of fish, rather than a single fish. ” – Tobias Wiegand, Koppers LIVETARGET Lures appears to be an isolated bait pod, even if they didn’t isolate it. “Anytime the opportunity for a bass to feed arises, it’ll take it,” Canterbury says. “That’s how they live. They can’t go buy food, so when the opportunity comes by, they’re going to feed.” When bass suspend in fall, winter and early spring – specifically in the prespawn stage – the bait-ball pattern usually peaks. Bass are “looking up” and keying on migrating schools of shad. This period continues until bass start moving toward the shallows to spawn. Martin’s win at Chickamauga last summer proved that bass instinctively go after what they perceive to be a cluster of baitfish even though there might not be any real bait balls close by. Fishing an umbrella rig – something not normally considered a summertime approach – Martin won by targeting suspended bass. “Most people put up that umbrella rig after the fish spawn,” he says. “But anytime those fish are in a big group, I think they’re always focusing on baitfish, and that’s when those [multilure] lures are the best.” Effectively maximizing the bait-ball impression requires that an angler duplicate the forage size as closely as possible. Z-Man QuadZilla – This collapsible fourarm rig with willow-leaf blades attached to four wires situated around a center arm is rigged with a skirted head and hook. After use, the main head slides down to snug all the arms to the center for easier storage. $11.99 (zmanfishing.com) BOOYAH Boo Rig – Four stiff-wire arms with willow-leaf blades surround a flexible wire center arm with a snap to attach a swimbait, crankbait or any other baitfish imitator. $6.99 (lurenet.com) MARCH 2014 I FLWOUTDOORS.COM Castaic Lynch Mob – The Lynch Mob resembles a spinnerbait with the blades and skirt replaced with swimbait hooks. When rigged, it produces gobs of vibration to match the frantic nature of an isolated bait pod. $6.99 (castaicswimbait.com) 69 70 Meals That Matter Regarding seasonal bass forage, Dr. Mike Allen, a University of Florida Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences professor, points out that while threadfin shad school all year, they’re not all interesting to adult bass. It goes back to the feeding efficiency equation: Fish have to take in more calories than they burn to acquire food. Crappie and smaller white bass eat a lot of juvenile shad, but largemouth bass worth catching start taking interest in shad when the baitfish reach at least a couple of inches long. “A bass needs to eat prey items about 15 percent of its size to make a living doing it,” Allen says. “A 10-inch bass needs to eat a prey item that’s at least 1 1/2 inches long. “So if you’re a 24-inch trophy bass, it might be that threadfin shad aren’t ever what you want to eat,” he continues. “That’s not to say that no one will ever catch a big bass on a small bait that looks like a threadfin shad, but, ideally, those big fish aren’t going to be chasing 2-inch-long threadfins. They need to catch a larger prey item. Conversely, we’ve all caught 3-inch bass on a 3-inch bait, but most of the time that forage needs to be at least 15 to 20 percent of its body length. Otherwise it’s not worth using the energy to catch.” PHOTO BY BILL LINDNER PHOTOGRAPHY “Obviously, on Beaver Lake you’re not going to catch bass on 8-inch swimbaits, but on Guntersville, where I do most of my fishing, we have a lot of gizzard shad, which are normally bigger than the threadfin shad on those Ozark lakes,” Martin (seen below) says. “Consider the lake, look at what kind of bait is in there and match the hatch.” Weigand says it’s important to understand not only how bass eat, but how the baitfish respond when they’re on the menu. For example, when bass push glass minnows to the surface, the baitfish often go airborne when they run out of water. Koppers LIVETARGET’s Glass Minnow Popper design includes baitfish that appear to be leaping for their lives, while the essence of a popping lure mimics the sound and disturbance of such an encounter. “I think it’s always important to understand the environment in which you’re fishing and apply the right tool for that scenario,” Weigand says. It seems basic, but sometimes anglers forget to remember that maxim. FLWOUTDOORS.COM I MARCH 2014