Ever since humans adopted pole-and-line tactics, they’ve been forced to wonder why fish bite some days and not others. In the last year or two, pro anglers have told me about locating bass on their sophisticated sonars (the ones I call “all seeing sonars” that can scan around the boat to depict fish chasing lures), but failing to elicit much reaction. More than a few have rued spending hours looking at fish, but hauling water.
The question, “What makes bass bite?” is an eternal one for anglers and lure designers. Some phrase it more personally: “How can I make ‘em bite?”
Anglers often try to make bass bite by eliciting what’s called a “reaction strike.” Anglers may even define lure selection in terms of triggering effect. “Reaction baits” include buzzbaits, jerkbaits, bladed jigs, and fast-moving topwaters like a Whopper Plopper or Zara Spook. You could add techniques like snapjigging to that list.
They feel confident that lures convince bass to bite by erratic movement or speed. Indeed, you can often observe fish in clear water responding to these presentations. I recently talked about the concept of reaction strikes with Ralph Manns of Texas, longtime In-Fisherman researcher and contributor of articles on bass science. “When anglers talk about a reaction strike, they’re really describing a feeding reaction,” Manns told me. “It’s not in their genetic makeup to get aggravated with a lure, unless they’re defending a spawning bed. They may display territorial behavior, but that’s solely when interacting with other fish.
“To strike effectively, bass often must react quickly to nearby prey,” he says. “In that situation, fast-moving or erratic lures may work best. But it’s still a feeding response. If the fish bites, the angler has succeeded in fooling it into mistakenly biting a fake. When weather conditions or prey abundance improve feeding opportunities, active lures score and results often are spectacular.”
But anglers often fail. It’s interesting to read details of successful techniques that propel anglers to tournament glory. But I always scan toward the bottom of the standings where you find many former champions reporting in with a few small bass over a multi-day event. This leads to the conclusion that while bass can be easy to catch, they also can be almost impossible to catch, even for skillful anglers.
Bass Activity
Bass and other fish species instinctively know that life is tough. While we open the fridge for lunch, fish have no guarantee when or where their next meal is coming from. Bass and their prey are well balanced and most prey are hard to catch. Successful bass eat enough to grow, while prey species avoid being consumed often enough to grow, spawn, and reproduce.
“Experience teaches bass from an early age that prey often escape,” Manns says, “so bass may go days, even weeks, without a good meal. When biologists conduct diet studies, they flush out stomach contents to identify prey. Many studies report that about half of the bass caught by electrofishing have nothing in their gut.
“To survive, fish try to conserve energy. Activity burns energy (calories), so they rest most of the time and attack prey only when their chances of feeding success are good. They “know” they should avoid expending more energy chasing prey than it’s worth in calories. As a result, they’re inactive most of the time.”
Favorable feeding situations arise whenever bass are able to capture prey without spending more energy in the chase than they gain in the resulting meal. Environmental factors play a role in providing cover through the growth of vegetation that forms feeding edges and ambush spots; trees fall into the water with time. Wind, clouds, rain, or low light make hunting more successful.
In most waters, bass can’t afford to pass up a good feeding opportunity. When they refuse lures, it’s usually because they’re out of range or the fish has been made wary by a noisy approach or poorly selected tackle. Most bass are somewhat hungry, but in a non-feeding mode while conserving energy as they await the opportunity to feed when success is more likely.
Manns notes that bass are truly inactive when digesting a large meal. “Once digestion begins, fish send most of their blood to the stomach, routing only minimal amounts to the nervous system for defensive purposes or further feeding,” he says. “In this state, it’s physically difficult for them to feed, even if opportunity arises. But for otherwise inactive fish, the sudden appearance of apparently vulnerable prey—possibly stimulated by repeated casting—may elicit a strike. Anglers may call this a ‘reaction strike,’ but it’s motivated by the instinct to feed.”
Likewise, schooling bass are actively feeding and their group behavior improves the likelihood of success. But individual fish are competing with their brethren. Anglers sometimes report reaction strikes in response to fast-moving lures in that situation, but the fish are engaging in routine feeding activity and can be easily fooled at times.
Strike Windows
One of Mann’s contributions to understanding of bass feeding behavior was his concept of “strike windows.” This term replaces the more vague term strike zone, though it could be construed similarly. The key to strike windows is their flexibility in size and shape according to the activity levels of the fish. This flexibility is demonstrated by Manns’ use of a balloon-like shape to depict the strike window.
“Each bass has an area to the front and slightly to each side within which it’s likely to make a successful attack,” Manns says. “A bass senses it can attack and catch prey within this window and it’s learned that healthy-looking prey fish outside the strike window usually escape, so they’re generally ignored.
“Size of the window varies with a bass’ activity state,” he adds. “Hunting bass have the largest windows and may chase and attack prey that are yards away. Neutral bass, in a less active state, might have a 1- to 2-foot window. The window for inactive fish can shrink to mere inches.
“Strike windows of active bass also change shape and dimension as fish move faster. When swimming fast, forward range increases, but ability to turn to the side is reduced. I estimate the range of a cruising bass in clear water at about 6 feet. It increases to 10 or more at full speed, while narrowing further.
“Bass of different sizes also have different abilities to turn and accelerate. And they have different learning experiences as they grow older. Prey species also affect the strike window as some are easier to catch and handle. Whether a preyfish is moving away from a bass, toward it, or across its viewpoint affects the size of the window and resulting feeding decision.”
各バスの鼻の前と周りにはストライクゾーンと呼ばれるスペースがあります。バスは、このゾーンを動かす獲物の魚やルアーへの攻撃が成功することを合理的に確信できます。ゾーンのサイズは、バスの活動状態によって異なります。 低音には小さなゾーンがあり、ニュートラルバスには大きなゾーンがあり、アクティブな低音にはさらに大きなゾーンがあります。低音をキャッチするには、そのゾーン内にルアーを配置するか、ルアーがそのゾーンに収まるように移動するように誘惑する必要があります。/ Image by In-Fisherman
https://www.in-fisherman.com/editorial/bass-strike-savvy/395...
