The Great Lakes are basically like oceans , and smallmouth wander the deep , open basins of these lakes in search of pelagic forage like smelt , shad and herring . Even gobies , which live on the bottom , go through a pelagic stage as juveniles .
Next up is the spotted bass . I ’ ve quizzed the western spotted bass greats like Aaron Martens and Cody Meyer about spots for years . My big takeaway is that spotted bass love to suspend . They have no problem suspending down 10 or 20 feet over 100 feet of water . They do like to suspend around some kind of vertical cover like timber , bridge pilings or floating docks , but they ’ ll certainly roam over open water and suspend out over bare humps , points and breaks in 40 to 60 feet of water .
But what about largemouth bass ? This one is certainly a harder sell for the pelagic category . Disconnected images of big Florida bass lurking around in dark caverns of thick weeds led me to believe they don ’ t have a pelagic bone in their body .
Oh , but about those pelagic largemouth …
Let ’ s travel down to Florida ’ s bass capital of the world : Lake Okeechobee . Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit pro Mike Surman has fished Okeechobee for 35 years . During that span , he ’ s always subscribed to the theory that many of Okeechobee ’ s bass – especially the 3- plus-pound fish – actually live out in the main lake , where there is no cover . During the summer months , he ’ s run into huge schools of bass , schooling on big shad , in the middle of nowhere . He ’ s convinced these schools basically wander around in open water corralling massive groups of big gizzard shad , which are pelagic as well .
During Okeechobee ’ s lengthy spawning window of November through April , the bass move off the main lake in “ waves ” with each moon cycle , pouring into shallower , more protected waters , where they ’ re most vulnerable to anglers .
Another pro who has helped me with my theory is MLF Bass Pro Tour ace
ILLUSTRATION BY JOE MAHLER
Anthony Gagliardi of Prosperity , South Carolina . Gagliardi ’ s home fishing range includes lakes like Murray and Hartwell , where the introduction of blueback herring – a truly pelagic forage – has proven that bass can become roamers if the groceries are roamers too .
Gagliardi has spent hundreds of hours chasing schooling bass on Carolina lakes . In fact , he won the Forrest Wood Cup in 2014 on Lake Murray targeting schooling bass . Over the last 15 years , he ’ s witnessed how bluebacks have altered how schooling bass school on Murray , pulling them out more into the middle of the lake over deeper water . It ’ s as if bass have followed the blue backs for so long that the bass themselves have become pelagic . Hey , it takes one to eat one .
The next stops on my pelagic pilgrimage are major TVA reservoirs where the miracle of 3D imaging electronics have revealed huge schools of bass that roam the river bars awaiting the Tennessee River ’ s current to funnel shad down their gullets . I ’ ve watched down and side imaging of bass over nothing – just clean , slick bottom – hovering around in open water , waiting for the generation schedule to hit . Bass Pro Tour pro Mark Rose was one of the first pros to crack the pelagic code on the TVA with 3D imaging , and he ’ s won a lot of money that way .
Another pro that has made a handsome living off what I consider to be pelagic bass is Brent Ehrler . I covered many of Ehrler ’ s early wins in his FLW days , and he would often describe the fish he was catching as “ straight roamers ,” fish that weren ’ t glued to any definitive cover or structure .
Ehrler is a master at putting himself in the pathways of those roamers and ambushing them . He also often referred to his style of fishing as , “ floating on his meter ,” basically floating around in open water , picking off roamers he sees on his electronics .
Obviously , I ’ m not a fisheries biologist or expert in that particular field , so I ’ m not one to officially classify a fish as pelagic or not . I grew up watching pros like Denny Brauer , George Cochran and Rick Clunn pluck bass from shallow water , so I only assumed bass were homebodies . But these days , it seems bass would rather roam … than have a home .
Sorry , I had to do that .
APRIL-MAY 2021 | MAJORLEAGUEFISHING . COM 23