THE
LAST CAST
BASS are people , too
B ass are some of the best people I know . If that sounds strange , it ’ s nothing compared to some of the stuff I ’ ve heard through the years covering the major tournament trails , talking with big-bass hunters and interviewing fishing guides . To hear the experts explain things , bass have many of the same characteristics and thought processes that we do .
There ’ s a word for that : “ anthropomorphism ,” which means attributing human characteristics to an animal or object .
But why , bass , why ?
Truth is , we often have no good idea why a bass does what a bass does . We only know that he or she does it . That ought to be enough . To my way of thinking , ignorance is better than fabrication . But the human mind is a curious thing – we abhor the unknown . We go through our entire lives trying to explain things , to figure them out , and we sometimes go to ridiculous lengths in our efforts to make sense of the world .
Jason Lucas , the legendary fishing editor of Sports Afield in the 1940s , ’ 50s and ’ 60s , had it right when he wrote about our assigning human motives to bass : “[ T ] hinking much about it will do you no good , for after all you ’ re no bass , and you can ’ t judge things from a bass ’ s viewpoint .” His sage advice doesn ’ t stop us from trying , though . It doesn ’ t even slow us down .
Even Lucas couldn ’ t follow his own advice . In the same book from which I took the quote above , he wrote , “[ N ] o fish that ever flopped is so fond of laughing at an angler as is a bass ; he likes to reverse evolution , and make a monkey out of a man .”
It ’ s not enough that we try to get into the bass ’ s head , either . We also ascribe human motivations to their bodies . For all the years I ’ ve been reading about , writing about and studying bass , anglers have maintained that bass look for shaded areas because they have no eyelids . But eyelids aren ’ t about shade . Their function is to keep our eyes moist and free of debris – a couple issues that don ’ t affect bass . Nevertheless , if you ask anglers why bass are often found under heavy cover , many will point to their lack of eyelids .
But let he or she who is without this predilection cast the first stone . Who among us has not taken a whiff of a bag of plastic worms or a bottle of “ fish attractant ” and made a judgment call as to whether or not bass will like it ? Truly , that ’ s absurd .
I ’ ve developed tremendous respect for fishing experts who grasp where the line is between what they know and what they merely suspect or suppose or even wish to be true about bass based on human motivations . When asked why bass seem to like a certain lure under particular conditions , Edwin Evers has told me many times , “ I don ’ t know . They just eat it !”
It ’ s a perfect answer from one of the all-time greats who realizes that bass are not so easy to explain , even when we ’ re catching them good .
By Ken Duke
Shiny happy people … er , bass
Quite a while back , after a big tournament , I was talking to one of the greatest anglers the sport has ever known . The deck of his boat was littered with torn fluke-style baits and they had all been carefully modified with colored pens .
Each bait had a pair of red gill plates , and I understood that . A lot of anglers will add a touch of realism by adding gill plates . Nothing unusual there . I ’ d seen it a million times and done it myself .
Each bait had a pair of black eyes , and I “ got ” that , too . Baitfish often have large eyes , and the addition of the eyes would help the bait look more like the real thing .
Then I noticed that each lure had also been given a smile – something you don ’ t often see among forage fish . I knew that the angler must have drawn all these extras onto each bait just after threading it on the hook , otherwise the ink would run and smear , ruining the effort . It was time-consuming work done in the middle of a tight tournament that promised a life-changing payday . I had to ask .
“ I get the gill plates ,” I told him . “ And the eyes make sense , but what ’ s with the smile ?” “ I felt like they wanted a happy bait ,” he told me . And who knows ? Maybe they did .
ILLUSTRATION BY JOE MAHLER
96 MAJORLEAGUEFISHING . COM | APRIL-MAY 2021