TAKEOFF
BASS SCIENCE
GOING TO SCHOOL
A
theoRies on Bass schoolinG BehavioR
When Do Bass School?
there are many reasons why bass
might decide to school up and usually
it’s all about food. Maybe they coinci-
dentally gather in a place where blue-
back herring or shad are prevalent, or
wind up in wolf packs to hunt shorelines
for bream. Bass clearly benefit from
grouping up at times. Being habitat and
behavioral generalists, they are pretty
flexible in where they live and how they
act. that’s why they’ve been so success-
ful in spreading their range and flourish-
ing in darn near every pond, lake or river
across this country and many others.
Bass will school whenever the condi-
tions make it more favorable than not. in
other words, if foraging is easier and
more effective in a school, or if large
schools of forage fish are grouped
together where predators can get at
them together, bass might naturally
group up to take advantage of the oppor-
tunity. in some places, this might happen
infrequently; in others, the bass could
spend much of the year schooled up.
Benefits of the School
24
the goal of bass outside the spawn is
to maximize energy consumption while
minimizing energy expenditure. studies
lthough bass aren’t as socially
dependent as many other species
of fish (think sardines in a school
in the ocean), we have all seen situations
where they form schools.
this schooling behavior raises all
sorts of questions in both anglers and
fisheries researchers across the coun-
try: Why do they school? What condi-
tions cause it? is there really such a phe-
nomenon as “igniting” a school – and if
so, why and how does it happen?
the truth is there hasn’t been any
definitive study of bass schooling behav-
ior that can specifically answer these
questions. We can, however, look at
other aspects of fish behavior that sci-
entists have studied to help suggest
information about why bass school, and
how to use that knowledge to catch
more fish.
By TJ Maglio
Aaron Britt waits for a school to break at Lake Murray during the 2017 Forrest Wood Cup. Though we
think we know about bass schooling behavior, it’s still somewhat unpredictable, even for the top pros.
of both saltwater and freshwater preda-
tory species have found that schooling
in g eneral increases both the efficiency
of feeding, and the likelihood of encoun-
tering food sources. one study found
that bass of single-species or mixed-
species (say, largemouth and small-
mouth) schools took less time to find
food as school size increased. this is a
huge advantage in lakes where the pre-
dominant prey species such as gizzard
or threadfin shad, which can be found in
great numbers, aren’t spread evenly
across the lake.
Negative Consequences
solitary bass might have to forage
alone, but they also get to be the sole
beneficiaries of any food they find.
that’s the downside to schooling: com-
petition for scarce resources from the
other members of the school. imagine a
school of bass hanging out off a deep
point. if a small pod of shad swims by
and one of the bass decides to go after
it, there’s a chance that the remaining
bass in the school won’t have any
opportunity to feed. this is the trade-off
that each bass in the school is likely to
encounter, and it’s the reason why there
is little schooling activity on some lakes,
and lots on others as bass contend with
fluctuating forage scenarios.
Igniting a School
We’ve all seen the video clips from
tournaments on the famous ledge lakes
of the tennessee River. an angler is fish-
ing along with not much happening,
then suddenly it’s like a switch flips, and
it’s “fish on” cast after cast. this is what
many anglers call “igniting” a school, and
it’s the prize die-hard ledge anglers con-
stantly seek.
although there’s not been a defini-
tive study as to why schools become
active seemingly out of the blue, a
review of the literature indicates a cou-
ple possibilities that might contribute to
the phenomenon.
Competitive instincts – schooled-
up bass are used to competing for food,
so when one bass eats, it triggers the
rest of the school to get with the pro-
gram. By the time the angler’s lure is
back in the water, the remaining bass
are more inclined to grab it.
Pheromones – in some species of
fish, alarm and feeding responses
cause the release of “pheromones,” or
scent compounds that trigger behavior
in other fish nearby. this has been
demonstrated in various species of
freshwater and saltwater fish. perhaps
the feeding action of one bass releases
a pheromone that causes the others to
get aggressive.
FLWFISHING.COM I MAY-JUNE 2018