We had to throw other stuff to get bites in the same places
where they ate that jig so well the year before. I’m convinced
there had been a mass crawfish hatch or something the year
before that caused bass to be totally dialed in to eating on
the bottom.”
I’ve seen the same phenomenon in inshore flats fishing
for redfish. Since coastal bays are so shallow and the fishing
so visual, you can usually see exactly what the fish are eating.
One year mullet schools blanket the bays, and a topwater
walker is the deal. The next year the mullet are rare, but a
proliferation of crabs covers the bottom. Amazingly, the same
redfish that crushed topwaters the year before are now root-
ing around in the bottom for crabs and could care less about
a plug walking over their heads.
The act of spawning among forage species can also dras-
tically sway the interest of bass and other predatory fish that
seem to instinctively know exactly where and when their for-
age is going to reproduce.
From freshwater bass on shad spawns to bream on
mayflies to tarpon on palolo marine worm hatches to cobia
homing in on molting crabs being flushed out of a pass, pred-
ator fish know their forage and where that forage originates.
Whether they target the vulnerable adult forage while spawn-
ing or the forage fry when it hatches, fish know how to take
advantage of easy dinners.
“Since we as humans can go get food just about anytime
or anywhere we want, we have sort of lost touch with our
own instincts in terms of when and where to find strong food
WINter 2019 I FLWFISHING.COM
sources,” Atkins says. “And no, the ‘Hot Now’ sign at the Krispy
Kreme doughnut shop does not count as knowing when your
‘forage’ is ready to be eaten.
“Bass can’t pull through the McDonald’s drive-through any
time they please for a ‘Shad-Mac’ and a large order of craw-
fish,” he chuckles. “They have to hunt down their prey. As a
result, they are extremely attuned to nature’s reproductive
cycles in their world. Prey that is spawning is the easiest for
bass to fill their bellies with fast.”
Atkins points out one of the finer points to “find the bait,
find the bass” is finding the crossroads where a bumper crop
of forage has reached spawning age.
“The easiest example here is with bream because they are
so visible,” he explains. “Let’s say one year bream fry have a
huge survival rate, and there is a bumper crop of bream in
the system. When that abnormally large population of bream
becomes old enough to spawn, suddenly the shallows are
filled with more bream than normal making beds every-
where. Now you have the forage double whammy: a bumper
crop of bream that are now spawning. You can bet every bass
in the system knows exactly where and when to take advan-
tage of that.
“And that’s one of the coolest things about bass fishing:
That predator-prey relationship is ever-changing,” Atkins adds.
“Today’s all-you-can-eat buffet is different from last year’s, or
even last month’s, and the bass know about it long before we
do. Finding bait is one thing, but finding the bait bass are eating
at that time is really the name of the game.”
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