PATTERSON LEETH
Different Rule for the School
Conventional theories in the world of bass fishing put bass tight to
cover and into shade on sunny days. Meanwhile, dark, cloudy days tend to
make them roam away from cover.
But if you’re fishing schooling bass, especially on herring lakes, you
might have to rethink those “rules.”
According to Atkins, the bass schooling around cane piles at Murray
played by different rules during the Cup. By his observations, they actually
tucked tighter to the cane on cloudy days and turned into true roaming
schoolers on the sunniest days.
“Without a doubt, my bites came straight over cane when it was dark
and cloudy,” Atkins says. “I mean I had to bring my lure right over the top
of it to get them to come up. But if it was bright and sunny, it’s like those
same bass were out away from the piles, sort of free-roaming. I had a lot
more unanswered casts right over cane on those sunny days. Yet, they
would be blowing up 50 yards away from the cane.”
Atkins’ only guess is that the herring come up high in the water column
on sunny days and go down in the water column on cloudy days, and the
bass follow.
“If those herring are up high migrating on the surface on a sunny day,
bass can lurk around down there 10 feet below them, and the herring have
no clue they’re being tracked,” Atkins says. “But if the herring are down on
a cloudy day, moving in that 5- to 10-foot-deep zone below the surface,
bass need to tuck away and hide to ambush them.
“Obviously we don’t know the true reasons those crazy bass do what
they do,” Atkins adds. “But that’s my best guess as to why they seem so
glued to cover on the darkest days.”