Well duh...

[BigGrassBass]

I had a great revelation yesterday at work and tried it out last night on the local pond when I got home.

I've been seeing a lot of bass cruising the shallows and I have been able to pick off a few with the tradidional texas rigged worm every now and again but most of the time I can't buy a hit. So, sitting at work yesterday I began to think about the situation and then it hit me.

The sunfish are spawning! Those bass could care less about my 7" power worm! I stopped by the store and picked up a couple swim jigs, spinnerbaits, and swimbaits all with the sunfish color theme.

I went down to the pond last night and you all know what happened. NOTHING!!!!!! I still managed to get a couple on, of course, the texas rigged worm.

Any thoughts on what I could try to get these fish a little more interested? I've been going after them for over a week and I can see them cruising but only about 3-4% of the fish will even look at my bait, let alone strike it.

What would you do?

BGB

[goblueM]

4 inch shiner under a bobber

or if you wanna use artificials try for a reaction strike, rip some jerkbaits by.

[BigGrassBass]

That was next on my list to try!

You know what they say goblueM, "Great minds think alike."

[ocf1]

If they arent actively feeding you going to need to [PoorWordUsage] them off and make them attack the bait. Try something fast.

[Bullwinkle]

If you are seeing the fish most of the time it is too late. Spooking the fish will cause them to develope a sudden case of lockjaw. Try long casts with a weightless sunfish colored senko. The long cast avoids spooking the fish and the slow presentation should help entice a strike. Good luck

[st.crioxfishin]

bullwinkle is right on. If they see you, they most likely won't bite. Drop down your line size and your bait size. I've done well on a zoom 4" centipede during these situations. It looks just about the size of a nightcrawler and they eat it up if your making long casts.

Also, if you have the opportunity to do so and the weather cooperates, try fishing these areas when it is overcast with a little wind. The fish will most likely be far less skittish under those conditions and you should be able to catch them on bigger baits Ex: sunfish colored jigs/swimjigs, spinnerbaits, swimbaits, etc.

Keep at it, those bass are not in the shallows around those sunfish nests for no reason, their up feeding and waiting for a sunfish to stray away from the spawning nest. They are willing to bite most of the time when they don't see you.

[fishcast]

I definately agree with what has been mentioned above, where once you see them its often to late. However, I have sight casted to cruising bass in shallow and got them to eat 2" grubs and fly fishing with crappie size flies relatively often. But for me it doesn't seem overly productive just looking for cruising bass.

This time of the year I have done extremely well in shallow around sunfish beds though. Usually during the daytime I pitch baits to the heaviest cover that is right by sunfish spawning beds. And then in lowlight conditions I usually fish weightless plastics in and around the large openings and lanes in those weeds near the sunfish beds, and fish relatively fast.

[BigGrassBass]

I hit it up again tonite and got a few of them. I took your advice and stayed low and made long casts. The bait of choice was an unweighted 4" power worm in the motor oil color texas rigged with no weight. I did have a couple hits on the swim jig but they were smaller fish. The sunnies haven't started spawning for the most part yet so I see this pattern playing out well for the next couple weeks.

Thanks to eveyone for all the suggestions. That's the great thing about this site. Hopefully I can return the favor to all you someday!

BGB