How To Learn From Those Rare Days When It Seems Bass Will Hit Anything

In the video below, you’ll see a man catch a big ’ol bass on a hot dog chunk and a Barbie rod. It sort of proves the point that no matter how technical and complex we make bass fishing, there are those scenarios where it seems bass will eat anything that hits the water. During those rare opportunities to catch loads of big bass in short order, the average guy is simply going to try to catch as many as possible until the window closes. But when I’m treated to an all out frenzy of fish, I use it as a learning tool that helps me greatly on those more common slow days.

Fast and furious bass action should trigger you to start tweaking baits and rigs right away, even if the worm or crank or spinnerbait you already have tied on seems to be doing a fine job. There is no better time to test new lures than during super-insane feeding windows, because if they don't bite it when they're biting virtually anything, chances are you don't want to fish it when they have lockjaw.

This goes deeper, however, than just figuring out if ravenous bass will eat new lures. I use these scenarios to note statistics. For example, say you're going to test artificial frogs among a school of crazed bass on a stretch of lily pads. The colors of the frogs you choose, and the action necessary to get bit often are surely important, but what you may want to look at are factors like strike to landing ratio, or how well the lure holds up after being trashed. In the particular case of frogs, I use a heavy bass feeding window to help me alter stock hook orientations towards better hook penetrating angles. It's a fine tweak, but necessary to have worked out for when I pick up that same frog during a tough bite. Otherwise, even something as simple as making a certain size hook lay perfectly on your plastic worm, allowing for both the optimal worm action and hook gap/worm relationship, is a very important process to work through. My point is, if you throw the same Texas-rigged lizard and it's rigged the same way every time you show up to the slugfest, you may be missing out on what an action packed day could teach you.