The other day I was thinking about a question... The question is, what are ALL of the food options for a big bass. Considering lakes around here, I came up with this list, in no particular order. I probably missed something, so point it out if you think of something else.

crawdads
trout
shad
bluegill, green sunfish and redears
crappie (black and white)
common goldfish
carp
suckerfish (various species)
small catfish
small bass (largemouth, spotted, smallmouth)
minnows (various species)
small birds
snakes
salamanders and newts
frogs and tadpoles
mice and rats

What I think is interesting is that some of these forage items have very few lures designed around them.

There are only a handful of real bluegill imitators, and even fewer that are good for anything besides bed fishing. Its hard to make bluegill lures swim and hook and land fish, but there's certainly a lot of potential here.

Crappie are common in many lakes and I have no doubt that bass eat many many crappie from fry size on up to 8 or 9" long and yet there are virtually no crappie imitating lures aside from the castaic crappie which is very small and not very castable/fishable. Certainly there is no realistic crappie lure longer than 5".

The golfish, carp and suckerfish I usually see are not small ones, but every fish had to be 1 to 12" long at some point in its life. Maybe I don't see the small ones because they are getting eaten? Fish like this are probably harder for bass to catch than trout, but you can bet they get eaten with regularity. Some of the swimbaits now come in goldfish, carp and suckerfish patterns but they're all baits that are shaped like trout. These type of fish usually have big pectoral fins, long tails and distinctly shaped heads/mouths. Not much in the lure department here.

Small catfish definitely get eaten by bass. I've heard two first hand accounts of it happening. But the only catfish lure I can think of is a Japanese topwater called a Namazu, which is small and only vaguely catfish like. No one makes a swimbait to look or move like a catfish. I bet it would work.

Baby bass are pretty well represented in the smaller sizes. There are lots of good baby bass pattern crankbaits. But in the 7 to 12" range, there isn't much. The Castaic Baby Bass was one of the few lures designed to look exactly like a bass, and that bait catches fish. Most of the other baits that are available are trout shaped and painted like a bass.

Bird lures are out there, but hard to come by. Some day someone will make a bird lure where the feet really churn around like a bird trying to kick through the water. Its a hard lure to make, but if someone did it right, it'd probably work well in shallow summertime conditions.

I guess my point is, what a huge range of opportunities are out there for lure design! In each of the categories above, I really believe that if someone comes out with a bait that looks real, fishes well, and moves right through the water, the baits will catch fish because fish are already eating all of these things and no one is presenting baits that look the same as what they are eating. Thoughts, comments, opinions?

there are some small plastics that immitate mad toms (river catfish) and they work well. I used to fish them primarily on small jig heads in the rivers I used to fish for smallies, but last year I started dropshotting them on a short leader (6 to 8 inches)out on the Delta and catching fish. I wish somone would make them larger than the 3 and 5 inch models they come in, I know they would work.

http://www.madtoms.com/baits.htm

Those baits are cool for the fact they are shaped right. Cabelas has some sculpins like that too. The dilemma on a bait like that is how to fish it? Fish will certainly eat lures that look like real food items, but it sure helps a lot of the the lure moves like the real thing too. I'm not saying it to diss that bait, I'm just saying someone could make something a lot better I bet.

Rob,

I have been making this zipper sculpin/mudsucker bait for a while I am not sure if the fish see it as a mudsucker or what but it does work well on the delta!

In Japan they also have Lunkers Club Lures they make several catfish baits and bass aswell. Some Japanese comapnies also make cool baby bird impressions sort of a high tec. jitterbugs & Crazy Crawlers.

I think the reason alot of new baits are not being made is that current styles have been used in the USA for so long it is hard for a company trying to introduce a new bait (Bird, Catfish, Snake) that would be sucessful because it would have to be very nice and costly and more than likley they would not sell enough because they were to expensive since they were nice, regardless of fish catching ablities. This is why I belive they have such a wide range of lures in japan since they are relitivily new to bass fishing not as many traditional baits have been set over there? Not sure if this is at all correct just my thoughts.

Taylor


http://www.calfishing.com/dc/user_files/3360.jpg

I've seen bass try and take dragon flies and other assorted insects.

Oh no, you're gonna get CJ started on the dragon fly lure again ;)

I've seen that once, at Lake Powell. 10" bass jumping and trying catch the dragon flies. I think those fish are pretty malnourished at Powell lol :)

I've caught literally dozens of bass up to 3lbs with dragon flys sticking out of their throat. But again, a hard bait to mimick properly. It's a bait that needs movement and noise(like their wings) but needs to hold it's position on the water.

Worms
Eels
Crabs

Believe me when I say I was just about to introduce a new line of baits.
Just in fear of having too much demand in crossing my existing bait. 4EYE
A WHOLE LOT OF WORK!

It would be nice to work with someone in fine tuning my ideas.

I’ll be ready here come soon!

I went over to the Dan Blanton board to read about that 17.75 delta monster caught on a fly, and in the story the guy says that big fish had a catfish tail coming out of its throat!

http://www.danblanton.com/Messages/42457.html

Can't get any more clear than that!

Theres been many times that Ive seen bass go banannas on damselflies and dragonflys. Last summer I was struggling to get something going, all the while fish were busting everywhere. Well, I finally started paying attention and the bass were eating these little blue damselflies that were everywhere. I tore my boat apart looking for those silly little 3" blue senkos that Id bought for dropshotting, but it was to no avail I couldnt find them, and I never did catch anything.

At certain times of the year, bass turn to insects for a huge percentage of their diet, but it also depends on the particular lake. And Im not talking 10 inch bass, Im talking solid fish. In the real NorCal, two diet studies on bass have shown this. One study was done at Freshwater Lagoon in Humboldt (I think I knew every bass by name in that lake), and the other was in Trinity Lake. In both studies, stomach contents of all fish (up to like 6 pounds) contained a very high percentage of insects. No wonder many, many huge smallmouth are caught each year out of trinity by drifting a tight lined cricket.

Can somebody design a swimbait that looks like a cricket? Just kidding.

The little pond I learned how to bass fish on had tons of damsel/dragon flys that the bass would chom on. The lure that I had the best action on when the bass were feeding on the dragon flys was a clear Headdon Tiny Torpedo. I think that little prop on the back immitated the sound or vibration of the draggon flys...maybe not, but I always slayed them on it including my old PB at 7.6 pounds

Tim - the zippers with the sculpin type heads are cool, no doubt they get bit. But what I've always disliked about lizards and baits like that are the tendency for the lures to roll on their sides or sit funny on the bottom. They look great in your hand but when you put a hook in one and t-rig it and drag it along the bottom, what really usually happens is that the bait rolls on its side, or upside down or just does whatever based on how it landed on the cast. Again, I'm not saying that is bad, obviously fish are going to eat stuff like that anyway, but I believe that weighted and/or foam/air inserted lures will be the wave of the future, because if you weight one part of a lure and put foam or air pockets in the other part, it gives it consistent underwater action.

I have not chopped a huddleston deluxe in half but I believe they have lead on the bottom and foam on top. Great concept! Makes the lure stay always upright. The ROF5 huddleston is truly genius the way it falls and stays level at the same time. Check out the River2Sea yabbie crawdad lure, it has air pockets in the claws to keep it upright. Killer bait right there. I know this stuff isn't a new idea, I'm sure someone has done it 100 years ago but just within the past few years are we starting to see people making baits that not only look real, but also move and swim real. Props to castaic for their line of realistic baits. The castaic softbait trout swims awesome and looks a lot like a trout. But some of their other baits had only the realism part and didn't have consistent swimming actions.

I throw a post out like this sometimes as a discussion point but also in hopes that people reading it will be inspired to make some really awesome baits. It's hard for a garage guy to make baits with internal weighting, air pockets and foam, but that is where the future is IMO and I hope when the bait mfgr's pick up on this, that they make some baits to represent some of the less popular forage like crappie, bluegill, catfish, etc.

I wonder if the fact that that pig at the delta was eating cats had anything to do with it's color. The only time I've caught bass that color was at Oso resevoir last year- the lake was closed and our club was invited to go out and fish to get as many bass as we could for Rick Mendoza at Laguna Niguel lake, so we were just catching a ton of the Oso runts and putting them in a pen for Rick. Some of the fish were that yellow color, and we were tripping on it, until we started finding baby cats in a lot of their throats- they were eating small cats or bullhead (they were pretty yellow and looked like bullhead) and the bass were heavily yellow colored. That's the first thing I thought of when I saw the photo of that Delta fish, so maybe it's the cats?

very interesting! you could be right about the bass eating the cats. Maybe the stripers are pushing the shad, and the cats are hanging underneath waiting for the dead/wounded shad to come down. And maybe a few big ol bass are following the whole deal just picking off whatever they can get along the way, including the small catfish. It doesn't seem that farfetched to me when I think about it. I know cats will follow bait and push bait, even into open water. Maybe catfish 6 or 10" aren't that hard to catch for bass, who knows? Cool topic though, very interesting to me.

I wouldn't be suprised if eating catfish made the bass turn a different color. Compare farm raised salmon with wild salmon. The meat from a farm raised salmon will be relatively white if color dyes are not added to their food pellets. The meat of wild salmon gets their pink coloration from eating krill.
Now I grant ya, these coloration differences are on the inside rather than outside but all fish will vary in coloration depending on water color, light penetration, bottom composition, time of year, etc. It seems reasonable that food sources would do the same thing.

Psst... I have a theory about the color red in lures. If red is the first color to fade out, wouldn't it be reasonable to think it would be the first to take on a more natural appearance underwater??? That is why line companies make red(pink) fishing line which was all the rage in the 70's and early 80's.
Hmmm... ;)

Chris

Rob,

I fish the Jewel Hypertail Sculpin (the one in Cabelas) in the salt and have gotten bass and halibut on the 6 inch size. When rigged with a 5/0 wide-gap tubebait style hook, the keel effect keeps them swimming naturally. It doesn't roll. As you said, they do tip onto a side upon resting on the bottom when using that style hook but I don't leave it on the bottom for long. I love this plastic because it not only has the tail-flip going but the pectoral fins get flapping just like a live sculpin.

I also fish the tiny one on a jighead and the surf perch eat it.

Now I will get out of the LMB discussion and get back to the beach...

BillH

5 inch senkos, the natural prey of the largemouth bass

A bait that looked and swam like a bluegill would be epic. Unfortunately I don't think most bluegill swim around the lake in straight lines waiting to be eaten like trout do. Thus the typical swimbait style fishing won't be as natural. Bluegill like to suspend motionless around heavy cover, or dart erraticly chasing tasty bugs.

Maybe the best bluegill swimbait would be a weedless soft plastic that sinks very slowly like a Huddleston ROF 5. You could let it sit in the weeds and pop it around kind of like you retrieve a senko (every thing works better when you fish it like a senko).

Carp and suckers do seem to swim around aimlessly a lot. A carp shaped swimbait might work well fished in the standard way.

What I would really like is a good underwater frog pattern. Bass obviously adore frogs and I see frogs swimming around in open water all the time. Frogs like bullfrogs dive down into vegetation when they're spooked. How could we imitate a frog swimming down into vegetation?

I agree that bluegill dont just cruise around like trout thats why I get bit when I am either burning mine or jerking it in. I like your ideas and I have some similar thoughts. I have a ton on my plate right now though but sometime this year I will introduce a few new ideas/baits. Rob I am sending you a pm with a pic of a 15lber off of my bluegill but I dont want to post it and give up my friends bite.
If I caught it I would post it for the world to see but I am sure you understand.

hmmmmm. catfish swimbait...interesting

sometimes you see pics off fat bass caught in Florida and stuff that live in heavy vegetation, but they are usually black bug-eyed sows. The yellow color, at least from what I can figure, comes from something they have eaten- The big bass you see out west seem to be green, and pretty light colored, maybe a lot of dark in their markings, but not any yellow. Trout eating girls that roam and forage in open water are never yellow. Even the Delta frog fish are dark, but not yellow. Something in the diet of that 17 lber. makes her different- Props to that guy for catching her on a fly, that is all time- and the fact he cared more about her then himself is great. Epic catch.

I have seen 5 fish over 13lbs come out of the Delta. 2 have been in pictures, 2 have been at the weigh in and one was out of the back of my boat. All 5 had a few things in common. The 2 most notable things are, all of them were very short, fat fish. There was almost no distance between where their belly stopped and their tail started...looked like almost all muscle if you know what I mean...and the other thing is the big bug eyes and yellow color. The 13.6lber that was caught by my back-seater was like the size of an average 8lber. I knew it was the biggest bass I had ever held in person, but it sure didnt look that big!!!!!


What about little turtles???? think a bass would eat one of those?? I've seen one eat a turtle, but it spit it out right away, guess a turtle shell is alot harder then a crawdads shell:)

late
cam

You guys might get a kick out of this... I turned one of my Slammers into a catfish Slammer a few years back. All I did was add the whiskers and paint it. But of course my crappy paint job just flaked off after I took these pics. After that, MS painted it for real for me to look like a catfish. Its a boring paint job, just black and cream, but that bait became my money night bait afterwards. I doubt it has anything to do with it looking like a catfish, but they like it at night for whatever reason. I've caught 3 over 10 on this ugly little guy (minus the whiskers which I took off). All this talk makes me want to put them back on :)

http://www.msslammer.com/images/slammer/ms_catfish1.jpg

http://www.msslammer.com/images/slammer/ms_catfish2.jpg

http://www.msslammer.com/images/slammer/ms_catfish3.jpg

Just stuff the frog with some weights. I had a frog that had a good leak in it last summer and if i forgot to squeeze it after a couple casts it would become a submersible frog that slowly sank. I had gotten lazy one day and just decided to fish the frog back underwater on a cast cause i forgot to squeeze it and low and behold a 3lber came and ate it. I tried the subsurface frog for a little longer that day for no more takers. I bet it you stuck an oz of lead in a frog you could fish it in a manner they are definetly not used to seeing.
Also don't forget baby stripers, I'm sure they are taken down by the bass in the delta and lakes with stripers.

This is Wade on Joey's computer.

It may just be a rumor but, didn't someone place 2nd or 3rd in the Snagproof tourney a few years back by stuffing a frog with shot and fishing it as a craw?

Have any of you looked at the Baby Blue-Eyes lure. I think it's by Canyon Plastics. It's a Madtom Catfish imitating jig and curly-tail or swimbait body available at Wal-mart. They're too small to be a trophy bait but if someone was going to up-size one to say 9", I think it could work.

Tight lines,
Wade

is that on a fly line? or the kite?
(i'm sorry. I couldn't resist)

popeye lures and simpions lures work great

The birds that a bass might want might not necessarily be very small. Last year at the Cachuma launch ramp I saw what looked to be about a 6 to 8 pound bass jump out of the water and just miss a duck that looked to be about 2 pounds.
Bob

I saw a full grown mallard at Clear Lake get hit by something. I never saw what had a hold of it. It grabbed the bird's feet and/or tail feathers and held on. The duck just kept flapping it's wings and quacking wildly until the fish let go.
OMG it was too funny. :o :7

Chris

Well, I've got the painting skills. All I need is a couple grand worth of wood working tools, some time to develop some 100% original hard baits and...

Well for now, I'm just gonna have to sell my paint jobs on other peoples lures.

Great topic, Rob! :-)

back to the yellow on that delta pig. galen jensens delta record 18.62 lber has a little yellow on it as well...those fish are probably getting yellow from the cats like everyone has said and the bigger fish are the ones with yellow because they are eating the most cats.

http://www.calfishing.com/dc/user_files/3369.jpg


http://www.calfishing.com/dc/user_files/3370.jpg

Lordy Criley but what's with that Bass's eyes? Forgive me if you've answered this before but those are new pics to me.

Dan

Hey Rob,
I noticed turtles weren't on your list..I've never caught a bass with a turtle in it,but I would think they must eat them.Here in the midwest there are hundreds of turtles around.I would think the 2-3" ones would be a easy meal..Nathan
www.Bettencourtbaits.com

lightningrod, im no bass expert, but that fishes eyes are so bugeyed from age.

Had a golf course pond that we fished at and watched a baby duck get slammed. Pretty cool...

In regards to the yellow question...it really has more to do with the environment rather than what fish are eating. Do you see many red or blue bass (from eating craws)? I certainly have not. Now if the envirnoment was red clay...maybe.

If you notice for the most part when the water color is murky, most of the fish seem pale. Likewise, if the water is clear, the fish tend to be darker. Same goes true with environmental factors. Bass are designed to blend in with their surroundings as best as possible. What makes them the predator they are!

I'm not a scientist (but my Dad is!) but took enough courses back in college to know this along with seeing my Dad in action (and non-stop questions!).

True, like Chris said, sometimes the flesh can be of different colorations due to forage but for the most part, the outside is not.

Todd

http://www.bassanglerprofiles.com/toddiwamoto.htm

How about yellow perch, alewives, blue and green back herring? I'd like to get my hands on some of these bad boys. There are alot of lakes around the country loaded with them, especially ponds with herring runs. If've seen some viscious feeding frenzies around herring runs. if anyones's seen some great looking replicas I'd appreciate the info.