First of all, bass are not intelligent, they have a very small brain but everything they learn has to do with their survival. A bass at a very young age will learn that when it tries to eat something bigger than it is, it could be a very bad experience if not life threatening. So when a bass has a bad experience with something, they remember it, this enables them to survive to swim another day.
A good example would be when we are catching bass schooling in open water and we catch ten bass out of a large school, we think we did very well. But what really happens, after a short time the bite shuts off and we’re left thinking, what just happened. The ten bass you caught were sending out distress signals to the rest of the school with their thrashing and fighting, so the school became aware of the danger and shut down or moved away. Do you think that a bass you caught yesterday doesn’t remember the sound of a rattletrap or the sound of your trolling motor? Let’s say you go back to the same school of bass the next day, what do think will happen? Those bass you caught and released yesterday are still there and the first sign of danger puts them on alert which in turn spooks the other fish in the school. Whether it’s the sound of the lure you used yesterday or the sound of your trolling motor, the signals are there to alert the bass. One example I remember that proves this point happened a few years ago when I was out on the reef in the middle of Lake Okeechobee and the wind was blowing right down the reef. During this trip I was able to use the wind to move my boat and as we drifted down wind we caught 50 bass. One of my friends who likes to work into the wind was about a mile down the same reef working towards me. When we got close enough to talk he said he had only caught 3 bass. What just happened, after fishing these schools for weeks, the bass learned that the sound of the trolling motor meant danger and became spooked and refused to bite. Remember bass aren’t intelligent but they are very smart when it comes to their survival.
When fishing schooling bass on the Big ‘O’ there are a few things that can help you catch more fish. After you locate a school with your search bait, stop and anchor your boat and stay off that trolling motor. Pick up a worm rod and fish a lure that doesn’t make a lot of noise. When you hook a bass in the school let it swim out of the school so as not to alert the remaining fish. The most important thing to remember is to keep the school in the same place.
There a few products that have come along that have helped anglers catch more bass, one is the Power-Pole shallow water anchor. Staying anchored as far from the school is very important. When you see bass feeding outside of your casting range don’t be in a hurry to move your boat. I recently witnessed this in the Harney Pond area of the lake when we caught a couple of big bass when we were power-poled down. The big bass came up outside of our reach and we just stayed anchored down and off the trolling motor and after a couple of hours the big bass came into range and we caught a lot of big bass. Looking back I know that if I had pulled up the Power-Poles and trolled out to the feeding bass, I know we would have spooked them and not caught as many.
I’ve been fishing Lake Okeechobee for thirty years and there are things we can learn if we would just slow down and stop to think. Unnatural noise is our biggest enemy when fishing for bass or any kind of fish. A gator crashing into the water off a mat makes a lot of noise, does this spook a bass? On the contrary this is like ringing a dinner bell, for the gator crashing into the water knocks grass shrimp and other things into the water that a fish can feed on. So not all loud noises spook bass, just the unnatural ones.
There is another product out there other than the Power-Pole that has helped anglers increase their stealth while searching for bass and that is the Weed Chopper. This is one of the newest products that many of the best anglers that fish Lake Okeechobee are using to get an advantage over the other fishermen who battle heavy cover on the lake. The Weed Chopper is a cutting blade that attaches to the leading edge of the trolling motor’s shaft. When activated it slices right through the collected weeds leaving your motor clean and eliminates the constant lifting and cleaning of your trolling motor. Not only does the Weed Chopper help anglers go through heavy cover without having to pull up the trolling motor up every few minutes, it also helps
the angler reduce their noise presence in their quest to catch bass in heavy cover.
Remember, it’s those unnatural noises that will put those big bass on alert. The Weed Chopper is right up there with the Power-Pole when it comes to products that help anglers catch more fish. The Weed Chopper was designed and built by Ward Curry a great designer, engineer, and problem solver and is not available in stores. For more information call (941) 416-5185. The product was designed to cut the thickest weeds the Big ‘O’ has to offer, maximize your fishing experience, and to save your back. We have come a long way from those old baskets we put around our trolling motors that restricted water flow to the prop.
