How to determine a pattern

I will start off with the migrating of bass to clarify territory. It is important to know that bass do migrate to a certain extent, but never more than about 700 meters from their established territory. They are very territorial and sometimes they will attack out of anger anything from fish to lures even if they are not hungry. This is where the 'swirl' happens, which I will describe later. To be able to pattern accurately, you need to understand bass behaviour, so I shall start with the stages.

1. Permanent home - This is where the bass will be comfortable when not travelling or feeding and will normally be some sort of cover where the water temperature is stable. This would normally be between 15- 30 feet. They will hang around here during the hot times of the day.
2. Routes - This is the area that the bass will follow to their feeding areas and they ALWAYS use the same route. These routes maybe grass lines, tree lines rocky lines or just a plain channel that can be just 1 foot deeper than the normal bottom and narrow or along proper channels. Normally they use these routes early morning, late afternoon or at night.
3. Feeding area - This is normally in the shallows where the baitfish is feeding and it will be rich in plankton. The feeding area will always be within 30 meters from the home ground unless the first cover is further away from feeding area.

So you now have the three stages of a pattern and the only time the bass break this pattern is when autumn sets in. The baitfish will now move into small river mouths and coves with lots of cover and the bass will break their territorial behaviour to feed and fatten up for winter, away from their normal hunting grounds. You will notice that they stay on the feed for a long period every day, but STILL return to their homes. As soon as winter starts the bass will form schools and hunt together until the water reaches +-10 degrees C. and then RETURN to their homes. They now slow down their metabolism and do not move to the feeding areas anymore as a rule.

Jigs my friends is what you now gooi.

I would like you to picture what I have explained and next week I will show you how to pattern, as well as the influence the weather has on patterns. I will discuss different seasons and what the bass are up to in these seasons.

In the mean time read up some on plankton and how and where to find it and start filling in a log book of any fish you catch in the mean time, recording the depth, the place and the time of the day We will then find out where in the pattern sequence you caught your fish.

Remember guys I am a fisherman, not a writer, so if my explanations are not clear, feel free to ask me.

Rebeltoppie

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