Bass have particularly keen eyesight. The arangement of rods an cones in their eyes are such that scientists have determined that bass 'see' better (can collect and interpret more visible light)than humans by several orders of magnitude.

A lot has been published over the years about the Bass' other 'senses', the lateral line, which allows them to feel and locate prey by the vibrations the prey makes in the water, their sense of smell, which is quite acute, and their 'hearing' which is at least five times 'better' than ours.

But, the fact remains that while these other senses help a bass to locate it's food, the bass is a 'sight feeder'. It doesn't eat ANYTHING until it 'sees' it.

Bass have an area of 'binocular vision', where the vision cone from their high side mounted eyes 'overlap'. This area extend outwards and slightly upwards from the fish's nose. Before taking prey, the bass will always turn it's body so that whatever it's going to eat lies within this cone of vision.

The 'location' of the bass' eyes on it's body indicates that it's 'focus' of awareness is 'upwards'. This makes sense, as most of the bass' natural enemies and a good porportion of it's prey are first percieved from 'above' the bass.

Bass always strike 'upwards' in relation to the line of their body. If they are taking prey from the bottom of lake or stream, they will tip up their body so that the prey is 'above' their centerline before striking.

This explins a lot about why certain types of flies are more effective for bass, and gives some insight into presentation.

Good Luck!

Buddy