Got to fish for a little while yesterday and caught 17 bass in less then an hour, mostly small guys, below 12", on a crawdaddy fly. Got excited on one catch, while pulling him in, two hugh bucket-mouths were following and appeared to want to take it. Water was clear, and I saw one give the hooked fish a head-butt. I started giving the fish line in hopes that I could get him “ate” and land the 5-pounder. My hooked fish headed to the bank, I think he would have walked out of the pond if he could have grown a quick set of legs. My questions: was the big bass trying to “steal” the craw daddy, or was he attempting to take the smaller bass? Also, has anyone landed a big fish by letting the smaller one get taken? I read an article by a White River guide about this happening with a Brown taking a Rainbow, but never with bass.
I would think the big one was trying for the craw. They usually don’t miss their groceries.
We have landed one big “thief”. But only one out of about 15. Usually the hook is already “busy” in the smaller fish and completely misses as the “thief” regurgitates his mistake.
…lee s.
Read an article on this recently, but I can’t tell you where. They said that the large fish is generally in search of an easy meal and is trying to bully the smaller fish into releasing what’s in it’s mouth so that they can grab it. That said, I have witnessed a couple of occasions where a fish hit another fish that was hooked, usually in the salt. I have seen a pike or musky do it on video, I don’t recall ever seeing it from a bass.
Fish more, work less!
Hooked a small crappie the other day using my 3 wt. The fish was flopping about as crappie do and there was a swirl and the crappie disappeared. My 3 wt. doubled over twice, and the fight was on. I was way under gunned. This was a big lmb. It soon regurgitated the crappy, but I enjoyed the tussle for a minute or two.
I’ve hooked Bluegill…Big bluegill…and had not noticed it get snapped up by a much bigger LMB,Till it was boatside and getting close to hand before the LBM popped off!..that was exciteing to see…
Had this happen alot with Pike taking smaller fish I’d hooked…but thats why they call’em the water wolf…
“I’ve often wondered why it is that so many anglers spend so much money on,and pay so much attention to.the details on the wrong end of the fly line.If they took as much care in selecting or tying their flies as they did in the selection of the reel and rod,They might be able to gain the real extra edge that makes it possible to fool a fish that has,in fact,seen it all before” A.K.Best
“Wish ya great fishing”
Bill
While I agree that this behavior is usually based on the larger fish looking for an easy meal, I also think the fish that is hooked sends out noise and vibrations as it struggles, singaling a fish in trouble that could become an easy meal. I’ve had one large (10-12 lb.) bass grab a 13" bass I was landing. When I pulled them back to the surface, she had about half of him in her mouth head first. When she saw me, she spit him out and slowly swam away. I also had a huge catfish (about 4 ft long) try to catch a 12 inch spotted bass I was landing. I guess either way, they are looking for the same thing, an easy meal.
Jim Smith
I saw my dad once hook a really large bass.
When he landed it it was about 6 inches long, I saw the big bass jump and he must have thrown the “hook” Trouble was the hook had a small bass on it. Big Bass will eat little bass. I have seen them jump and try to eat a bird. Bass will eat anything that moves. Snakes, fish, birds, worms.
One of the lures that I have caught a lot of bass on looks like a small 3 inch bass.
I have had a number of bass hit small bluegills and perch that I’ve had on the line. Usually when I’km not really paying attention and I let the flop around too long. I’ve only landed one fish - several years ago I had a perch hit a streamer much too large for it but it basically swallowed it anyway. Part way back to the boat the perch got really heavy and after a bit of a tussle I netted about a 3# bass. As soon as I lifted the fish out of the water it opened it’s mouth and the perch just popped out! Like I said the perch had completely swallowed the streamer; the hook was nowhere near the bass. Only the fish’s greed and refusal to let the “super perch” go allowed me to land it.
Don
This LMB behavior is especially noticable in ponds where the LMB feed on BG and small bass. It is common in my ponds to have small BG attacked on the hook by LMB and also small bass. The very best bait for LMB in a pond is a small live BG or baby bass.
Fun conversation, thanks for the replies. I guess the next “puney” fish I hook, I’ll play him a little just to see what happens…that would upset the fly fishing purest…is that fly fishing, or bait fishing?
Notice James Smith’s point as to “sound” of a struggling fish. I believe he is right on.
We build some bugs to push water.
We troll dodgers to move water. Or at least WE do.
Having watched LM’s just laying around near BG’s paying no attention TILL one IS hooked, kinda leads one to believe the importance of “sound” and lateral lines in fish and fishing.
… 
I hear ya lee!
Couple of weeks ago, while fishing over lunch, I ran accross a bunch of little (3-4 inch) gills hanging at the edge of the water inlet. Since nothing else was cooperating or even there apparently, I switched to a size 16 prince and proceeded to catch about 10 of the little guys. Then I caught 3 that were in the 7-8 inch class. Guess they had decided to join the ‘pic-nic’ I was serving. A bit later it was time to head back to work, and as I started moving off, a couple of decent bass dashed off from where they had beeen creeping in close to the action.
If only I didn’t have to work, so I could have worked my way up the food chain in size. . . .
Don
In one of my Ponds I use artificial feeders. I learn a lot about LMB watching them around these feeders. They know exactly when the feeders are set to go off. They lie in wait for the unsuspecting BG that never seem to learn of their presence. They feast on these BG while the BG are trying to eat the pellets. LMB love to find an easy meal. They prefer to not expend any energy getting that meal.
Just curious… if its a competitive thing vs a big fish eat little fish thing… has anyone had any luck catching doubles on tandem flies?
The strangest such occurrence in my experience was one day as I was bluegill fishing on a private pond. I intended to take a few home for a meal. I had four or five BG on a stringer tied to a pier. When it was time to leave, I hauled out the stringer and a nice LMB had completely swallowed one of the BG. No hook involved. I normally don’t keep bass, but that day I made an exception.
Jim
Simple fact is; big fish eat little fish. I’ve caught a 5 lb. largemouth on a 3-4" bluegill that I was bringing in by the bluegill slipping out the bass’s gillplate and wedging in the corner of the plate when the line tightened. Most of you would be amazed at the size of fish that a bass can eat. One friend tried to raise bass in a private pond to a trophy size, so he could charge for fishing. He found to his amazement, that his feeding program didn’t work, and the bass were eating each other. These fish were all stocked at the same time, and were virtually the same size. When we seined the pond, we found 7 bass, each about 6-7 pounds.I’ve had bass take very large 'gills and crappie. Size seems to be no object. Oh, and by the way, I’ve read that large bass only feed about once every 3 days or so.
RG/AR, I can’t imagine that being the case unless the bass were not being fed properly.
It is a well known fact that starved bass will eat literally anything that moves, and I’ve seen cases before where bass have been underfed and then put into a tank for a demonstration of a lure’s “attractive power”.
In fact, I do believe there have been some criminal penalties imposed upon folks in, maybe Texas, regarding the latter. I think people have deliberately starved bass before, because I’ve seen things about it on other message boards.
Jeff, bass seem to follow each other towards food, and I assume that they’d not be wanting to eat the other bass but steal the food away. Must be one hell of a fly! 