Actually this is a little bass fishing secret I employ in ponds and reservoirs with populations of schooling baitfish like shad (Southeastern & Western U.S.) or alewives (Eastern U.S.).
As either spring ramps up and summer starts to wind-down, schooling baitfish start to congregate in the main lake area and bass often do as well. The reason the bass are there? …
The presence of all that food…
Not to mention, to take advantage of ambush situations where they can corral baitfish quickly and grab a fast meal (the bass’ version of a McD’s drive-through I guess!).
I’ve had some great days on western reservoirs catching unsuspecting bass as they thrashed at shad funneled toward the surface over weeds or tree-tops. Some of my more memorable days, however, were catching bass herding alewives on a number of fertile, vegetated lakes across the northern U.S.
The diagram below depicts a common situation where this situation often occurs.
As the baitfish schools cruise the water searching out plankton, they would frequently encounter blooms in waters around and over submerged weedbeds like coontail and pondweed.
Though the weedbeds may appear dense and impenetrable, a fairly open system exists within the internal structure creating perfect hiding places for bass to wait in ambush.
When the school of alewives swims around and over the weedbeds, the bass then start to herd the baitfish against the surface. Take the time to position yourself in the area of the weedbeds (you can often predict which beds will be active by watching the migrating schools)…
Next, have your rods rigged with jig & worms, tubes, lipless & shallow running crankbaits and small spinnerbaits making casts into and around the thrashing school…
The action can be fast and furious in spurts of a few minutes to an hour or more of pure bass-catching excitement!.