The Bait Ball Experience

I fished Berryessa yesterday and the bobber was not getting them. It seems like the bass got off the shoreline which I did not expect to happen for a few more weeks. There were fish chasing bait in Markley Cove on the way out and we got a couple but they were pretty scattered so we moved on. We cruised around a bit looking at the graph and throwing clousers and bobbers in a few spots but did not find many fish. Late morning we found a bait ball in a cove that had some bass on it. They grabbed pretty eagerly at first but then wised up to our tricks and moved out of there. There were still some around but they would mostly follow and not bite. I expect the shad in the ball were happy to have us run off the bass. If I had it to do over again I would have beached the boat and cast from the shore to avoid spooking the fish. We found a bait ball a few years ago while walking the shoreline and were able to fish it for a long time without chasing off the bass. For the day we got a red ear sun fish, a crappie, largemouth, smallmouth and spots. If you count the snagged shad we got six species for the day. Fun time and it was good to get the bait ball experience.

http://i.imgur.com/BFx3WYe.jpg
Snagged shad from the bait ball and the fly I had on at the time. Being bait is a tough life.

http://i.imgur.com/2zJLbqM.jpg
Chunky largemouth in the green Berryessa water.

" Being bait is a tough life." John, you're proving that for sure. That fly has proven itself everywhere you've fished warm water. All good for me as I really like the photo's. Thanks for sharing. :D

Threadfins are not native to California. The Department of Fish and Wildlife (DFW) first introduced the shad into San Vincente Reservoir in San Diego County in 1953. The purpose of the stocking was to provide an open water forage fish for bass and trout.

In the 1970s we had a program of planting Threadfin Shad in many reservoirs in California.

They were planted in most lower elevation lakes in California.

From those lakes they worked there way down to Lake Washington near the Port of Sacramento.

Leo Gutterres found them decades ago while float tubing in the Port of Stockton.

They are in many lakey areas in the Sacramento Delta like Franks Tract.

Stripers attack them in New Hogan,

That is good threadfin shad knowledge. I did not know anything about them. I can see the threadfin laying across the front of him. They are certainly providing forage for bass.

John,

I have recently been describing Threadfin Shad as pelagic, but it turns out this is incorrect. Pelagic refers to open ocean fish. Now I would call threadfins open water baitfish. I believe they are filter feeders who graze on planktonic life forms. When schools of threadfins move into shallow water in the spring to spawn, the bass team up to corral 'em against the surface and the shoreline and gobble 'em up. Very cool for of us throwing small streamer patterns, not so cool if you're a threadfin.

Vaughn