Oxygen Content and Bass activity

[lostatsea]

Dark mentioned that bass were hitting less aggressively with the warmer water. I thought that only happened when it was colder out like in the iwnter. I fish bait a lot and have not really noticed this. In March, yes. But not in June. I was just wondering if that sluggishness is different when they hit bait vs lures, and what are the highest and lowest temperatures you think bass will be active at, in your experience. Thanks

[finchaser]

Warmer water makes them feed less like when your extremely warm you don't eat as much. Colder water kills there agressiveness. I don't go by his oxygen theory either as the ocean constantly moves and absorbs oxygen from it's surface.Back bays and rivers get oxygen depletion in poor tidal areas where algae growns easily. In the ocean that theory only holds water when there are algae blooms like the red tide which is the worst and causes fill kills mainly to bottom dwellers in the red tide senerio.Bass and other game fish will follow the cleaner oxygen rich water as they are always on the move, it's not like they live in a confined lake.

[rockhopper]

Inbteresting. So are you saying it is the same for the surf zone too as the rest of the ocean? What about if it didn't rain for a week or 2 and the algae built up in the first 200 feet of the ocean? I think we have algae blooms here on the south shore that are so bad they call it red tide. Or maybe that is just from unprecessed sewage. I think I read that somewhere. Not trying to argue I don't know the answer and I thought you might know about it. Thanks

[williehookem]

I think the oxygen content would concide with a rise or drop in water temperature. It happnes on all the big lakes and reserviors. The freshwater fish all move out into deeper water in the summer, and gradually come back as the water cools in the fall. Like fin chaser said I think the ocean is different but it seems reasonable that some areas follow this pattern. Otherwise we wouldn't have bunker kills in the back bays.