Discussion: FEEDING Window and What it Means to Land Based Anglers.....

[DarkSkies]

Feeding window....

There is a definite feeding window where the fish seem to be most active.

The time that the fish are most actively feeding....

[DarkSkies]

In my experience, this has a lot to do with the following factors......

[DarkSkies]

1. Availibility and Type of Forage where you are fishing...
IMO this is the single most important factor. The presence (or absence) of bait will trump all other factors. It can make the difference in a night where you can't buy a hit from a fish, and a night where your arms are tired from reeling all the fish in during an aggressive night bite.
Learning to recognize what bait is around, why it is there, and which types the fish are concentrating more heavily on will allow you to maximixe your time out there.

Although there are no guarantees.... learning about why fish feed at different times, and what they focus on, will allow you to target your quarry and fine-tune your success. Paying attention yields big bonuses. Not paying attention will lead to you shrugging your shoulders and wondering why the fish were not there that night, when they were there the night before....

[DarkSkies]

2. Tide stage....
Which tide, ebb or flood, and which tide is more productive for that area, and time of year...What Part/Stage of the tide is most likely to spur feeding activity?

[DarkSkies]

3. Bait conditions....
Where is the bait at the time you are fishing? Is it hiding, moving, or somewhere in between, like in a staging process?

[DarkSkies]

4. Current flow....
I look at the current as being different than tide stage. The relative strength or weakness of the current has a lot to do with the moon stage, and even the part of day you are fishing,

The tide and currrent will be different in the morning as opposed to the night at times.

[DarkSkies]

5. Weather conditions.....
the weather is always a factor, to me...winds, swell, duration, and storm patterns

[DarkSkies]

Fishing and Feeding windows.......

**If you manage to put all the factors above, together in a plan that makes sense, after awhile you will be able to "see" when it's most likely for the fish to feed.

For me, that involves putting in hours at a time in one particular area....you cannot learn an area unless you fish the whole tide at that one area, and success comes from doing this over and over.
This is the best way, IMO, to see when they are feeding, and when they shut off like a light switch.

Once you have that down, you can apply it to other areas.

For me, those feeding windows have been varied this year.
So varied that I cannot depend on them, and have to re-learn them each week, or each night sometimes.


If you compared it to a game, it would seem more like a game of chess, than checkers...
One of the problems of that, for me, is that I would rather play checkers than chess...chess takes a lot more strategic thinking....and at times at the end of the night my brain is burnt and I don't want to do that much thinking.....


With there being less fish around, it is sometimes this kind of thinking that has resulted in me finally finding a few fish....
And sometimes not.....













Thought some of ya's might like to share your experience and thoughts relative to the above.....

[surfwalker]

All the factors above do contribute to some sort of feeding pattern, at certain times of the year. But I stopped doing all the the research work involved with trying to catch a Bass, I go when I can and I now call it lucking into a Bass. Sure I like certain types of weather, temps of the water, wind and stuff, but the luxury of having that time is not there anymore as in the past. When water temps start to drop, the feed is on, I know what to expect, and I expect to catch. The hot water months I luck into Bass, feeling that it's just an impulse/opportunity move on the fishes part. Feeding patterns are there, but figuring them out might drive you crazy.