In late spring and summer, after the spawn, bass will move back and forth, along regular routes from their established 'home' area to 'feeding' areas. Their home area will be some sort of structure with a good water temperature, usually in 20-30 feet of water, such as submerged timber, rockpiles, etc....They will usually hang out here during the heat of the day and rest. In the early morning, evenings and at night, they will move along breaklines, channels or other structure lines to feeding grounds in 10-20 feet of water, along ridges, coves, weedbeds, or anyplace that has baitfish, or other food. This will seldom be more than 300 feet or so from their home area. They will hunt and feed in this area until they are sated, or the water starts to warm up.



The feeding times vary with the weather. On overcast days, you can expect them to linger longer in the hunting grounds.Then they will move back along the same route they came in, back to their home area. Trophy bass can be 'patterned' just like deer. Also, many different bass will use the same routes at different times of the day.

As the water cools down in fall, shad and other baitfish move into creek mouths and shallow coves seeking cooler water and more cover. Bass will follow them. Again, they will use breaklines, channels and lines of cover to move from home to the hunting grounds, and they will use the same route every time. Once in the feeding area, they will gorge themselves in prepartion for winter. This is one time that bass will suspend their territorial habits, with many fish feeding in the same area. It probably has something to do with an abundence of food in a concentrated area. They will feed for longer times before returning to their 'home'.

Early winter bass will tend to form schools as they continue to chase shad and baitfish, and put on weight. When the water approaches 50 degrees, they will re-loocate their homes to areas along major creeks, channels, points, secondary points, ridges and humps, near structure, in 30 feet of water..Their metabolism slows down and they will no longer move to hunting areas to forage. They will not move around much at all. Most anglers will be out deer hunting, so fishing pressure is much lighter. This is the time to fish jigs and jigging spoons. This can be some of the most productive fishing of the year. There are a few extra considerations about winter fishing that you need to be aware of. Hypothermia is a very real danger and can strike without warning. It doesn't even have to be that cold. People have suffered from 'exposure' in as warm a weather as 55 degrees.