Basics | Baits | Rigs & Techniques | Seasonal & Weather
Time of Day | Lakes | Rivers | Catch Bigger Yellow Bass
Weather
Yellow bass are not too difficult to catch and they will usually feed throughout the day and throughout the year. Clouds, wind, rain, sun and fronts can definitely all play a role on yellow bass, but they will feed during all conditions. Cold fronts may be the toughest time to catch them, but you don’t need an overcast day during a peak bite in the morning or evening to catch yellow bass. Find a school of them and you should be able to catch some fish.
Seasons
Spring
In spring, the spawn dictates their movements. Once the yellow bass finish up spawning, you may still see some of them shallow, but large schools of these fish will be found deeper as they roam the open water for schools of bait fish.
Summer
In the summer, there will always be some fish shallow, but the better fish will go deeper. Plan on fishing anywhere from 10 to 30 feet of water depending on the lake and it won’t always be around cover. Yellow bass will roam open water too. The key will be to find the bait fish and yellow bass can be found feeding on the large schools of bait fish that white bass are known for busting on the surface throughout the summer months.
Fall
Fall can be an awesome time to fish for yellow bass. A lot of these fish will move back into the shallows, but plenty of fish will stay deeper too. These fish will feed heavily as they try to bulk up in preparation for the winter.
Winter
Winter is a lot tougher on anglers up north. You can ice fish for yellow bass, however, these fish aren’t a very popular fish to target under the ice. Down south, you can catch yellow bass all winter and the bite will be similar to a typical fall pattern. Fish deeper and find the schools of baitfish and you should find some yellow bass mixed in too.
