Bassmaster Elite Series bass fishing tournament pro John Crews is with the Bass University in Tulsa, OK to talk about what makes bass bite? There are many factors that are perhaps over-emphasized in eliciting a strike from a fish, and others are under-empasized. John begins by talking about stepping back and refocusing. Analyze your approach to bass fishing. Are you trying to cut down a tree with a dull saw? You can work harder, but sometimes you also want to work smarter.

A great starting point in analyzing what triggers bass to strike is to investigate the basses senses. How does it detect your lure in the water and what characteristics make your lure appealing? We all know that bass are able to see our bait, but sight is just one of several dimension of their senses. One of their senses is even tied to long-term memory and John shares a seret tip about how this can cause bass to "be aware" of certain types of lures and less likely to bite them, if they've encountered them before.

What Makes Bass Bite a Lure?

Knowing the bass's senses, John Crews breaks down the most imrportant parts of lure selection for triggering bass strikes. Most anglers probably spend the most time thinking about lure color. See where John Crews ranks color on his scale of importance, and what factor he considers the most important. John also talks about several different types of baits: soft plastics, hard plastics, jigs and more and breaks down what he believes are their strengths and potential weaknesses. John Crews also takes a couple of great anglers and discusses how they both trigger bass to bite, but how they do it differently, both with different baits and different approaches.

Ultimately, even with success, it's important to always ask, "Why am I getting bit?"

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