Great topic, thanks Jighead.

There are a number of reasons , I think , that fish eat/bite or don't. As Dave noted many { I think probably all} are based on genetics. They are hard wired with many traits that we don't know or understand and can only guess at how the traits interact. Some are safety , hunger , dominance , competitiveness , reproduction , and others. Their method of perception is by sences we do not fully understand in fish. Sight , hearing , lateral line , taste etc. For example we don't know all the range of sight that fish have . Can they see a range of light that we can't { UV or IR }?

All of these traits and sences merge into one fish and each can take pirority under different circumstances. For example there may be 5 LMB in a small area all about 10 in. except one that is 22 in.. Even though the small ones are hungry and would eat your lure they may not try because of safety concerns. If one attacks and the big fish does not respond then all may go after the lure out of competition. The big fish might out of anger {dominance] hit your lure because the lure along with the other small bass in its area were just to much.

If you catch nothing in the area you may think it is lack of aggressive fish or they are full, if you catch one of the small LMB it is because the big ones are not catchable , and if you catch the big one it is because you are a great pond mgr. and fisherman. LOL. In reality none of those assumptions would be correct.

I read a study {will post if I can find} that concluded that in a pond with BG/RE and LMB that a large % of LMB { ? 50 %} will never bite a lure , that another 25 % might bite a lure under the right circumstances , and that 25% would bite a lure and would do so repeatedly. It did not say why this was so probably because there were to many reasons and not enough answers.

I think all of the posts above have truth in them but no one answer explains the total relationship. One thing is clear , there is much we do not know and need to learn . ewest