Meadowlark - Bass feeding on bgill while the bgill are foraging on pellets is a very common occurrence since the bgill are as you say very vulnerable at this time. Another reeason the bass "line up for bgill" is because the bgill is a larger food item and eating one of them is much more energy efficient for the larger bass to eat than compared to pellets. Instinct may also contribute to this behavior.

From your description I assume that the pond with pellet fed bass does not have bgill. If true, then the pellet fed bass are basically conditoned to feed primarily on pellets and feeding options are limited. These fish have what I mentioned in the above post as having tunnel vision and basically only recognize pellets as food due to the low diversity of food items in in the bass/pellet pond. A habitat or pond with high diversity of forage items tends to keep the predators from getting a bad case of tunnel feeding vision; these bass tend to be more "expeimental" and "open minded" in their foraging and thus more "willing" to try something different. I think this is evidenced in the other pond that you mentioned with bluegill as additional forage items with the pellets. Bass fishing using lures is better there. Does this make sense?

pdreamer - In my experience the proper live bait "match the hatch" almost always works better than artificials, but artificials are more challenging. Isn't the challange what it is mostly about? Maybe not for some.

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