While my buddy and I fished around the dock, we noticed that a large LMB kept following our hooked CNBG around, even the very biggest. Every so often the bass would take a whack at the poor panfish, especially when it neared the surface. After a few minutes of this, we saw a second good LMB following behind the first, perhaps curious or hoping for scraps.
Most of the CNBG were very large, nine inches or longer, and the LMB couldn't actually swallow them. But when I hooked a 5 incher, the bass saw its chance and swallowed it whole right in front of me. After a very hard fought battle way too near a sunken tree, the bass finally let go. I reeled in the frazzled CNBG on my flyrod, but before I could get it up on the dock, the exact same thing happened. Another all out battle, me trying to keep it out of the tree, putting extreme pressure on my light fly outfit. This time the bass won; at least, my line snapped & the CNBG ended up as bass lunch. 8.5 pound tippet wasn't strong enough!
Like most fishermen, I've had LMB follow in bluegill at times. Even swallowed a few. But never have I seen such persistent aggression in the face of obvious human presence.
Is this a matter of feeding from the dock, so even big fish lose their fear of humans? Anybody else noticed such behavior?
