THE BASS COLLEGE

Now this may seem like a dumb question, but I found a pond i havnt tried in the area and decided to go scope it out and see what kind of visible structure and what type of landscape the pond has. As i was walking around look ing at the pond, i come acrosse this drainage pipe that sits between a hangover in the pond. Beneath me i see a hord of brim, this usually tells me that people come and through food to the ducks and the fish get some action too. So as i countinue to gawk and this unusually large hord of brim i see 2 nice size bass about 2 1/2 to 3 pound bass just chillin around within the brim, and an assortment of half pound to a pound bass aswell. Being this isnt the first time ive seen this it didnt strike me as unusual until i actually had a thought about going and getting my swimbait rod with a bluegill/brim mimicing swimbait and as i was walking back to my truck it struck me as strange that after all the nice size bass i have caught in ponds similar to this one with a bluegill mimicing swimbait, that have nearly choked on the swimbait they wanted it so bad, i have never seen a bass eat a real brim. I never thought about this before concidering i took it as the norm for so many years. Now my question is why is it that brim hang around bass if they are food for the bass. And why wernt the bass eating these hords of brim. Is there a reason they want my bait and not a real brim or am i sadly mistaken by my lack of thought that has been put into the scenario. Any Insight?

EASY. They only eat the ones that are very small or appear to be crippled or or irritating them on beds. That is what they eat. Small ones, CRIPPLED ones, or ones they dont want near the beds. It is the injured appearance that triggers them to eat them I have underwater video of it.

^^^ exactly.  otherwise bass, being as aggressive as they are, would eat all the baitfish in these smaller ponds not allowing reproduction.  though aggressive, bass are intelligent in terms of when to expend the energy to chase a meal.  You will ALWAYS see bluegills and minnows sitting around bass because, if they're healthy, they're quick and agile enough to get away if need be and the bass will only chase for so long