§ FG Field Guide 79 topics · evergreen

The data behind
every good day.

Eight environmental variables that explain why fish bit — or didn't. Each guide covers what the number means, how to read it, and what to do with it on the water.

All guides
01
Water Temperature
Optimal ranges, thermocline depth, seasonal patterns, and how bass metabolism shifts with every degree.
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02
Barometric Pressure
Why the 24-hour trend matters more than the absolute reading, and how fronts create the best — and worst — bites of the year.
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03
Water Clarity
The FNU turbidity scale explained. How to match lure color and presentation to clear, stained, and muddy water.
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04
Solunar Theory
Major and minor feeding windows derived from moon position. The science, the debate, and how to use them in practice.
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05
Tide Phase
Rising, falling, high slack, low slack — what each phase does to bait position and how to fish the transitions.
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06
Water Level Trend
Rising water pulls bass shallow into new cover. Falling water concentrates them on main-lake structure. The 3-day trend tells you which world you're fishing.
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07
Wind & Cloud Cover
Wind concentrates bait on windward banks. Overcast skies pull bass shallow. Together they create the best topwater window of the day.
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08
Moon Phase
Full moon, new moon, spawn timing, night feeding patterns. How the 29.5-day lunar cycle shows up in your catch log.
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09
Dissolved Oxygen & The Bite
Understand how dissolved oxygen, not just temperature, dictates bass depth and feeding zones, concentrating them vertically.
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10
Lake Stratification & Turnover
Learn how summer heat stratifies lakes into thermal layers, affecting bass behavior, and how fall turnover re-oxygenates the water column.
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11
Daylight Length & The Bass Calendar
Day length, not just temperature, drives bass's annual calendar. Equinoxes and solstices trigger spawning, feeding, and winter behaviors.
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12
Cold Fronts & Bite Recovery
Post-cold front bass behavior: Understand the science behind pressure changes, feeding shutdowns, and how to fish the bite recovery.
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13
Spawn Temperature Thresholds
Understand how water temperature, from 55°F to 72°F, triggers bass spawn phases and how latitude and depth shift timing.
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14
Forage Cycles & The Shad Year
Explore the annual cycle of threadfin and gizzard shad and its profound influence on bass behavior and location through the seasons.
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15
Aquatic Vegetation Types
Aquatic vegetation types—hydrilla, milfoil, lily pads, eelgrass, coontail, pondweed—dictate bass location, forage, and water quality indicators.
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16
Bottom Composition & Cover
Understand how bottom composition like rock, gravel, sand, clay, and mud impacts bass behavior and location.
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17
Current and Water Flow
Understand how water current dictates bass positioning and behavior. Learn to read flow patterns in rivers and reservoirs, and leverage real-time data for better fishing.
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18
Tributary Inflow & The Mud Line
Rainfall creates tributary inflow. This inflow forms a temperature and turbidity "mud line" where it meets the main lake. This edge concentrates baitfish and offers bass prime ambush points.
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19
Light Penetration & Secchi Depth
Secchi depth defines how deep light penetrates water. This sets the visible hunting range for bass, influencing their behavior and your lure choices.
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20
Wind Direction & The Windward Bank
Wind direction is crucial for bass. Learn why windward banks concentrate plankton and baitfish, creating prime, challenging feeding grounds for bass.
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21
Cloud Cover & Sky Type
Understand how cloud cover and sky type impact bass feeding. Optimize shallow water fishing based on light penetration.
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22
The Shad Spawn Window
Understand the brief, explosive spring shad spawn bite. Learn why water temperature and first light trigger this feeding frenzy and how to find it.
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23
Tannin-Stained Water
Understand how tannins affect water color and light penetration, influencing bass behavior differently than turbidity. Use Bassai data to refine your approach.
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24
Algae Blooms & Water Quality
Understand how algae blooms impact bass fishing by affecting water quality, dissolved oxygen, and pH, and learn to identify pre- and post-bloom feeding windows.
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25
Drought & Falling Water
Understand how extended drought concentrates bass on main-lake structure, exposes new shorelines, and alters spring spawning.
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26
Flood Conditions & High-Water Bass
Learn how rising water levels push bass into new territory and how to fish crawfish patterns effectively during flood conditions.
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27
River vs Reservoir vs Natural Lake
Understand how habitat influences largemouth and smallmouth bass behavior in rivers, reservoirs, and natural lakes. Log your data.
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28
The Sunrise Window
The sunrise window is a crucial summer feeding period. Bass leverage low light, cool water, and exposed baitfish for a highly productive, short-duration bite.
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29
Air Temperature vs Water Temperature
Understand why water temperature, not air temp, dictates bass behavior. Learn about thermal lag and how Bassai data reveals true patterns.
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30
Lake Elevation & Pool Stage
Understand how lake elevation and pool stage impact bass location and behavior, informed by USGS data.
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31
Bedding Bass & Spawn Beds
Understand bass spawning cycles, temperature triggers, identifying beds, and ethical angling practices for the bedding phase.
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32
Ice-Out & The First Bite
Understand post ice-out bass behavior and master cold-water finesse tactics for 38-45°F conditions.
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33
Post-Spawn Recovery
Understand the post-spawn slump in bass fishing, including duration, recovery feeding windows, and the transition to summer staging areas.
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34
Water pH & Bass Behavior
Understand how water pH affects bass behavior and feeding. Learn the ideal range and how to infer pH shifts from your Bassai log.
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35
Moon Rise & Moon Set Windows
Moonrise and moonset windows offer subtle cues for bass activity. Use these solunar periods as a tiebreaker when primary conditions align, informed by your logged data.
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36
Lake Age & Reservoir Stage
Understand how reservoir age, from new impoundments to aging lakes, affects bass populations, behavior, and fishing patterns.
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37
Frontal Passages & Sky Reading
Decipher bass behavior during weather fronts. Understand how barometric pressure and sky cues reveal pre-frontal feeding windows, during-front pauses, and post-frontal shutdowns.
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38
Nighttime Bass Behavior
Understand how bass senses and behavior change after dark. Learn about lunar, seasonal, and structural influences on nighttime feeding.
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39
Rainfall & The Watershed Lag
Understand how rainfall impacts bass fishing days after a storm by learning about watershed lag and tracking upstream USGS gauges.
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40
Shoreline Orientation & Sun Angle
Understand how sun angle and shoreline direction affect lake temps and bass behavior throughout the seasons for better fishing.
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41
Fetch & Wave Action
Understand how wind fetch, the distance wind travels over water, influences wave action, water mixing, and baitfish location for bass.
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42
Thermal Refuges in Summer
Summer's high water temperatures force bass to seek thermal refuges. Understand the types of cooler-water habitats they frequent, shaping their behavior and patterns for informed angling.
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43
Lake-Effect Weather
Large lakes create localized weather patterns — wind shifts, fog, and storms. Learn how these 'lake effects' diverge from regional forecasts.
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44
Lake Trophic State: Clear, Green, or Murky
Understand lake productivity spectrums—oligotrophic, mesotrophic, eutrophic—to refine bass fishing strategies and adapt your approach.
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45
Finding the Thermocline on Sonar
How to identify the thermocline on sonar, why bass and baitfish relate to it in summer, and its seasonal depth changes.
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46
Relative Weight: Is This Lake Healthy?
Relative Weight (Wr) measures a bass's condition, revealing a lake's health. Learn how to interpret Wr and adapt your strategy to skinny or fat fish.
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47
Year-Class Strength & The Boom Lake
Understand how environmental factors shape dominant year classes of bass, influencing fishing patterns and population structure for years.
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48
Reading a USGS Streamgage
Understand river bass behavior by decoding USGS streamgage data. Learn how gauge height, discharge, hydrographs, and trends inform angling strategy.
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49
The Bluegill Spawn & Bed Raids
Understand bluegill spawn triggers, bed identification, and bass behaviors. Refine your fishing approach using Bassai data during this critical period.
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50
Crawfish Molt & Seasonal Color
Crawfish molt cycles dictate their color and vulnerability. Learn why bass key in on soft-shell craws and how to match your baits to local, seasonal patterns.
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51
Shad Lakes vs Bluegill Lakes
A lake's primary forage, shad or bluegill, dictates where bass live and how they hunt. Learn to identify and adapt.
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52
Mayfly Hatches & The Food Chain
Mayfly hatches indirectly trigger bass activity. Learn how these insect emergences create a food chain cascade that concentrates primary forage, influencing bass behavior and angler strategy.
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53
The Fall Shad Migration
Understand how falling temperatures and shorter days trigger the fall shad migration, concentrating baitfish and attracting bass.
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54
Winter Shad Die-Off
A winter shad die-off triggers an easy meal for bass. Read water temperatures, spot distress, and capitalize on this predictable cold-water pattern.
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55
Submerged Creek Channels
Submerged creek channels are bass highways. Learn to read maps, identify channel swings and breaklines, and use your Bassai log to uncover fishing patterns.
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56
Humps, Points & Offshore Structure
Understand how bass relate to humps, points, and offshore structure. Learn to identify productive areas, interpret depth data, and apply seasonal insights from your Bassai log.
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57
Ledges & The Breakline
Ledges and breaklines are critical offshore bass habitats. Learn how current, depth changes, and structure combine to concentrate fish on these specific contours.
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58
Standing Timber & Flooded Forest
Explore how bass utilize flooded timber as structure. Understand their suspension depths, use of shade, and how to read patterns from your logged data.
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59
Riprap & Rock Heat Banks
Riprap absorbs sun, creating warm water pockets vital for early season bass and crawfish. Learn how rock size and transition zones impact fishing success.
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60
Docks & The Shade Line
Docks offer essential shade and cover for bass. Learn how their type, location, and the sun's angle dictate bass behavior and fishing success.
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61
Reading a Contour Map
Decipher contour maps to locate underwater structure. Learn to read drops, humps, points, and channels for high-percentage bass fishing spots.
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62
The Spawn Wave: Back to Front
The bass spawn unfolds in waves. Understand why different lake areas warm at different rates, creating a prolonged spawning season from protected backs to main-lake banks.
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63
Spawn Migration Routes
Explore bass spawn migration routes: how bass move from wintering areas to spawning grounds, influenced by temperature, current, and lake topography. Log data helps reveal patterns.
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64
Wind Setup, Seiche & Upwelling
Wind setup, seiche, and upwelling are dynamic water movements driven by wind. Learn how these forces alter water levels, temperature, and current, impacting bass behavior.
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65
Lake Altitude & The Growing Season
Altitude dramatically shifts lake seasonality. Learn how elevation delays spawn, caps summer temps, and compresses the growing season, requiring a calendar recalibration.
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66
Winter Inversions: Warm on the Bottom
Uncover why bass seek the deepest, warmest 39°F water during winter inversions. Understand how they concentrate and how to find them.
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67
The Spring Thermal Bar
The spring thermal bar is a critical zone for bass. Understand its formation and how water temperature dynamics create prime feeding opportunities post-ice-out.
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68
Snowmelt & The Spring Surge
Snowmelt profoundly impacts spring bass activity. Learn how to interpret cold water surges, gauge data, and the delayed spawn clock.
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69
Winter Drawdown & The Rule Curve
Winter drawdown: A controlled lake level reduction. Learn how rule curves predict water changes, concentrate bass, and reveal critical structure for effective scouting.
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70
Reading Dam Generation Schedules
Understand how dam generation schedules create artificial current, triggering bass feeding. Find data sources and position for optimal strikes.
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71
Three Kinds of Dirty Water
Explore the three forms of water turbidity—stained, muddy, and green—and their distinct influences on bass behavior, vision, and effective angling tactics.
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72
Plankton: The Invisible Base
Uncover how plankton forms the base of the food chain, driving baitfish and bass patterns. Learn to read water cues like wind and current concentrations.
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73
Invasive Mussels & Clearing Water
Invasive mussels clear water, pushing bass deeper and altering their feeding habits. Understand the ecosystem shift and adapt your fishing tactics for these new, clearer conditions.
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74
Salinity & Brackish-Water Bass
Explore how largemouth bass navigate brackish water. Understand the salt wedge, tidal effects, and river flow to locate fish along dynamic salinity gradients.
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75
Reading Birds: They Find the Bait
Birds are nature's sonar. Learn how diving gulls, wading herons, and rafted loons signal baitfish location, revealing where bass are actively feeding.
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76
Slicks & Schooling Signs
Slicks signal active bass feeding. Learn to identify fresh slicks, read wind displacement, and interpret schooling signs like flickering bait and surface boils for more successful fishing.
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77
Schooling Bass & The Surface Blitz
Uncover the science behind schooling bass and surface blitzes. Learn why bass leave structure, how to read the water, and use your Bassai data to predict future feeding events.
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78
Summer Catch-and-Release Survival
Learn why summer's warm waters increase bass mortality after release. Understand oxygen depletion, lactic acid, and handling techniques for optimal catch-and-release survival.
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79
Why the Big Ones Are Female
Uncover the biological reasons why the largest bass in any fishery are almost exclusively female. Explore growth, reproduction, and longevity.
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Also on Bassai
All data fields explained → About Bassai → Support →
About these guides

The Field Guide is written and maintained by the Bassai Field Guide Team — the small independent team in Cordova, Tennessee that builds Bassai. Each guide explains one environmental variable the app records: what the number means, how to read it, and how to use it on the water. The guides describe conditions and patterns — they don’t predict catches. Reading the water is still the angler’s call.