Draft of "Understanding Bass Behavior Will help you be a much better fisherman" maybe going in my book

Start to better understand Bass Behavior, or how a bass reacts to their environment. This will start to put you in the right frame of mind and give you a starting place even before you get to the lake. So you need to understand the forces that drive a bass to do what they do. I like to put it in this term: Think like a bass. What are the driving forces that effect what the bass are doing? Like what is the basic focus of a bass? Things like: the spawn, food, territory, security, weather, temperature, light levels, water clarity, Cover and structure, time of year, weather and many more. It all starts with you being observant to what you know about what the bass are doing right now (when you are on the water). You need to start gathering information on what the bass are doing right now! How do you do this? Normally you can’t even see the bass. So the best way is to pay attention to every bite you get from a bass. Try to be observant as you are fishing. Note in your mind lots of factors like: time of year, weather conditions and the conditions the last few days wind direction, light direction, fish activity levels of all fish. Any factor that you can observe! Then as you are paying attention to your fishing and your surroundings, you get a bite! You may have missed the bass on your hook set but you can still learn lots from the information the bass has just handed you! Where was the bass????? How deep, what kind of cover, wind direction, light direction, lure speed and how were you working the lure when you got bit and much more. Think about everything you can about what just happened! Like did the bass hit next to the stump or was the hit a couple feet away from the cover. If one bass is on the shady side of a stump in three feet of water on the north shore of the lake near a Lilly pad field you can bet that there are other bass doing the same thing. So rather than just casting at anything that comes along try to change your focus just a little (it was only one bite you need more input). Start to look for other pieces of vertical wood in the area to start Backing up the start of a pattern you are trying to build.
And as you continue to build a picture in your mind of what the bass are doing right now. You will need to document your conclusions and in this way you can start building a game plan for the future. You can start to build a seasonal and conditional game plan. I have found through the years through information I have gathered, that about two weeks after spawn the female bass go on the feed big time and that lasts for about a week. And I target that time every year. After that they normal move to what I call the summer pattern.
One other way to help you figure out the bass is networking! That is what helped me very much! I was a guide at a major resort in the Pacific Northwest. I talked with about twenty bass fishermen a day. And I shared information on my finding for the day. I would share depth that I am finding the active bass and the structure type I am having success with or even the best time of day I have had my best luck. To get information you must give quality information but no one expects you to give exact locations. Now you can gather tons of information from other bass fishermen like you. We all have a piece of the bass puzzle but when we help each other we can start to get a better picture of what the bass were doing and why. Take care to confirm your assumptions and more importantly others information. Not everyone will give you honest information. Don’t ask location, ask depth, cover type and if you can get it lure type that worked for them. Lure type will give you lots of information that you can use. So you got all your bass today on a crank bait, but your fish were running about two or three pounds. If he got a couple big fish with a slower presentation like worm fishing you need to adjust a little and fish some probing baits too. Make friends and fish with lots of other people! Every one fishes a little different and you can learn a lot even from a beginner because they may be doing something unorthodox that is working and you can add part of that to how you fish if it ends up working for you. I learn something from everyone I fish with. One big thing I learned from a quality fisherman (some one that has spent LOTS of time on the water. He dragged his lure under the boat slowly. I would have never tried that thinking the bass would be spooked by the boat. But you can’t argue with fish in the boat! If you fish alone most of the time you are learning much slower than you could! Fishing with another fisherman will double the information that you gather and you can try different methods of fishing at the same time. And you can cover different depths at the same time. If I’m fishing in the back of the boat I will from time to time cast on the other side of the boat. If I start whacking the bass we will make an adjustment to our fishing and start fishing deeper. If you are fishing in the back of a boat DO NOT DO THE SAME THING as the guy in the front unless he is into the fish! If you do not document your findings some will be lost over time. You will find that the bass will follow some patterns EVERY YEAR. Like clockwork you will find bass move into an area to prepare to spawn. I have a list of locations and times to be there burned into my mind! Like Crappie on silver lake around mid-October to late October. I can come up to one spot and literally load the boat every year. I have several times and places locked away and I do not let that information out over the internet! EVER! I did hard work over years and now I am reaping the rewards of that hard work.
Everyone can become a better fisherman with a little work (fun work), even I can and I have been fishing for over 50 years.

I hope you enjoyed this and even more important I hope it helps you. I have not been on the site much to help but I will try to be around more so if I can help just let me know!
This is what I'm about, it's not about me it's about the sport and giving back to the sport I love.
Thanks!!!!!
Roger