The Bass College

first off i need to start out by sayin that i need a way to take the water temp out on the lake because i always rely on someone else but today i was in a rowboat and i fished lake henry for the first time this year.  the water seemed pretty warm but im not sure.  i saw about 7 bass goin up and down the shore but nothing great best was a keeper. but still i never saw 7 bass next to each other just movin around the same 30 yards for hours.  i did see beds but most had sunnys on them and were almost the size of a soccer ball.  so i tried to concentrate on the bigger beds that were just a little deaper.  the water was also stained brown from the rain i guess and it made it hard to see beds any deeper then 4 ft.  also i did get one fish that i did think was a bed fish but nothing else added up the rest of the day.  i went out at 6 am  and it rained on and off but watever.  so the rest of my fish were all tiny except for 2 12 inch and a decent 2 pounder  these fish were all in deeper water maybe 5-9.  thing is this i have been fishin this lake since i was 2 and never fished a spawn just cause i have been venturing out to new places.  anyway my point is i cant figure out if they spawned already or not.  i saw much bigger beds that were a little more spread out which looked the part but they were empty.  any comments please and if you have fished this lake help me out    i also did not see any fry balls 

An aquarium thermometer is only 5 or 6 dollars and works fine and is digital. Good job, thanks for the report.

If the sunny's are spawning I'm guessing most of the bass just finished. Normally the bluegill spawn right after the bass, and the bass you saw might have been up around the bluegill beds eating them. 

it just bothers me that i could not figure it out.  other thing is if they finished wouldnt i see fry like at other places ive been this past week. i still saw the bass in the shalows.  yesterday all i saw was small bassunder 12

i still figured they can all be done  i figure i would see something on a bed

Check out a few of these articles >> Spawn

THE BEHAVIOR AND HABITS OF

LARGEMOUTH BASS By William K. Johnke

Published by Dorbil Publishing Co.

Uniondale, NY October 1995, First Edition

Copyright (c) 1995 by W.K.Johnke

All rights reserved

SPAWNING ACTIVITIES

If we are to be successful in the pursuit of the largemouth bass it is important to understand the factors relating to the propagation of its kind and their resulting effect upon the later life, habits and instincts of the fish.

Ordinarily they spawn only once each year, in the spring when the water temperature reaches the preferred condition. Generally, the largemouth bass can be expected to commence spawning activities almost anytime after the water temperature has risen past the 60-degree mark.

The most active spawning, however, occurs when the water for the first time reaches the 65-degree mark. In the northern regions the spawning doesn't begin until late April or May. Yet the entire reproduction process there may not begin until June.

Bass are typically school fish for the greater part of the year but they disperse or scatter when the mating season approaches and they become very territorial about their bedding locations. A largemouth's spawning bed will take on a circular shape from twelve to twenty-five inches in diameter by about six inches deep.

Largemouth bass normally spawn at water depths averaging between three and five feet, but the extremes run from a few inches to ten or twelve feet. Spawning sites ideally are where the bottom is of hard-packed sand, pea-gravel, clay, or marl with a very thin layer of mud covering the hard material. Largemouth bass prefer to deposit eggs on rootlets of submerged grass or aquatic vegetation. An average bass nest will be in water three or four feet deep. Bass bedding locations will predominantly be found in coves and bays adjacent to the main body of water. These are the shallow areas where sunshine first increases the water temperature to a desirable spawning level. Such areas are located predominantly on the north shores of the lake where the seasonal low-angle un-shaded sun has a more prolonged warming effect.

There will probably be ten beds back in protected embayments for every one located along the banks of the main body of water. Selected sites will be where they are not buffeted by prevailing winds. Mud shallows won't do unless nothing else is available. Lily pads ordinarily will be over muck bottoms and bass will avoid these for spawning unless better areas do not exist. Normally, nests are seldom closer than twenty to twenty five apart in order to escape from potential predator "cousins".

The male bass serves the most important and active role in the spawning behavior of the species. The male "buck" selects a suitable bedding site and then fans out the nest. When the water temperature has remained at spawning level or above for several days, the females begin to appear. The female bass linger in "holding-areas" near deeper water, awaiting preparation of the spawning beds. The male searches out a "ripe" female and herds her to the bedding location. Once on the bed he may swim continual circles around her to discourage her from leaving and may even repeatedly bump her ventral region with his nose to trigger her into dropping her eggs.

If shallow-water fishing efforts during the potential spawning period seem to be resulting only in small bass, the season is probably still in its earliest stages and the majority of fish in the shallows are the smaller males concerned with nest-bed preparation. Fishing efforts may be shifted to the drop-offs, the edges of stream channels, and similar (adjacent to deeper water) holding-station locations of the larger females awaiting the males to lead them to the spawning area. During this time the bass normally have no feeding urge, not unlike oceanic salmon during their spawning runs up coastal rivers. However, these bass can be provoked into striking a lure which they perceive as a threat to their spawning process.

In most cases the female will drop only a portion of her eggs on a nest at any one time. The male then spreads his fertilizing milt over the bed and eggs. Days later, with another male, the female may drop more eggs on some other bed not far away. Several female bass frequently deposit more eggs in the same nest as well as in others. Multiple attempts at egg laying are probably nature's insurance policy, since a certain percentage of beds or eggs each year are sure to be accidentally destroyed due to radical fluctuation in water levels or abrupt changes in water temperatures.

Eggs may hatch anytime from two to five days after they have been fertilized by the buck and are cared for by the male parent - until his appetite gets the better of him. The male largemouth will remain near the bed to protect the young fry from predators for a short while, usually not more than a week. He eventually succumbs to his increasingly ravenous hunger and becomes a leading predator himself, gobbling up as many of his own fry as possible.

The hatched fry initially feed upon plankton and other minute aquatic organisms, later switching to the smallest of crustaceans and terrestrials, including various insect forms which commonly flit about most shallow-water areas during the spring and summer. Young bass that survive feed on tiny water animals called Cyclops or Daphnia. As they grow older they add larger and larger insects to the menu.

A bass' life is one of eating and being eaten. It is an aquatic rat race to survive. Insects and amphibians compete to eat the eggs as soon as they are dropped. After they hatch, larger fish are always seeking the fry. Even their own parents and other bass feed upon them. And it's only fair to add that anglers are the least serious threat in the entire life cycle. When bass are about five inches in length they may also feed heavily upon small minnow species.

The well-planned scheme on the part of Mother-Nature causes them for the very first time to begin fending for themselves. This instinct of self-preservation is usually accomplished by remaining in or around heavy shoreline cover, hiding from those who would make a meal of them in short order.

The young fry up to an inch or more in length linger in a family school. This schooling instinct remains with the fish throughout his life. With many predators now feeding upon the small fry, it is early on that a young bass becomes adept at hiding and soon accepts the philosophy of "eat or be eaten". This activity is exhibited throughout the life-span of the bass and is a major consideration for a bass angler in locating and catching the species.

Heavy rains and floods can take a toll. Conceivably they can wipe out an entire year's quot;hatch" overnight in one lake or in one region. Similarly, any draw-down of the lake water during spawning season can wipe out the entire hatch of the year. Turbidity (the presence of silt or earth in suspension) can also interfere with spawning because it filters rays of sunlight necessary to hatch eggs by slowly heating the water.