Spawning Question??

Went out fishing 5/21 and 5/22. On Saturday the fish were holding tight to shore along rocks and wood. I managed to catch alot of nice fish pitching tubes. The biggest measured 19 inches. All the bigger fish appeared to be females and appeared to come off beds. Sunday was a whole different story, other than a few smaller bucks and one sow who cooperated (20 1/2 inches) fishing was generally slow. Which brings me to my question, How long will the females remain on a spawning bed, from the time they arrive until they leave?

A female that moves onto a bed to spawn will not be there long. However, females will move into the shallow spawning areas and be found cruising around the beds for quite a while before spawing and stay in the general area for a while after spawing (up to days before and after actually spawning).

If the spawning area has suitable summer habitat, they may stay in those areas all summer.

Another thing to consider is that not all females will move up and spawn all at the same time. Here in the North, the spawning cycle does not last long so more fish move up at one time than they do in the South where spawing can last for over a month.

My guess is that those bigger fish are still in the area. It could be that the males, who are more aggressive on beds than the females, were simply getting to your bait before the females would. It’s hard to say unless you are able to see the fish on the beds.

Typically the female will be on the bed no more than 1-2 days and then they’re gone. Sometimes it may be less than that. Then the males stays on the bed until the fry hatch which could be up to 2 weeks. Also you can go back to that same bed year after year and that same fish will be there (until they die then another will take it’s place). Hope that helps.

I don’t think I can add anything other than I bumped all the fish at the Team Supreme tournament at Alma Sunday. From what I saw I would say the spawn on pool 4&5 is over. All the females had flat bellies.

John

Congrats to John for winning the Team Supreme North Star yesterday!

Thanks for the replies, the fish I caught both Saturday and Sunday also didn’t have the bulging bellies. (Wish I could say the same about me) Looks like fishing for the bigger fish is about to get tough this next week or two.

This is pretty interesting. Most of the literature you read says the spawn is tied to water temperature, and also influenced by photoperiod (daylight) and moon phase to some extent. This year it almost seems to point to the spawn being driven by photperiod and moon phase, with temperature a more minor factor. In general, temps have been lower the past three weeks than the beginning of April, generally remaining at or below 60, yet the spawn seems to have went right on through.

Perhaps in the north, with a slower growing season, the spawn is more influenced by light and moon, and less by temp?

Dan – I cannot disagree – yoru assessment appears to be right on.

The question that wonder is… water levels have been relatively stable, indicating that this years spawn ought to be a successful one with high survival rates… BUT, the temps have been unrelenting and seemingly against bass reproduction from the beginning… I wonder what this all means to reporductive rates in 2005?

I think that the bass here in the North have such a small window of opportunity to spawn, that they cannot afford to wait until water temps are ideal. Instead, they spawn when moon phase and especially light conditions are ideal and they spawn no matter what the water temp is.

If the bass waited until water temps were ideal, it would most likely be too late in the year and the fry would not have enough time to grow large enough to make it through that first winter. It just gets me wondering, which has lower recruitment (survival of fry for the first year): spawing early in the year when water temps are cold but fry that do hatch have more time to grow for that first winter, or waiting until water temps are warmer when more fry hatch but they do not have much time to grow. My guess is the former, spawn early so more fry that hatch survive.