Early Bedding Bass

I took the dogs for a walk this afternoon around a small local lake and found a male bass already on a bed! This is a very shallow lake that has a deep spot and aeration. It warms up very quickly. I almost got him to take a nip at my fingers I was dangling in the water. His aggravation never got the best of him though and I am sure he could see me above the water. I was very surprised to see a nest though. I saw other smaller panfish nests earlier in the walk, but I didn’t believe they were nests until I saw the bass.

Cade and I saw 3 beds and 2 males protecting their beds, cade caught one of them, it was pretty awsome.

Well, living in Minnesota, I can’t do that for another 3.5 weeks. It’s early enough that I may have tried for him, but if there was a chance he was guarding eggs or fry, I’d take a pass. Especially in this pond where there are a lot of marauding little fish. However, later in the year I probably will give it a show. Even though I know the numbers in this pond are very low. Perfect for practice casting though.

If you are seeing panfish on beds..there is a good chance there are more than just the one bass on beds. Bluegills generally spawn after the bass, but in some cases, they get going right away. Usually they wait for the bass to move off the beds to avoid being eaten by an angry bass Sounds like you got some early spawning gills, but i’m not overly surprised you saw a bass on a bed. Today was the first time I have actually seen a bass on a bed for the year but the water isn’t usually clear enough to do so in most places, but I have had fish up extremely shallow for the last couple weeks.. this wind has been so brutal the last couple weeks you can’t see jack! Good luck,
Cade