Regardless of the extra boat wake, this should be an all-out slugfest of a tournament, where bass will be caught in all stages of the spawn, and targeting a mix of largemouths and smallmouths will likely be necessary for a shot at winning. Water Temperature. In addition, keep in mind that one group of bass could be entirely done with the spawn while another is just beginning to stage. Once temperatures exceed 50 degrees, bass begin swimming towards shallower areas in search of the ideal location to spawn. THE SPAWN PHASE. By: NAFC Staff Online Rating: (8.5/10) Spawning activity of largemouth bass can be broken into three distinct stages. The next important time period for the Largemouth Bass is the actual spawn. Lake Havasu. When you are trying to target the females that are on the bed, I like to use big worms or creature baits li… Those stages, in order, are: Building a nest. Moon Phase. There are generally 4 stages of the spawn season, and it starts when the water starts to warm up to about 60 degrees, which is usually early to mid-spring in most areas. Hungry bass are on the move at this time of the year. That is the stage that the hiding huddles of... Finding a mate. … Prespawn, spawn, and postspawn. • Pre-Spawn. The tournament tides seem to be turning toward more thoughtful catch-and-release practices that could mitigate their impact on bass in all stages of the spawn. When the temperatures begin to rise, a bass’s metabolism speeds up and it needs more food to survive. Different areas of the lake warm up at different times, and there are usually several waves of spawning fish over many weeks in the spring. Chances are good they will be feeding, boosting that metabolism to nurture eggs. In colder states this could differ a bit, but when the water is right, the bass will move in. The spawn seems to last longer in the southern United States then it does in the northern states. The Bottom Line For VanDam, being a successful tournament angler at times requires targeting spawning fish. For a few weeks each spring, we’re able to interact with spawning bass in a unique way. There’s a general prespawn stage and then, to me, there are stages of the prespawn. The peak of this spawning period often starts in late May or early June, and can last a couple of weeks. When Do Bass Spawn? When water temps reach 60 degrees for a couple of days, most smallmouths in a given body of water start spawning in earnest. Keep in mind that pre-spawn bass may not stage far from where they will spawn, but use your best judgement to find where in the deep-to-shallow cycle they fin during a given outing. And just before spawning… Bass spawn begins when waters start warming up. When bass are in various stages of the spawn, Dean Lewis suggests targeting pre-spawn fish simply because they weigh the most. The temps have been climbing and most of us in the South will have bass in all stages of the spawn. Bass, crappie and panfish move up to spawning beds they previously constructed by creating depressions in the sand during the latter part of the pre-spawn stage. Bass spawning season is very predictable, because bass do the same thing every year in three basic stages. "Many people think there's just one stage of fish, but there are many stages of fish," Stephen says. Notice how varying groups of fish will be at various stages in each of the sections of a lake. Remember, deeper is relative depending on the nature of the water body. At this time, male fish will find a suitable nesting area and prepare it for mating. Spawn Stage. Depending on the stage of the prespawn, they may position closer to where they winter or they may stage 50 yards from where they’re going to spawn. This means two things: big bass and shallow water. As Stephen notes, most anglers can easily define the general shoreward movement of prespawn bass, but understanding how various groups of bass in various stages react to bad weather is the tricky part. Bass Spawning Habits Spawning activity of largemouth bass can be broken into three distinct stages. Then the male bass circles the humble home slowly and waits for a mate. Unlike bass, crappie and panfish, the pike and walleye are known as broadcast spawners and don’t have a specific spawning bed to drop their eggs in. – The nest-building commences when the waters reach 60F. – Yes, finding a mate is after the fish have built their nests. And the northern portions are just thawing getting ready to hit the prespawn. This increased growth and subsequent size means the bass will also mature earlier, sometimes spawning in the first year allowing for faster population establishment of the pond. The smallmouth bass spawn generally starts at the end of March and goes until June depending on where you live. If a section is big enough, bass will also be at different stages within that section. The bass spawn is one of the pillars of bass fishing and it comes in 3 phases. Each stage has its own available forage. The angler’s task is to focus on places where the fish are temporarily holding or passing through. In the pre-spawn phase, bass don’t swim from deeper water to the shallows in a straight line or all at once; rather, they … Actual spawning takes place as the water temperatures approach 59F or 15C, and most egg deposition takes place when the … Pre-Spawn, which begins when water temperature reaches into the upper 40's, finds bass moving near to spawning grounds but still mostly in deeper water. The first stage is called the pre-spawn stage, when bass … The annual bedding activity of largemouth bass referred to collectively as ‘ the spawn ’ is perhaps the most exciting time of the year to bass fish. They need to be confident they have... Hatching the fertilized eggs. When winter ends and the water warms back up, bass feel the urge to spawn. Spring into Action There are three stages to a bass’s life cycle in the spring: pre-spawn, spawning, and post-spawn. When a female has chosen to join the male in the nest, they waste little time getting to know one another. The males fan out a nest, females lay their eggs, and then males guard the eggs and fry. During the late pre-spawn, the fish will set up from the mouth of these coves to about two thirds of the way back most of the time. So for me, at this time of the year, I want to put myself in a position to catch spawning fish as well as post-spawn fish. The spring sun is powerful and quickly warms shallow water. Tournament details. You can locate this drop by moving out of the shallows and watching your fish finder. Second they will gather in pairs and head for the likely holding spots, near the lake’s shallow spawning grounds. Much like largemouth when smallmouth bass spawn depends on water temperature, daylight, lunar phases and other varying conditions. Bass are constantly moving in … Where Do Bass Spawn. Female largemouth bass will stage for the spawn usually at the first good drop from the shallows. Not all the bass are using the same playbook. If there is a creek channel look there for staging pre-spawn bass. The early stages of pre spawn will have our big female bass staging in areas with available holding cover and a migration route close by. Some bass are heading to the bank to spawn while others are headed out offshore and are very much post spawners. Sight-fishing and spawning-bass fishing is my favorite thing to do and with the exception of some Florida reservoirs, this is the most spawning bass I’ve seen in my entire life. By far the biggest factor in the spawning process for bass is water temperature. First, these bass will continue feeding and putting on the needed fat reserves to make it through the actual spawning process. The larger size also reduces predation, as smaller largemouth bass are more vulnerable to predation than larger individuals. Although bass will stage and spawn in nearly every type of bank angle in the lake, the flatter ones that feature banks with a slope of less than 45 degrees are the prime locations. The spawn and post spawn stages of bass fishing are already happening in the southern tier of the country while the prespawn bite is just ramping up in the middle of the country. This means we can break down spring into three separate periods; pre-spawn, spawn, and post-spawn. By the time the water temperature in the main lake reaches 64 to 68 degrees, afternoon temperature in the back of a spawning cove could easily reach … It actually comes in five stages. Post-spawn bass can be tough to catch — but not all the bass in the lake spawn at the same time. This could be a depth change of just a couple feet. As the water temp... Geographical Location. Smallmouth Bass spawn starts with the nest building process and is triggered with water temperatures near 55F or 12.8C. Toyota Series Western Division. This stage can last anywhere from 1 or 2 days to 1 to 2 weeks depending on the water and the area you are in. Where you find the fish and how they behave depends on what stage of the spawn they are in. The water temperature will now be 58 degrees or higher and this is when the bigger females will move into the freshly built beds. So there is still a lot of prespawn fishing to be had over the next month or two. 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