Spring Spawning

[jm37817]

I live in West Virginia and would like some info on the pre-spawn period. Springtime here is very unpredictable. I know water temp is a big factor but I mainly fish rivers, Ohio and Little Kanawa to be exact. If there is anybody in the surrounding area to lend me as much information they can I would really appreciate it. Thanks.

[Rangerphil]

I live north of you on the PA WV line and I have always lived by April being prespawn and May being spawning. I know there is alot of wiggle room there but it is a good start.

[WRB]

Bass are bass, however LMB differ from SMB and Spotted bass.

Spots and smallies spawn in water temperatures about 2 to 4 degrees cooler than LMB; 58 to 62 for the spots and smallies and 62 to 65 for LMB, at the depth the spawn at. Since river waiter is moving with current, the bass will avoid the current when spawning, so locate the current breaks areas with slack water. The pre spawner's simply stay out is the deeper river areas, then move into shallower slack water areas to spawn. Water temperature warming from the colder water period is your key to know when the seasonal change is occurring. Our calendar isn't based on water temps and we can't predict the weather affects to the water in advance and only guess based on regional historic data.

Tom

[aharris]

yeah...what ^^ said. It's all about water temp.