Prespawn

[Mj89]

What conditions other than longer days and warming trends do you specifically look for when determining if the bass are in prespawn? What techniques are your favorite? Interested to hear what other people look for. Always learn something new and interesting on here.

[Sam]

Water temperature.

 

Start at 60* and work up to 70*.

 

If you have Dogwood trees in your area, look for them to start producing their blooms.

 

When the Dogwoods bloom the bass are on their beds.

[Deleted account]

High 40s to low 50s water temp and a rising trend. If you wait for 60, you'll miss a lot of good fishing.

[Catt]

32 minutes ago, reason said:

High 40s to low 50s water temp and a rising trend. If you wait for 60, you'll miss a lot of good fishing.

 

Pre-spawn starts long before temperatures hit 60° ?

[slonezp]

Ice out to spawn is prespawn, and if you want to get technical, the females start developing eggs in late fall.

[riverbasser]

2 hours ago, Sam said:

 

When the Dogwoods bloom the bass are on their beds.

Heard this all the time growing up.

[Bluebasser86]

When the ice melts, the bass start preparing for the spawn. This is one of the best times of the year to catch a really big fish. 

[NHBull]

The nice part of this time it that I don’t have to give a lot of thought to bait selection.

Jerks , and Jigs tend to get it done......that said I get skunked more during this time, than any other

 

 

 

[Catt]

13 hours ago, Sam said:

Water temperature.

 

Start at 60* and work up to 70*.

 

If you have Dogwood trees in your area, look for them to start producing their blooms.

 

When the Dogwoods bloom the bass are on their beds.

 

Make sure the cows are up & feeding 

Make sure ya check your Cosmic Clock 

Make sure each bass has a thermometer 

[lo n slo]

21 hours ago, Catt said:

 

Make sure the cows are up & feeding 

Make sure ya check your Cosmic Clock 

Make sure each bass has a thermometer 

it’s the squirrels man, if they’re eating....well, you know 

[papajoe222]

It all depends on the location of the lake you’re targeting. Generally, the first, sustained warming trend(water)will start the bass moving. It could be as little as a three degree rise in temp. Three days or more at that temp. and another sustained warm up wil get them moving again. The down side is cold spells which have the opposite effect. The length of daylight and the sun’s angle will normally go hand in hand with rising water temps. 

[NorthwestBasser]

On 2/24/2018 at 5:16 AM, NHBull said:

The nice part of this time it that I don’t have to give a lot of thought to bait selection.

Jerks , and Jigs tend to get it done......that said I get skunked more during this time, than any other

 

 

 

Man, you just hit home with this. 

[Catt]

The temperature ranges given above for pre-spawn/spawn are surface temperatures; what is the temperature at 15' or 20'?

 

Pre-spawn does not start in shallow water!

 

As for the spawn one must consider the length of time required for the development of eggs.

 

Pre-spawn/spawn is far more than temperature! 

[TnRiver46]

In late February I suppose I don’t look for things to determine if they are in the prespawn phase, I just assume they are

[scaleface]

When the elm tree leaves are the size of a squirrels ear . 

[68camaro]

Went out yesterday, water temps 54/55*, very gloomy windy, overcast sprinkly day.  I thought fish would be at moderate depths waiting to move shallow once water warmed up a little, plus it was very windy and cool.

 

To my surprise only caught one in over 15' water on lipless shad rap but did see some suspending and I didn't bring jerkbaits with me.

 

however, most productive areas were shallow, like 2.5 - 5' shallow. I didn't think they would pull so shallow this early, there weren't on beds but in areas just outside. I tallked to other guy would had same experience. 

[Catt]

Do you know which trees, bushes, grasses are pollinating?

Do you know which trees, bushes, grasses at budding?

What are the Honey Bee's doing?

What's the cold fronts doing?

Did ya know this week was the first cold front from the west instead of north?

Do you know why that matters?

Ya can learn these indications before work, after work, during your lunch break.

Everything around you is talking...are you listening?

[GrumpyOlPhartte]

Personal opinion here - not terribly scientific:

 

1. If you can throw a long cast from shore and it splashes when it lands instead of bouncing and sliding.

 

2. If you’re going stir-crazy and the wife tells you to get out of the house because you’re driving her nuts.

 

Means it’s time to go fishing the pre-spawn!

[thinkingredneck]

You can't catch fish unless you are fishing.  I àlways heard  that dogwood blooms indicate spawning bluegill.  First fulll moon in March, etc and other country sayings.  As Richard Gene says, "Go fishing when you can.  It's good fer ya!"

[Deleted account]

On February 26, 2018 at 8:06 AM, 68camaro said:

Went out yesterday, water temps 54/55*, very gloomy windy, overcast sprinkly day.  I thought fish would be at moderate depths waiting to move shallow once water warmed up a little, plus it was very windy and cool.

 

To my surprise only caught one in over 15' water on lipless shad rap but did see some suspending and I didn't bring jerkbaits with me.

 

however, most productive areas were shallow, like 2.5 - 5' shallow. I didn't think they would pull so shallow this early, there weren't on beds but in areas just outside. I tallked to other guy would had same experience. 

It's like that all over this area too. When the water warms early, they will move shallow, and when it inevitably cools some they will back track a bit, but not to the winter staging areas, the size and contour of the specific body of water has a lot to do with it as well. 

It's the best of both worlds, cause you can catch numbers and size with just a few baits (once you find them) a JB, square bill, spinnerbait and jig or t-rig is all you need. (Throw in a lipless and chatter if you must).

[Alan Reed]

Most of the responses I see here are referencing when the spawn happens not prespawn.

The  prespawn starts as soon as the water starts warming. The end point also isn’t a certain day. Because the bass don’t all move up at once you will have a transitional time of some bass still at prespawn, spawn, and then post spawn all at the same time.

There are many factors that need to be considere to know when the spawn starts which would define when prespawn ends.

[Mj89]

Great information guys. Thanks for your inputs. Went out today and did really well on a 3/8 oz strike king red eye shad. Craw color. Water temp around 50.

[WRB]

What was the water temp at the depth you caught bass? Water temps matter, the bass are the same as water they are acclimated in, that is the depth they suspend.

Todays bass angler uses their surface temp gage mounted to the trolling motor or on the transum, bass don't live on the surface.

Smallmouth spawn about 4 degrees cooler water then LMB, pre spawn for LMB starts as the colder water warms to about 55 degrees, the LMB spawn starts about 62 degrees at the depth the bass are in. Pre spawn females staging in groups to feed before moving shallower to spawn. When you see smaller males looking for bed sites and larger females cruising the bed sites, the 1st wave spawn in about to start.

Tom

 

[Airman4754]

We had supposedly the coldest winter here in decades and the first time I hit a pond on a decent weather day there were already fry swimming around. It kind of blew my mind as the water wasn't anywhere near 60 degrees. The air temp hadn't been above 55 in two months. 

 

We are still hitting some females on the river but it's slow going.