What Happened?

[Cdn Angler]

OK so I spent all day on a natural lake, about 5 miles long by 1 mile wide. It's about 2 weeks since bass are fully off beds, in Ontario, Canada. 

 

Clear lake with some grass here and there and large boulders. I've always done great here in terms of size/quantity, for both large mouth and small mouth. Many 4-5 lb fish.  Depth goes down to 60 feet or so in areas, but there's a mixture. 

 

Anyways today I probably caught 50 bass, with maybe 4 over 1 lb. In 12 hours of fishing of that 50 maybe 4 were on moving baits. Everything else was basically dead sticker on their heads. I tried deep, shallow, weeds, rocks. Zero active fish from sun up to sundown, aside from some drinks (like 2 times fish were blowing up bait and I caught them: like 1 lb). 

 

Here's the weird thing: I assumed the fish were in a post spawn funk/tired and laying low. But every bass I caught was ENORMOUS for its size: huge guts. Both smallmouth and largemouth. 

 

So I'm thinking fish weren't active as they were already stuffed to the gills. Is that a possibility? Why would all 50 fish be freaking fat in late June? One fish puked many white minnows on me, but that's all I got. 

 

Just a weird day as this lake has been Uber productive for me in the past and get little fishing pressure. 

 

Any ideas??

[casts_by_fly]

Post spawn there is a major feed to replenish calories from the spawn. That’s why they were all fat and why you caught so many. You got a good day and they were on the feed. Enjoy it when you get it. 
 

the big fish probably moved to a different area, maybe deeper, and maybe focused on bigger bait. 

[J Francho]

75% of the population don't spawn. Perhaps your catches were those fish that basically carried on in an active feeding mode. 

[Reel]

I also live in Canada and a lot of the smallmouth are still on beds.

[TnRiver46]

20 minutes ago, J Francho said:

75% of the population don't spawn. Perhaps your catches were those fish that basically carried on in an active feeding mode. 

But wait……… spawn in the most used word in bass fishing info…….. 

 

say it ain’t so!!!!!

 

spawn spawn spawn spawn pre spawn post spawn spawn spawn spawn 

[Swamp Girl]

I can explain this: Bass are mysterious. 

 

 

Another possibility: There was a hugely successful spawn a couple years back, resulting in a lot of young bass who are hungry and eating every little thing that moves.