Peri-Spawn Blues and Grays

[Paul Roberts]

May 4th, 2010

Brilliant sun. This is the time of year here when brilliant blue skies can weigh in on the fishing in a negative way. It's peri-spawn, meaning the spawn has just begun in some ponds and about to happen in others. It's a time when thermal stability has been reached the water having absorbed enough heat to ward off night time chills. Spawning temperature (>58F) has penetrated the depths, giving the ripe bass the signal (one of several major factors) to spawn. This heating of the depths has another effect: it makes the entire water column (in these shallow ponds) roughly equal in temperature (isothermal in limnology terms), bringing to a close (but not entirely) the intense heat-up periods that consolidate prey in early spring. During that time I pray for cold fronts and love the post-frontal sunshine. But now, brilliant blue can make things a little tougher as, unless the urge to spawn takes over where the heat consolidated bluegills left off, the bass are reluctant to be exposed. Something else may be happening too:

Rich Zaleski has defined the start of the spawn as the time when bass vacate the shallows, to relocate to spawning areas where they either spawned previously or were hatched themselves (this is called spawning site fidelity in fisheries biology terms). Ralph Manns, a dedicated bass behavior observer and pond watcher, has noted this relocation and site fidelity too.

Today I found the high sun penetrating deeply and no fish were seen. A couple possible beds were noted, but apparently abandoned -I'm sure some were occupied in the shallower ponds where the spawn would have begun. Water temps had eroded a bit into the mid 50s though, as winter is still duking it out in the nearby mountains. The early spawners simply have to deal with it.

My first pond has high clarity so the vegetation beds are already developing. I tried to draw fish up and out of the clumps but they wouldn't show, despite a good stiff breeze putting a chop on the water and allowing me just booming casts. Not wishing to hunker down and cajole I moved on (Power baby!), and hit a pond with some shoreline flotsam that holds good fish regularly except during the peri-spawn pull-out. Nada nobody home. Next pond made the most sense considering conditions steep sided, shaded, with good depth close to shore it has areas that hold fish year round regardless of conditions. There it's all about getting bites. I managed three bites and dropped each one! Ugh!! > The last came unpinned at my feet, the jig had somehow got itself tied in a knot with the line perpendicular! The fish (a nice 18er) simply opened up and leggo!

I decided then to accept my lumps and go check up on a pond that had received a partial but heavy winterkill three years ago. Three years will add 4 to 6 inches to the bass, so I thought I'd check on it. While kills can devastate bass populations, esp the larger individuals, it clears the way for the survivors to grow in reduced competition. I've seen this many times over the years in ponds, and call it boom-n-bust fishing. I watch for the booms.

Because of the layout I bulged a SB, a super-shallow crank, a swimming worm, and the always ready (dedicated rod) jig. The bass were there, thick. I caught ten 12 to 15ers before deciding to leave the place be and bring my young son there on the weekend.

Most of the bass were on the thin side, indicating large numbers in high competition. My son is gonna love this pond.

May 6th, 2010

Today I hit a large pond I haven't visited this year. It has good numbers of bass and sits right next to another pond I fish an easy cast between the two. Both ponds are quite different though in terms of clarity and fertility or at least what's done with their respective nutrient rations. This difference was made clear by simply looking out over each pond: One was blanketed with swallows dipping and diving for what must have been swarms of midges hanging over the water. The other pond was devoid of swallows, however with its high clarity, it had attracted a cormorant, a pair osprey, a troupe of pelicans, and two Caspian terns one of which caught a bluegill in front of me.

I chose today over yesterday bc the front was due in today and I wanted clouds to encourage the bass to come up and meet me at least half way (Power baby!!). Plus, in a float tube, being so low to the water, efficiently probing the nooks and crannies for holed up bass is a daunting task. I got what I asked for, in spades. I'd left the house in a snow squall and arrived at the ponds under a black sky with sheets of 50degree rain and a stiff breeze. I was darn glad I was still dressed like a mountain man fleece and layers, hat and gloves. I stood looking at both ponds: my planned water was ominously dark and windswept, the other, more protected, was relatively calm, and blanketed with swallows that looked like bluefish on bunker. Hmmmm...do I change plans entirely?

I decide to settle the matter by testing my original game plan before putting my float tube in. I was anticipating the first wave of spawners and fish crowding up onto the shoreline shelfs my target was not the males up on the cobbled shelfs, but the females hanging just off. I also hoped for some topwater action and cast a Zara on top of the shelf to my right and was rewarded with a splashing strike. That was motivation enough for me; I stayed with my planned water and launched into the stormy sea, although that fish being all of 12inches long was not a solid indicator. This is the cut-off size of maturity for bass here: Was it an immature (apt to dabble in foolish pursuits) or one of a crowd of mature spawners on the shelf?

I kicked out and took a temperature profile over deeper water -56F top to bottom, 58F in immediate shallows). Since this pond is fairly large my guess was it hadn't yet received its first wave of spawners. But I gave the little bass its due and fished the shelf with a swimming worm, a topwater, and a jig. I found no more bass over 150yards of good shelf, canning plan A well enough for me. I did take one good female of 16+ from an isolated milfoil bed at shelf edge. Because of clarity the milfoil survival was good in this pond and beds were present but greatly reduced. I knew deeper, away from shore beds would be in better shape so I shifted to plan B away form shore.

Each milfoil bed I hit gave up bass from 9 to 18inches, I tallying 11 from 12 inches up more than half of these 15 inches up. The top fish were two 17s and an 18. Most fish took a Sebile lipless fished in pumps and falls amongst the milfoil. Sonar was important in that not all good areas were developed enough to show near the surface. I even found some great new structure that will pay off come summer. My maps of this pond continue to grow in detail.

Fishing milfoil beds in a float tube is not very efficient. I'm so low to the water that, esp on a dark day, I cannot see very far ahead so fishing is by brail. But the bass met me almost halfway. They would not come up for a bulged SB, most strikes coming on the lipless on the fall. When I could just pause long enough I'd get a bass too fast (trying not to bury) and no go. Sonar, brail, positioning, and enough fish meeting me halfway made it happen. It was fun, despite the wind and rain. At the end of the day I was dripping wet, festooned with milfoil, and looked like the way humans should look, by gum!! By comparison with the walkers on shore (not many today) wearing light jackets and sneakers, I looked like some kind of swamp monster LOL. I loved it.

I continued clamping fish between my knees. They become instantly subdued and easy to get a liplock on.

Yup, even with treble hooks -with care.

Many of the bass were thin, especially so the smaller ones. There appears to be a gap in the food chain, or a lot of competition in that size bracket. Compare this 15"er with one of roughly equal length from the adjacent (midge infested and swallow covered) pond:

Granted each are the extremes for their respective days, but the trend is real and portrays the trophic differences between two ponds lying side by side.

[Big-O]

Sounds like you're gonna start catching spawners any time Paul...great write up and keep'em coming 

Big O

www.ragetail.com

[brushhoggin]

awesome read man. i'm fishing tomorrow in that same front. i'll see if i cant duplicate your patterns. i like the boom and bust concept, only mississippi winters arent harsh enough to concede a die off. got close though this past winter

[Mrs. Matstone]

Great report and awesome pics. Thanks for sharing.  ;D

[Paul Roberts]

Thanks all.

bh, I hope the front was good to you too. My guess is, in MO, you are smack in the spawn.

Thanks, Mrs M.