Seasonal patterns

[stratoscaster]

Hey guys & gals, haven't posted in a while but I have been reading the posts.  Good stuff!  What I would like to hear is your opinion on what the water temp is when the fish move from pre-spwn to spawn to post spawn to summer to fall to winter patterns.  Do you think othetr factors are involved such as length of daylight?  Whatcha think?

[Chris]

Pre spawn: Water temps in the mid 50's to 60 degrees signal pre spawn. Watch your temp gage because there will be areas that are warmer than the rest of the main lake. Its places like this that can be almost like a magnet to bass.

Spawn: 60 degree water temp is the bench mark that signals the big move to spawning areas. The water temp, full moon, and stable weather are key factors. Each lake is different and you will have waves of fish that will move in after the first batch is done spawning. Usually the biggest fish spawn first and can spawn anywhere from real shallow to as deep as 15 ft.

Post spawn: Around 70 degrees bass start to move out of spawn to staging areas.

[Triton_Mike]

Stratos,  As a general rule of thumb I have posted some of my findings.  Keep in mind that this will vary some from state to state and region to region.  Again it's just a guideline.

45 to 58, early pre-spawn, moving shallow and staging. 58 to 70, late pre-spawn through spawn, locked in the shallows. Some bigger fish, which usually go first will bed in the cooler water as early as possible. 70-80, late spawn to post spawn, some stay shallow in heavy cover, others begin heading out to the humps, ledges and deeper breaklines. 80+ post spawn summer patterns. Some stay shallow in cover, many move to deeper water. When the temps fall back off in the fall, back to 70 down to 60, fall spawn takes place and fish begin active shallow movements, schooling and chasing shad in pockets, etc. Below 60 and the slow down starts till it gets below 45, when winter pattern sets back in. Again, this is general based on my observations, and according to my area. I guess that would make 45 to 58 early spring / 58 to 70 late spring / 70 to 85 early summer / 85 to 90+ summer / and back down the scale with 70 to 60 being early fall / 60 down to 58 late fall / 58 down to 45 early winter / then winter below 45. That makes 8 seasons which is important to consider. Going on only 4 seasonal changes will miss on important movements.

[Matt Fly]

I am a firm believer that larger females will start as early 61 degrees with the last full moon in Feb.  in Tex.  That also depends on some good sunny days to help the water temp reach the 60's in Feb.  But 65 is the magical number to start the spawn, and with the first full moon, usually sends the first big wave.  The average depth of the lake and the way the lake is laid out in relation to the sun which may allow or have more protected waters, creeks, and coves to warm faster by being protected from  northern winds will determine when and how long the spawn will last.   As the spawn progresses down lake, post spawn takes place in the upper lake and progresses down lake behind the early spawners.  I was having great success on a buzz bait 3 weeks after the initial spawn up lake.

Don't remember the tree type, but the "ole" guys on Sam Rayburn said when those trees bloom, the spawn is on full tilt.  Dogwood blossoms?  

[Matt Fly]

Has anyone noticed the carp and gar usually hit the shallows and grass before the bass spawn?

[justtrying]

.........Don't remember the tree type, but the "ole" guys on Sam Rayburn said when those trees bloom, the spawn is on full tilt.       Dogwood blossoms?

yep

[stratoscaster]

Thanks for the replys.  What I'm looking for is more consistency finding fish.  This should help.  If it were easy I would  get bored.  Mike, I live in the Fl panhandle and your temps seem really close to what I have experienced here.  Do these temps and cycles hold up everywhere just at a different time frame?

[Triton_Mike]

Stratos...  I think the further north you get the greater the changes.  The northern fish seem to start things a littler earlier (on the colder side of what I stated).  I think the key to finding out what stages they are in is to fish a day or so and see what the fish are telling you.  Fish the moment so to speak.

T Mike

[Matt Fly]

A good early indication is when the males start cruising the shallows to make a bed, the females won't be far behind.

[stratoscaster]

Matt, Mike, you guys live in pretty much the same temperent zone as me, where have you guys been catching your fish?  The water temp here is around 70/72 degrees and the fish are right where I would expect them to be, in the back of creeks.  What will be thier next move (deep?) and at what temp?

[Triton_Mike]

Stratoscaster, My lake is different than most. My lake is currently in the winter drawdown to 18-20ft low. Right now we are about 6ft low and will be about 20ft low around Xmas/New Years. Funny things happen to the fish during a drawdown as compared to a lake without a drawdown. Our fish WANT to move back to the creeks but at the same time they don't want to get stuck back there in a hole due to the drawdown. So they migrate about halfway back to the last deep hole. Other fish don't even migrate they stay out in the main lake. Whenever you have a sudden drawdown or lake drop the main lake fish like to hold to vertical structures. WE don't have any boat houses with poles holding them up nor do we have any standing timber. But the fish like to hang around those bluff walls (semi vertical bluffs) for security ie if the water drops all they have to really do is drop down off the cliff of the bluff and they are safe.

As for the next course of action for your fish is pre winter. They will start to migrate out of the backs of the creeks and stick around that last 20-30ft hole (relative to your lake in depth tho) in that creek and just school up and gourge on shad all winter long. I have found that the bluff fish will also remain in tact all winter long.

Just remember these basic seasonal movements but keep in mind not ALL fish move at the same time so you can very much have several seasonal patterns overlapping on the same lake at the same time.

Here are the basics of seasonal movements.

Fall fish migrate to creeks, Winter fish migrate to deeper holes, Spring fish migrate back to creeks to spawn, Summer fish migrate back to main lake.

DUring those TRANSITIONAL times is usually the easy part because you will have more overlapping patterns going on at one time. For example if your fish are in the middle of the spawn, You will have fish everywhere and that is part of the reason why the fishing is so good during the spring. During the heat of the spawn. Fish are still moving from deep to the backs of the creeks to spawn. You still have fish spawning and you also have fish moving back out to the main lake ie post spawn. So you got alot of things going on at one time and that is why the fish are generally easier to catch during the spring due to multiple locations.

Keep in mind with seasonal patterns. Seasonal patterns doesn't mean you can't catch fish in the back of the creeks in the summer time or catch fish deep during the spawn. This is why I stated there are really 8 seasons to consider instead of the basic 4 season ie Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer etc.

8 seasons are Pre winter, winter, post winter, pre spawn, spawn, post spawn, pre summer, summer, post summer, pre fall, fall, post fall. And if your really good you can break those 8 seasons down even further. This is why a log of your fishing trips is so important. Fish patterns go in cycles and good detail notes will help you decipher those cycles. Kinda like data. The more data you have the better your decision making skills are for the situation at hand. If you have no data all you have is the basics.

T Mike

[stratoscaster]

Great reply mike.  Thank you.  Also, you have a cool website.