Bass spawning......now????

[BD]

Ok bass pros....I am thoroughly confused. I have heard perch/sunnies/bluegills (whatever you want to call them) spawn twice a year. I have also heard bass do not.

Can someone please explain to me then, why this bass' tail was all bloody like she had been making a bed?

Does anyone know 100% if bass do spawn once, or 100% bass spawn more than once. If they spawn twice, then based on this picture of my buddies bass caught saturday, we have two bed seasons!

http://mighty-hero.panicnow.net/Fish/Lawsons_Toad.jpg

Thanks

[roadwarrior]

That's a nice bass.

I don't know why the tail would be red, but largemouth bass only spawn once a year.

[BD]

I agree RW.

It sure looks like it to me, that she was making a bed. :-/

[Matt Fly]

Its not uncommon to have a few bass spawning this time of the year. I caught one last year on the bed in Sept.   Does that mean she spawned also in the spring?   Don't know that.

Matt

[Hookem]

Its not uncommon to have a few bass spawning this time of the year.

Matt

Yep!!!

Seen them confused boogers on beds in Oct on Bastrop. The "real' spawn on Bastrop is usually late December.

Seems that power plant cooling lakes have a couple of spawns a year. When the temp gets DOWN to about 75 in a few weeks and then the "real" one starts when the lake gets DOWN to 62-70.

Y'all noticed I said DOWN.

Last weekend it was 97..... ;D :

[KYbass1276]

I have been catching some with bloody tails as well I'm going out agin this evening and will post pics if I catch any.  I really couldn't imagine they are spawning agin as I have caught several with bloody tails lately.  

[George Welcome]

Location does play a part in whether it is possible to have mutiple spawns per year. However, what can't be answered is if the same bass spawn more than once, or if it is different bass per spawn cycle. Many years in the sunny south we have mutiple spawns. I have seen smaller recruitment from a September period, and equally larger recruitment from a December period, and then again in a March/April period.

[Guest ouachitabassangler]

If the bass is a male, then it was possibly making a bed. I find eggs in females all year long, sometimes the egg sacs well developed when it doesn't make sense. A female might be able to drop eggs, but has to have a male with hormone urging to fertilize them. Well, unless one of those "glow bass" from the Potomac, you know, the transgendered dual sexed monsters....and now no telling what might come from tritiated waters dumping into the upper Illionois River....

Deep South bass like in Florida can certainly find temperate waters well into December, and find the same photo period as comes in spring to trigger spawning. But over most of the country bass sense it would be futile to take time off from fall feeding to do that. They abort spawning in spring too, when sensing wrong stuff coming like a cold front or muddy water from heavy rains, even though the water temp is ideal and the sun at the right angle. In most cases the fry would never make it through winter if hatched in the fall.

A more likely cause of the tail thing is a disease like "Red Sore Disease" which has any one of several particular causes. When bass get it around the fins, dorsal, anal or tail, they rub themselves bloody trying to scratch it off. Red sore is fairly common this time of year, especially the deeper south you go.

Jim

[KU_Bassmaster.]

I caught this last weekend ...

It's tail was DRIPPING blood and even got some on me and in the boat.  It has a red sore on it's side.  

Glenn suggested she might have had a favorite hiding spot she was a little to big for.  Made sense because I caught it off a brush pile in about 18 ft of water.

Now Jim has pointed out the "red sore disease".  I'm not in the deep south, but could that be it?

[dodgeguy]

i have heard florida bass spawn 2 times per year.

[BASS fisherman]

I've never heard of bass spawning twice, but Im up in Pa.  Spawn around here is around late May, early June

[bassnleo]

Ya know, I was thinking I was crazy for also thinking about spawning fish this time of year here in PA, BUT, I too have caught quite a few lately that have bloody tails.

Hmmm... I wonder............

[Rebbasser]

A body of mine in NC and I had this same conversation yesterday when he caught one with a bloody tail-we both agreed the evidence suggests a spawn.

[BASS fisherman]

They say that animals can sense things that we humans can't, maybe this is some sort of a sign.  I haven't caught any bass with bloody tails lately, but bassnleo isn't to far away from me, and he has.  Wierd!

[Guest ouachitabassangler]

We're seeing record numbers of twin spotted fawns, still nursing does, and huge numbers of new turkeys. Oaks, after a severe drought, are producing a bumper crop of over-sized acorns. Hmmm.... maybe it's the END OF THE WORLD.....and they all know it......

Naw. I vote disease. It's a lot more common than most know. Show the bloody things to a lake biologist. They'll come to you.

Jim

[Sam]

I saw them with my own eyes!

Last fall we were fishing the Mattoponi River in Virginia in a local bass tournament when we came across a school of fry.

Yes, they were baby bass from a second spawn.

Talk about being surprised.

My buddy said that he has seen the bass spawn a second time before but it was a first for me.

[BD]

Jim speaks good sense, so does George.

All I do know is, I think we will never fully know what our friends really do, and 90% of the time, why....

A more interesting note would be someone actually witnessing a spawn.

[Hookem]

A more interesting note would be someone actually witnessing a spawn.

If you mean the dirty dancing, then yes.

Not to be confused, when I say two spawns I meant the lake not an individual bass.

If I am catching 1-2" bass (yes that happens... : > ) in December before the spawn, where did they come from. (The lake did not receive a stocking.)

[BD]

Yes I mean different spawns, not the same bass' spawning....

[Chris]

What I have found is that some years when the spring had high water or bad fronts or just plain bad weather that push fish off the spawn some fish will spawn in the fall. I seen it happen in few places it is not common but it does happen. The other part of the deal is that sometimes fish do get tail rot or "Red Sore Disease." Also sometimes something will attack the bass otters, turtles, gators, gar, musky, ect.

[Vorlin]

I've noticed a number of worn tails lately as well, but haven't seen them bloody. Animals in nature will adjust their patterns depending on conditions. Perhaps something interfered with the usual spawn and resulted in this "off schedule" attempt? Not sure.

Vorlin