beds

[Damien]

i know this has been done a million and 1 times but how do you locate the bass bed the pond i fish is gin clear and i have found one bed and caught the big 5.9 female that was on it but today i fished it agian and was at another spot and i could see big females and little males all around i just could not figure out where the bed was. please help.

[.dsaavedra.]

well if you  have gin clear water that is a big help.

depends on what the bottom is like. usually the beds will be round crater looking things on the bottom. most of em are around 2 feet across...but that varies. they are usually either lighter or darker than the surrounding bottom. some of the beds i saw today were light around the edges but had dark in the middle...i think these were abandoned beds and sediment filled in the middle, because i didnt see any fish on those beds. the beds that i saw fish on were all lighter than the surounding bottom. you will usually see at least one fish hanging on or near the bed. today i saw beds with 5 fish on them.

[Long Mike]

The best way to accurately locate a bed is to find the pillows and blankets.  The bed will usually be under them.  

[Damien]

ok the bed i did find was on the edge of a flat is this normal or should i mainly look for the the bed on the north-east corner of my pond, and the bottom of the pond is mainly muddy.

[Paul Roberts]

Substrate -hard bottom- usually gravel/small cobble, is the key. It can be hard to tell where the locations are, except by looking. Pick a sunny day and do some scouting. They'll use the area year after year.

[lknbassman]

Yup, what Paul said.  Find it once and you find it over and over year over year.  Next step is figuring migration routes for each season and then are on your way to knowing what your fish do depending on the time of year.  Good stuff.