I always make my core research on bass behavior like how bass bite or what tips are best for them. This core research area got broadened when I heard about my friend’s bass-catching experience during spawn season. What a wonderful concept for capturing bass during the spawn. But this idea must need some implications for fishermen to follow that I kept in my diary. There is no doubt that the bass spawning season is the spring but other seasons must lead to significant facts.
The major spring spawning leads to Largemouth bass whose females lay eggs, fertilize, and hatch them. Another important factor for beginners to keep in mind is the temperature that leads to bass seasonal patterns. You will also find some people that will have negative conceptions about a bass catch during spawning. However, in the last five years my vacation becomes the best either I go for bass during spawn or any other early bass fall season. In this post, I will cover each aspect of bass patterns that will guide you in making decisions for bass hunting during the spawn.
Bass Spawning Season – Different Stages for Seasonal Patterns
You will not get confused by the bass spawning as there is no change in their method. They are divided into three distinct phases because they always act in the same manner.
The Pre-Spawn Stage – The foremost stage is pre-spawn bass when they leave their deep water habitats and come to the shallow water areas. I often use pre-spawn bass lures including crankbaits, jigs, jerkbaits, and swimbaits. There must be some live baits that also play a role to catch bass during pre-spawn but largemouth bass love live shiners or shad.
The Spawn Stage – In this stage bass lay, fertilize, and deliver eggs after clearing their homes on a hard bottom. The best spawning lures for bass at this stage include the football jig, shiners, and Shad. Keep in mind that bass becomes more violent during their spawn and takes much time to bite.
The Post-Spawn Stage – The last and final stage when the bass has completed the spawning procedure is the post-spawn stage. Here they leave their homes and dive into the deep water of about 10 to 15 feet. I will tell you that this is the most challenging period of fishing bass for both beginners and experts.
Many anglers lead to the fact have the misconception that bass will not spawn if they are once caught. Moreover, they may leave spawning if they are transferred to any other habitat. My experience is totally opposite from this fact and research also does not accept this fact. The reason is that female bass may disturb but they again make their nest when they leave their habitat during spawning.
Significant Facts to Consider for Spawn Bass Fishing
There are some significant facts that will help anglers when they do bass fishing during spawning season. These implications will surely make them successful to catch bass if they didn’t catch it earlier. Temperature, Bass location, and moon phase are the significant factors that are helpful during the spawning bass season for bass.
Temperature for Bass
The best water temperature for pre-spawn bass fishing is about 48 to 55 degrees. When the temperature hits 50 degrees it surely leads to the pre-spawn mode.
When considering spawn bass, you should make sure the weather is stable or not. If there exists weather stability, the temperature becomes high more than 50 degrees, and reaches about 70 degrees. As the temperature increases the bass goes to the shallow water and remains there until post-spawn.
If you are leading for post-spawn I already mentioned that this is the most challenging procedure during bass fishing. Bass will leave their beds and the water temperature is the best if it goes for 70-75 degrees.
Moon’s Phase
The effect of the moon depends on the fact that when the bass spawn leads to the first moon if I follow some anglers. Here again, the water temperature’s effect comes which reaches about 60 degrees. You may consider this temperature as an optimal one if you are going for largemouth spawning bass. I usually keep the moon’s phase in mind but the water temperature and bass location are more crucial than the moon’s phase.
How Bass protects their Spawning Beds to preserve Their Population?
During spawn season bass nesting is an important factor to preserve their population. When females have to lay, fertilize, and hatch eggs, males do nesting and both become aggressive. Males in a sense that they eat each and every predator that comes near the spawning bed unless the spawning period passes.
I will mention here boats are the major cause of destroying the spawning beds so make sure not to do so. The use of trolling motor is best in this case to avoid the spawning beds as I promote the idea of protecting the spawning beds too, in order to preserve the bass population. Moreover, you may also make a distance of about 25 yards from the spawning beds or more.
Bass Seasonal Patterns – How do they spawn in different Seasons?
Bass are cold-blooded animals and you will see while bass fishing their behavior is highly influenced by the water temperature. Moreover, different seasons will also consider the weather conditions for bass and how they behave in these seasons. I will love to explain bass spawning during different seasons in the below paragraphs.
Spring Season – Varying Temperature During Spawn
You will get the spring season to be the toughest to target bass. During the pre-spawn season, bass activity is based on the water temperature. As the water temperature leads to 50 degrees, the bass comes in an aggressive mode and then bites. During pre-spawning bass remains in the deep waters and as the temperature becomes more than 50 degrees they move to the shallow water.
The water temperature for spawning becomes 60 degrees and that’s the best time to target bass. Now the water depth should not be more than 5 feet in the shallow water. The interesting fact that I have observed is the same water depth in the pre-spawn and post-spawning of bass. The water depth is about 10 to 15 feet in both cases but post-spawning is the most challenging and tough than the other two spawning periods.
Fall Season – Suitable for both Shallow and Deep Water
As long as I am doing bass fishing I have found fall to be the best spawn season for bass. Since the fall season involves less temperature, bass becomes aggressive to feed the lures. The weather and water conditions due to temperature should note down as they mainly affect bass.
As the bass feeding patterns are normal during stable water or weather but as you find any cold wavefront by weather they get disturbed. There is no restriction on targeting spawning bass in the fall season as you can find them in both shallow or deep water. However, consider weather conditions and water temperature whether you are using live baits or artificial baits.
Summer Season – High Temperature with Thermocline
Bass spawning temperature plays an important role in each season whether it is summer or fall. The best bass spawning temperature is 55 to 80 degrees or above as all three spawning stages pass through this temperature. The water temperature in the summer season mostly goes up to 80 degrees and a thermocline layer is formed. This layer leads to a sudden temperature fall and you will find bass trying to stay above this thermocline layer.
Unlike spring where you target bass in 10-15 feet, for the summer season, you have to target 20-30 feet deep waters to target bass fishing. Use some natural prey as bass love to feed bluegills and shad but artificial lures are also helpful. One thing that is most important for anglers is to target their bass in the early morning and late afternoon due to the high temperature during day time. This time will boost their chances to catch their targets.
Winter Season – Less Active Metabolism
You will get enormous changes in bass behavior during the winter season. They feel less and become less active as their metabolism doesn’t work in the spring, fall, or summer seasons. The temperature is too less that their activities slow down. Therefore, the use of slow-moving baits is much more effective for bass in winter.
A common thing in the summer and winter seasons for bass is both need to target 20- 30 feet. A great tip I would like to give you for winter bass is to search out them near rocks or pile brushes because it boosts their chances to trap.
What problems anglers can face while targeting Spawning Bass?
Targeting bass during spawning season is quite tough for anglers and they usually meet some problems. Concerning this situation, I would want to relate my personal experience. It commonly refers that the male protects the bass nest while the female lay their eggs until they don’t learn for swimming.
However, this condition may get true that during bass nesting both male and female lay in a spawning bed and you target the male one. Female bass is in desperate need of their male partner and once you caught a male bass they leave their nest. They move towards another place to find some other partner who could help them to preserve their spawning beds. Moreover, they have to protect their offspring from all predators to preserve their population.
If you don’t know about the female fish, one symbol to identify them is that their size is large. So you can easily find which bass fish is in the nest. Like all other mammals, bass experience naturally more stress during spawning. Many anglers use to get them right back into the water and add more stress to their high level of stress.
Therefore, my opinion clearly supports that each angler must know how to handle the bass during spawn season. If you add more stress, the affected bass will not lay eggs or fertilize them in an appropriate way and that could be fatal for them. I will mention here some amazing handling tips that will lead to preserving the bass population and fishing them during the spawn.
Be Cautious while eliminating the hook carefully from the bass mouth after hunting them.
To keep the fish’s slime covering from being wiped away, ensure sure that every surface it touches is damp.
Stabilize the fish with your second hand while taking a photo below its belly. It will help to prevent the fish jaw from extending to an awkward angle.
Once the jaw is extended due to your carelessness, it may lead to permanent damage. Fish will not feed effectively as they do earlier.
These tips will surely be helpful even if you back off the fish in water quickly and will lead to the bass’s minimal stress.
Wrapping it up!
In short, I would say that keep an eye on your target to focus on your target along with the proper bass fishing equipment. Bass are active in all seasons except winter due to temperature fall and the bass spawning season also affects winter. Make sure that you are not too noisy or approach bass too closely as they will detect what is happening around them. I suggest that stay away from the fish during the spawn, be extremely quiet, and practice extreme caution. It will increase the probability to win your catch.
Frequently Asked Questions about Bass Spawning Season
What is the best water temperature for largemouth bass spawn?
Approximately 65 and 75 degrees is the ideal water temp for bigmouth bass reproduction. But the variation can come during their movement in shallow or deep water.
How dawn and dusk can be effective to catch bass in summer?
The temperature becomes low during early morning (dawn) and late afternoon (dusk) which boosts the chances of catching bass in summer.
Which baits are effective to catch bass throughout the year?
The versatile lures to catch bass throughout the year are jigs, swimbaits, crankbaits, plastic worms, and spinnerbaits.
Which time of the year is considered best to catch bass?
Fall and spring are the best times when the water temperature is not too hot but these times are also quite challenging.
Does Bass hunting is preferable in a noisy atmosphere?
Anglers are advised to be cautious when bass are spawning as they become too sensitive and once they feel noise they will swim away.
