Spawning bass?

[Wayne Ek]

Has anyone seen any fish on beds yet? I usually have a number of fish bedding around my dock and there is nothing yet. On Monday Roy Good and myself fished Roy Lake in South Dakota. Ten hours on the lake (we caught some fish but nothing of any size, 2.5 was the average)we saw only one fish on a bed. Main lake was 55 to 57, but some of the back bays we had 66 to 68. But still nothing moving in the shallows except monster carp. I swear you could have put a saddle on a couple of those beasts.

[Nick Kuhn]

Should be close, last weekend in Wisconsin the water was about the same temp and there were plenty of males up in the shallow bullrushes.

[grab the net]

I would guess next week, water temps are rising fast and the full moon is on Memorial day weekend I think. My son was out today and the shallows are just full of fish. He watched wolf packs of pike chasing minnows and small sunfish in a couple feet of water this afternoon. Lake he was on had crappies setting up in the dead pencil reeds. Had a ball catching and releasing 12-13.5 inch crappies. White tube underneath a small float, you could see the tube disappear before the float even righted itself. He called and asked if I could take the afternoon off, not a chance, its killing me.

[bassfshin24]

Wayne ek---you should have headed over to Clear lake right by roy and went after some of the monster smallies over there. I was out on pool 2 of the miss last night and went in one of the back waters and the water temp was 72°. Too bad the miss is too dirty to see a beddin fish.

[TR21HP]

I was out on Green and Chisago the last two nights getting some hours on the motor and the water temp in both lakes was anywhere from 66-72 degrees and didn't see any fish shallow but a ton on the graph in the deeper water - I think they are still staging. Saw a few beds but not a whole lot - I think they should get on them pretty quick.

[Deitz Dittrich]

personally I think things are all messed up. Warmed up quickly, cooled off or stabilized and then SHOT UP!!! I think it will be soon..

[Cecil]

I talked to a couple guys who said last weekend A TON of fish moved up. Odds are they were ready before last week and then with the cold weather they backed off.

[mabr]

Their moving up right now! I was out on a un-named lake in the Isanti area on tuesday and seen several locked on the beds. My guess is this week we are going to see a huge migration.

Crappies are all over the reeds right now spawning with carp going nuts as well.

[Juan Grande]

Wayne,

I was out on Mary, Brophy and Andrew in your neck of the woods last weekend. We cruised almost the entire shoreline of Andrew and saw very few fish in shallow and no bass on beds. That was Sat. morning though and the water temps were in the low 50s. We went out on Brophy Sat. night and the water temp was up to 57 so maybe the fish have started moving up with all this warm weather and sunshine. We were going to go back out Sunday afternoon to see if the crappies were in the pencil reeds but we had some puking kids.

[sheepheadslayer]

Was on Tetonka and there are largemouth on beds all over. Have yet to see any smallies tho.

[Wayne Ek]

I just got back in from chasing crappies on Ida with Bud Anderson. Most of the pencil reed beds are holding crappies and sunfish. On one of the bays we found two places that had a good number of smallies locked on the beds. The crappies in the pencil reeds are smaller fish 8 to 9-inches, they maybe males just staging to move in. Saw lots of largemouth cruising the shallows. I'm thinking if this weather holds we should see a migration of green fish to the shallows this week.

[Hula_Grub]

They were moving shallow on Lake Elmo on Monday.

[Bass Whacker]

was out on prior today water temp was 65 and and it looked like they were just starting to make thier beds. I would think in the next few days it should kick off.

[turn_in_poachers]

hmm.... i must be the only one who thinks theyre all post spawn. saw some monster females on beds couple months ago when it was warm. all i see now are small males guarding fry.

im probably wrong though. this weather has been wierd.

[Timmy D]

I would agree a little. I bet some fish had already been in when it was so warm, but it for sure wasn't ALL the fish.

It's been said that not all will spawn at the same time and some of the biggest fish will spawn first.

I bet there are fish right now prespawn, spawning and post spawn.

[Random Sample]

I was on Tonka yesterday morning and saw numerous beds with males guarding, some beds with both male/females on them. Pretty much everywhere I looked I saw bedding bass. West end water 65-67 degrees at 10 am. "sight fishing walleye" could see them crusing the shallow weeds and pitched jigs/crawlers got a couple 20 inch walleye. Would have rather been fishing the bass.

[luckycrank]

[st.crioxfishin]

Today in Iowa all of the bigger fish we caught were postspawn females on main lake points... When it was really warm to start off the spring most of the fish down here seemed to be on the bed early and were down spawning before the colder weather moved in. Sounds like MN lakes are on pace.

[ShoreGuy1984]

I seen sunfish and bluegills on beds at Lake Marion yesterday. I always thought sunfish and bluegills spawn after the bass spawn. is this true??

[Irish]

I think you probably just saw the sunfish and bluegills making their beds. They usually don't spawn till June.

[slopmaster]

was on a lake west of alexandria today trying for some panfish and everywhere i looked up in the shallows i seen bedding bass. Water temp was 66 degree's. Gets a guy excited for bass opener thats all i can say. And there was no sunfish up shallow except little guys and i mean 3-4 inches long on average.

[Reid G]

Saw some elmos on beds yesterday. South central MN.

[olski]

Fished a tournament yesterday, water was 63 degrees and smallies were on beds. Wish I would have figured that out about 3 hours earlier think I would have placed alot better.

[sicheneder]

all last week i checked the forums and nothing and 2 days before a tourney were most of the fish were on beds i see this thread pop up. ouch. last week on balsam lake, wi all kinds of activity going on and actual spawning going on. lots of females cruising the shallows looking. anyways a few moved off by sat. for the tourney, but last week was like an aquarium in the shallows, sunfish,crappies, largies, smallies all on beds. we ended up 4th and all the teams above us all said they were bed fishing. since wi opener i have seen males on beds (no spawned,not guarding (actually did see 1 pair a couple of weeks ago))with no females up. and then after the string of hot days last week it ".looked like the majority of the fems have finally moved up. suprised to see 4-7 smallies guarding beds on balsam, but they were all small about 12". not the best day for sight fishing on sat. cats out of the bag.

[Deitz Dittrich]

I too was on a Balsam area lake, but did not see the same spawning activity.. Maybe saw 5 fish on beds, saw some small males up shallow, but for the most part were still pre-spawn on the flats leading to spawning areas.. yet I saw water surface temps pushing 65...

then that storm hit.. =un-fun!!!