Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Water Temps - Spawning

6/1/08 - I saw 12-15 schools (balls) of small bass fry swimming around at the pond yesterday, most were out in open water outside the weedlines. Some of these balls of fry were 6ft in diameter. This is one of the largest bass hatches I have seen in a long time. In addition, there were male BG on beds everywhere yesterday afternoon.

Shorty - sorry I missed your question. At the rates below the SMB would be on the nest for a couple weeks. Some of the lit. has spawning occurring for several mths depending on conditions. You have a guess as to the factors resulting in a large spawn ?



RELATION OF TEMPERATURE TO SURVIVAL AND

INCUBATION OF THE EGGS OF SMALLMOUTH BASS

(MICROPTERUS DOLOMIEU)

DWIGHT A. WEBSTER



The mean incubation periods are given below, those for 1945 being

marked with an asterisk:

Temperature (øF.) ...................... 77 • 75 71 • 70 67 • 65 60 59 • 55 • 55

Incubation period (hours) ........ ,•2 54 70 78 90 98 150 167 238 234

Thus the incubation period at a constant temperature of 75 F is

about 2 1/4 days, whereas at 55 F it is between 9 1/2 and 10 days.



Incubation periods reported in the literature which have come to

the writer's attention are given in Table 1. The discrepancy between

these data and those currently presented is no doubt due in large part

to nocturnal-diurnal temperature fluctuations in natural waters.

Thanks ewest! FYI - there was still one SMB guarding a nest yesterday, the other SMB guarded their nests for just 5-6 days a few weeks ago.



My best guess is fewer weeds in the pond and more spawning areas area available this year, plus most of the bass spawned in a very short time frame this year and the BG started making beds shortly afterwards. I watched a big ball of bass fry yesterday swimming around in shallow, both the larger bass and big male BG were not interested in chasing them. I actually netted some of the fry to verify that the were LMB. The other thing is our BG are in excellent body shape going into the spawn and probably not preying on the LMB fry very hard right now. In addition, we are back to being on the bass heavy side of things again, and once again light on the BG side.