Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations What water temp do largemouth bass get active?

Thanks

Not sure what you mean by active but here are a couple of notes from SRAC.


Males select a nest site in
the spring after the water temperature
has stabilized above 60o F.
Bass normally spawn at temperatures
of 65 to 75oF in water
depths of 1 to 4 feet near shore,
but nesting has been observed as
deep as 20 feet in clear water.

Studies have found that largemouth
bass tend to move toward
warm water in the colder months,
although this may be affected by
prey availability. In addition, most
bass will move less frequently
when water temperatures are
below 50 or above 80o F.

Yes, How do you define active? LMB can be caught during ice fishing so they are active during ice cover. AS ewest noted 60F is where they start nest building but prior to that temperature they are active at feeding and building up body condition and fat reserves so spawning will be successful.

Active feeding and spawning

Gambusia:

Check out LMB Seasonal Habits at bassresource.com - About Bass .

There are a number of great articles there with beau coups info on bass, fishing, and ponds (that's where I found the Bob Lusk Pond Boss Mag articles that led me to this site!).

Thanks a lot

For air temps my Largemouth seem to become catchable at about 50 degrees, and though 60's and 70's is ideal warm wet weather hasn't seemed to affect fishing all that much besides having to fish shallow with bigger baits and making the weather more agreeable. I'd like to say what water temperature were but I don't have a thermometer for it yet. I've already caught 69 largemouth and 1 warmouth from 8 seperate fishing days this year from the lake. It has been a really mild winter here and fishing has been great so far. My largemouth are slow when temperatures reach below 50 degrees for too long but they seem to feed very well when air temps are in the low 50's even for one day. I've had several very good days where the air temp was only 50-52 degrees for only a day or two and on one occasion fishing was good when air temperatures were 46 degrees. Fishing here moderates when temperatures touched the low 70's it seems.

Have you been fishing for largemouth yet? I've almost met my year's quota. I've only seen one big largemouth and it topped 13" at 1lb 5oz. The white amur have been really active lately. I was bringing in a basket of bass to shore as it was getting dark and I kept spooking a really big fish near the boat. Sadly it didn't bite but it perked my interest for a good hour after dark.