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.
You have a guess as to the factors resulting in a large spawn ?
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.
