Marc , Dave , CB1 and Bruce :

This is a very interesting thread. Like Dave I waited to post to see what others said. You will know why when you read below.

Based on this post I began to think if I had ever seen large numbers of male and female BG on the beds at the same time. I went and checked my notes that cover about 8 years of observations--no such entries. How many times have you seen large numbers of male and female BG on the nests at the same time ?

This led led me to the strange observation of BG behavior I encountered on the day of the full moon on the May 05 spawn . For reference the May spawn is the biggest of 4-5 spawns a year in our area. In this lake there is a clay and rock point in water from 1-6 ft. deep that is about 50 ft. long. There are easily 150 nests on this point. The water was clear {visa. 4 ft.} as the bloom was just starting.

I walked down to the lake about noon and what I saw made me dizzy. From about 4 ft. above and 30 ft. away I saw on and over the point hundreds of male BG with one over each nest. Each nesting male BG was swimming feverishly in counter clockwise circles over his nest. The mass of circling male BG made me dizzy if I watched it for very long. My in-laws who were there said they had not seen this in the 50 years sense the lake was built. There were probably some that were not going in a counter clockwise direction but I did not see them. The amazing part upon reflection is that I never saw a female in the hour I watched over the afternoon . I know they were there because my notes 3 weeks later reflect a massive hatch of yoy BG fry .

I now wonder if {as I suspect} the female BG wait until low light conditions to quickly move up to the nests from deeper water and place their eggs and leave . Anyone have any opinions on what I observed ? I was not in an impaired condition so don't ask if that was the reason for what I encountered. ewest