Early Pre-spawn?

[L Dub]

With the weather warming up does anyone think that the little greenies would be starting to come up a little earlier than usual? More of a general question, but I'm more interested in how people think the warmer weather will affect the delta. It feels like mid March already!

[chris_hughes]

I'm hoping that this is just a little warm weather stretch were having, WE NEED SOME RAIN!!

If it does continue to stay fairly warm those fish would definitely be moving up earlier. If it stays warm enough for water temps to come up to 56-58 fairly quickly then I would bet on some fish moving up.



Chris

[L Dub]

More rain would be great. This weather is beginning to worry me....

[chris_hughes]

Ya Folsom is my home lake and I dunno if you have seen it recently but its pretty baron out there. I'm curious to see what kind of swing its going to have this year, with a little bit of rain and if they stop letting so much out who knows?

[tunaman]

I don't know the Delta yet, but my expectations would be no given the water temperatures... as I recall, the water temps need to get near 60 degrees in order to begin the biological changes that the bass undergo? The temps have been in the low to mid-40's the last several times out, and I don't think it has been warm enough to bring the temps up significantly?

It looks like there may be some rain in the forecast for next week or so - let's hope so!

Roger

[elfish16]

all I can say is that down here in So Cal at Casitas the water temps are close to 62 degrees....it NEVER got below 60 degrees this winter!!!!!!!!!!!

They are already loaded with eggs and transitioning...

what a weird situation!

[Cooch]

With the weather warming up does anyone think that the little greenies would be starting to come up a little earlier than usual? More of a general question, but I'm more interested in how people think the warmer weather will affect the delta. It feels like mid March already!

Dub, this is a catch 22 question here on the River. Bass are still locked dead into their winter patterns. In as much as you and I experience a great change outside during the day, the over night lows are still at a point where there is very little change on a day to day basis. What change you and I see, is in surface temp, the change down where the bass may actually be sitting right now, probably is not changing much, if at all.

Certainly though, some of the shallow fish, ie: those sitting in 4-6 right now, may become more active later in the day. This though, is fairly typical here in the winter time anyhow. Anothr factor to look for when searching the shallower moving fish, is the stained to dirty water. These river bass will tend to move shallower in dirty water, versus the clearer water we have through out most of the river right now. Some rain, will certainly help here.

I personally don't think this latest warming spell, will have much affect on them "moving up" into that pre-spawn mode for at least another month at best. Most of the females right now, are not to a point where their eggs are developed enough to get them into that state. If we continue on the current path though, and indeed it does remain warm, rains or not like the past few days, over the long haul, it could speed up the transition process to where we see fish moving into the shallows and begin the bedding stage in late February and early March. We've seen this before, yet it is not the norm.

[L Dub]

[quote="Cooch"][quote="L Dub"]
Most of the females right now, are not to a point where their eggs are developed enough to get them into that state. [/quote]

So do they have some sort of biological clock as far as eggs are concerned? Or is it more of a physical reaction to the warmer water when they start to generate their eggs?

If they are on a 'clock' how does that explain the late spawn (July/ August) we saw in some of the Marin reservoirs? If it's more reactionary, that would explain it.

Just learnin is all!

[robertthornton]

Even though we have day time highs of the upper 60's the days are still short so the period of time its warm is short. If we were to experiance this warming trend in march or late febuary, the results may be more signifacant. Its still winter and the bass know it. When the days get longer the water has more of a chance to warm up.

[Oldschool]

Like most things in nature it's a combination of factors; water temperature at the depth the bass are holding in, length of day, moon phase, latitude. Add in weather variances and you have the pre spawn seasonal period nailed down.
LMB prefer the water to be at least 58 degrees to hatch eggs within a 10+ day period and that is a long time to gard the eggs from egg eating predators. The warmer the water, the faster the eggs hatch, at 65 degrees it takes about 4 days. The majority of bass move up to spawn at 62 to 65 degrees at the depth of being aprroximately 2 to 12 feet depending on light penetration, some very clear lakes can be deeper.
The first fish to spawn are crappie around 58 degrees, followed by smallmouth, spots then largemouth. The bluegill and other sunfishes start about 67 degrees. All this continues about 3 full moon phases.
There will always be exceptions, it's the survival of the fittest.
Tom

[BassManDan]

Isn't anytime before the spawn "pre-spawn" how can it come early?

Couldn't resist!

[Steve]

Most of the females right now, are not to a point where their eggs are developed enough to get them into that state.

So do they have some sort of biological clock as far as eggs are concerned? Or is it more of a physical reaction to the warmer water when they start to generate their eggs?

If they are on a 'clock' how does that explain the late spawn (July/ August) we saw in some of the Marin reservoirs? If it's more reactionary, that would explain it.

All black bass, including largemouth, start developing eggs in late fall. Eggs are more or less fully developed by time true winter temps set in. This is a bioenergetics thing, the eggs are developed during a time period when a bass's metabolism is still high, thus the bass dont have to expend needed energy developing eggs during the winter when their metabolism is slow. It also allows bass to move and and spawn quickly in the spring when conditions are conducive (vs waiting for their eggs to finish developing).

The spawning behavior is primarilly a function of two factors, daylight length and water temperature. I could write a book on why you saw fish spawning in Marin Co. very late in the year, but Ill save that for another time.

As we all know, a few days of warm weather in the winter can get some bass shallow and active. But I would never call that a pre-spawn movement. As Cooch pointed out, if we do continue to have a warm weather I would expect to see the spawn begin earlier than it typically does. How much earlier who knows.

[Jason C.]

BassManDan, if you are looking at it that way, then at what time does it STOP becoming POST Spawn and START becoming PRE Spawn?