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The spawn is starting here in SE Georgia. I've got Bass bedding and courting each other in the pond behind my house. Anyone else seeing spawning activity yet?

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Here on the "Big O" we are fortunate to have an extended spawning season. The spawning can start as early as October/November and continue through till almost June. I haven't seen too many this year though, due to stained water, but they are there.

From late fall, through the spring you can catch pre-spawn, spawning, and post -spawning bass all in the same day.

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i think this is true of bass everywhere..it,s natures way of preserving the species in case of poor spawning weather..at least some fry are made to carry on the species..maybe all fish do this.

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I think it's true. Water temps and lunar cycles play a major factor as to when the waves of fish move in and out. However, in areas farther north with a "real" season change, the windows of opportunity for favorable conditions to align with lunar cycles will be shorter than us here with our 2 seasons.. wet and dry. That's why we can have bass spawning 5-6 months out of the year, compared to the 2-3 months elsewhere.

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I can remember filleting a ~4lber from a central Florida farm pond. Thought she was fat on shad but nope. Slap full of eggs ready to pop. :(

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i think the bass up here can spawn at lower temperatures and aren,t bothered by fronts as much as florida bass and smallmouth less so, but they both like sunshine..

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It happens from time to time. You can fry up those egg sacs, if you don't pop them. Dad had me do it a few times just to try. My grandpa used to do it. It's like fish flavored pop corn. Similar to the fins on a bluegill, but with a different texture. I haven't had the urge to cook any up since. Its not bad, but I'd rather eat meat.

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i think the bass up here can spawn at lower temperatures and aren,t bothered by fronts as much as florida bass and smallmouth less so, but they both like sunshine..

 

Great point!

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Floods here, creeks 8'-12' above normal flow and will be off and on for the next month or more. I think most fish spawn after the floods are gone.

Our bass season will be closed Feb 28 til May 27, I guess to prevent people from driving the fish off the nests and causing loss of recruitment.

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Spawning around here is usually in May. The season used to be closed but now it's pretty much open year around. Just strict catch and release , from mid-April till the end of May.

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I would have thought that catching largemouth bass off a bed would hurt the population of largemouth, but the research seem to indicate that it does not. As far as I know there is no such evidence for smallmouth or other bass species. So the issue is an ethical one, left to each individual to decide when fishing for largemouth bass.

 

https://www.bassmaster.com/news/ethics-bed-fishing

http://myfwc.com/research/freshwater/sport-fishes/largemouth-bass/bed-fishing-research/

http://www.jimporter.org/articles/article111.shtml

 

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I've caught fish off beds and released them and they go right back to the bed. What always bothered me was the tournaments that favor spawning seasons in order to have the big weigh-ins for the cameras. When they hit it right you've got a hundred good fishermen out there doing nothing but concentrating on beds and throwing those fish in the livewell to haul to another part of the lake for weigh-in. In MN and WI they closed seasons corresponding to spawning activity and it was illegal to bed fish bass during that time. Northern and walleye spawn earlier and their season was open for catch and keep but bass caught then "accidentally" had to be immediately released.

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The spawn is starting here in SE Georgia. I've got Bass bedding and courting each other in the pond behind my house. Anyone else seeing spawning activity yet?

Starting in my part of GA as well

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