Fishing for Bass on Beds

A question that always comes up this time of year is should anglers target largemouth bass on spawning beds?

The answer is ….well….complicated.  Actually, it isn’t that complicated as far as the fish goes.  What’s complicated is the anglers and all the various opinions out there.

Biologically, sight fishing bass on beds has little effect on the overall population of bass in a reservoir.  Now having said that, if catch rates for bass are fairly low in your favorite lake, you may want to think twice about yanking a male off his nest once you get into April and May.  The reason for this is all the predators of bass eggs and fry start to move in more shallow during the spring, typically April and May and stay fairly shallow throughout the summer months.  Common carp, crayfish and sunfishes like bluegill and green sunfish are usually the biggest takers of bass fry and eggs.  Say it takes you 5-6 minutes to play and unhook a male.  That takes him off his nest for that long and it becomes defenseless against marauders.  So if your favorite lake struggles to produce lots of bass, sight fishing them on beds may not be advisable.

Make no mistake though, largemouth bass are a very competitive species.  They have evolved different strategies to avoid predation and they are pretty good at it.  In the big reservoirs near Phoenix, largemouth bass spawn from March into October and in inches of water down to 30 feet or more.  So the range and magnitude of the largemouth spawn minimizes any effects of spring sight fishing for bass on beds.  In addition, males will attempt to make a new nest and spawn again and again, if something goes wrong for them.

The moral of the story is how you personally feel about pulling males off nests.  If it sets well with you, the Department just asks you limit the males you keep, and return them as quickly as possible to the water.  If you don’t particularly like the idea of sight fishing for bass on beds then don’t, and feel good that largemouth bass populations in the larger desert reservoirs will be just fine.