Spawning Question

I fished a lake near Shawano on Saturday where the surface temp was anywhere from 62-67 degrees. The lake is relatively clear which I believe takes longer to warm up. My question is this. We did not see any beds, but we saw a lot of small keepers cruising the shorelines. Is this normal with such high water temps for fish to be in this prespawn mode?

The pattern we found was docks on spawning flats were holding fish. We also caught some fish on the flats by making long casts with spinning rods to coax a few of the cruising males. We also caught quite a few on a few of the main lake humps that had some weed growth on top of it. I will try to post some pics.

I’ve been wrong many times before…but I still don’t think fish, all fish/bass, spawn just cause of temperature…I think daylength has a huge role to play…

For example, fished a lake in northern Missouri this weekend, the fish were just starting to hit the banks…water temps were 70°F – 75°F…

Figure fish start developing eggs based on day length…and it goes faster/slower based on water temps (as fish are poikilothermic) … still, if the only determinant for spawn were water temps, they could spawn early and have fry not survive late season cold snaps…a self-limiting proposition designed to reduce those genetic tendencies in a population perhaps?

Figure it’s kind of like wheat: it’s typically cut within about a two week time-frame every year…can’t figure spawn will occur as much as 1-2 months earlier than normal…although, there may well be some fish that spawn early (genetic diversity and all that)…

I have seen bass spawn as early as late March on Lake Minnetonka. I have also seen bass spawing in late june out there.

Those are definetly the exceptions.

Some say the moon phase is the key…others temperature…. others the length of day.

I don’t really know myself. Probably a combination.

All I know is that when they are spawning……I really like it.

Thanks for the help guys. I might go try to get some of those fish tonight or tomorrow. They should be in full swing with this warm weather over here.

Good luck on the water,
Ben Otto