Thread: More from Paul Rister on Facebook

Paul Rister > Electrofishing last Friday while conducting our spring evaluation of bass population at Blood River; we found good numbers of redear sunfish up shallow (not spawning yet), near mustard flowers. A lot of largemouth bass, probably mostly males preparing for spawn. And for crappie, we found some, but few compared to the numbers of redear and bass. Majority of the crappie were males on bed. Of the females, a few were spewing eggs, the others were done. The ones you are catching deep, still with eggs, may not spawn. Hope I'm wrong. Getting kind of late, and if they did, there are already too many other fish up shallow. Now it becomes a competition for spawning habitat for them and other species mentioned. These three species of fish have a biological clock that is powered by water temperature. Each species has a preferred water temp at which to spawn. When the weather fluctuations, hence water temp goes up and down, the cycle of spawning gets messed up. Now they are in a situation of overlap. Competition.

Other poster> So you didn't find many female bass on beds?

Paul Rister> No

Thanks