Bream bedding behavior

Sorry, will be kind of long, lots of questions.

The full moon is May 26. I've been catching huge coppernose bluegill (stocked lake) and an occasional redear since May 15, about two weeks prior to the full moon. After I found the first bed the old-fashioned way, casting, and nailing it to down to catch fish after fish in a certain spot, I suspected a bed. Continuing to catch, it had to be! Upon leaving, I could see the magnificent sonar images of fresh beds. I then found several beds around the lake scouting with sonar. About 3-4 ft deep. Some questions...

1. Is it normal to catch bream on beds two weeks prior to full moon?
2. What will happen now, will it gather more bream?
3. How long after full moon will they stay on beds?
4. Will they continue to bite?
5. Do fronts affect bream bed bite?
6. I find what appears to me to def be old beds around the lake. The new ones' images are *dramatically* different, the image just jumps at you they are so round and deep and such a clean image. The old one looks less defined but they also look smaller. However, that might be silt infill? I dunno, just curious. I am wondering if big coppernose bream might actually build larger beds; I mean the individual beds, not the collection areal extent. The old beds, I wonder if bream come back and use them from time to time and rework them?
7. I have been catching a few and then leaving them alone and go to another one. Do you think that is good practice or does it matter for the fishery health?
8. I have enough fish to eat, what about catch n release for bedding bream, any 'harm' in that? I suppose we need to harvest x-amount, else, the bream will be stunted. I know lakes that all they have is small bream.
9. The old beds I see on sonar, could that be some other fish? They look like bream beds, just much smaller than the fresh beds of coppernose bluegill. Lake level could fluctuate, maybe that is why certain beds are not reworked in any given year?
10. Is there any wisdom/validity in releasing any huge bream with a big belly, assuming it is a female loaded with eggs? Does it matter?
11. I got worried yesterday when an elderly man asked me if I was going to keep any to eat. I said yes and he asked if I caught them around a feeder? I did not and he said I might be ok but if you catch them around a feeder, they will taste bad, taking on the taste of the feed. Said you could even smell it when you clean them. The good news is my bream tasted fine. Have you ever heard this?

I have read that the coppernose bluegill is kinda like a Florida bass, it's a species native to Florida which grows bigger than regular bluegill. So, that is why they are stocked.

I have been catching my limit each day I go. They are the biggest bream I have ever caught. Big ones are near a pound and they are super round and thick. And they pull like crazy on the rod. I just have to hang on sometimes! I have been using trout magnet lure; color does not seem to matter so far. Also caught a few on a fly rod with underwater bugs. Artificials sure are nice versus live bait, crickets or worms or crawfish.

The 2nd image is of a lighter color one. Most of them are darker and the 1st pic shows that. I just read up and saw a pic saying that lighter ones are females and darker ones are male. Yesterday, I think all of them (25) were dark, so, all males? I guess they are preparing the bedroom for the females?

I hope some of you will share your knowledge on this interesting part of panfishing and any of those questions; bedding bream are certainly interesting! I don't want to do anything to hurt the fishery but all my life, around here, it's almost like you are encouraged to catch bedding bream to harvest a bunch of them, else, there will be too many! But I've always been keen on not overfishing a bed but I know lots of people who catch until they can't catch anymore. Once I have enough to eat, I'd rather just release if it's 'good' to do that.

Anything I respond is pretty much just opinion based on past experiences, certainly not scientific and I'm no expert. But I'll take a stab at some of the questions because this could be a very interesting (and informative) thread.

1. Most of my life I've paid virtually no attention to the moon phase. I caught bluegill where I found them. I have at least casually looked at solunar tables (though never let that determine whether to fish or not) and those tables are tied directly to moon phase. I believe time of year, length of daylight and water temperatures have more sway than moon phase. Having said that, I don't know much about moon phase and have just this year paid much of any attention but a whole lot of people swear bluegill, shellcrackers etc spawn on the full (and new) moon phases...which correspond to high activity phases going back to the solunar tables.

2. I still bet my money on length of daylight and water temperatures and condition but IF the full moon is particularly relevant, then I suppose the answer is "Yes".

3. See above two answers (opinion)

4. I think a lot of the bites while bedding are partially agressive, attacking anything near the bed, they still have to eat whether spawning or not. I believe fish are pretty opportunistic, which explains fish sometimes eating until they regurgitate...and then eat some more.

5. I believe fronts affect all fish. Cold fronts are notorious for turning off the bite. Barometric pressure affects every living creature, even us.

6. No experience, don't know.

7. If I had multiple beds pegged down, yeah, I'd catch a few and move on just to prevent disturbing or removing too many fish from one area excessively. Certainly won't hurt. If a male is protecting fertilized eggs, and he's removed, something immediately moves in and eats those eggs.

8. Sort of tied to above answer but I don't believe there's any harm in catch and release of panfish. Having said that, in a healty lake, it would be kind of hard to overfish panfish. Even in ponds, removing panfish, within reason, doesn't hurt. Sort of depends on water size and natural predators. Removing too many predators CAN throw things out of balance and particularly removing too many big bass from a pond can result in overpopulated, stunted bluegills. Overall, depends on water size.

9. Same answer as #6

10. Not sure. Probably no foul either way. During crappie spawn, many females with eggs are caught and eaten. Look at #8 above. Removing individual fish isn't the problem and has little effect on the fishery (again within reason) I believe any concerns with overfishing, could be tied to removing fish with eggs. They lay 10's of thousands of eggs because so few actually survive to spawning age under good condition. Releasing fish with eggs or removing them I believe isn't really as relevant as the overall health of the fishery. Removing panfish because they tend to overpopulate is sort of taking into account a lot that are removed have eggs. But I'd like to hear others weigh-in on this. We're getting into fishery/biology/science here. I also believe the smaller the water body the more profound the effect of removing or releasing fish.

11. No doubt Purina Trout Chow produces trout that taste like Purina Trout Chow. There is NO comparison between wild trout or salmon vs. hatchery/fish farm products. I can't imagine any other fish would react any differently. In any healthy ecosystem, the only reason to artificially feed fish is to increase biomass. Remember, you are what you eat.

Anyway, there's my 2 cents worth. Remember, just my opinions, I'm no fishery biologist.

Those are two great looking gills you show there. Glad you got into a bunch of nice size ones.

Very nice fish. Thanks for an interesting and informative thread.
Bob

Today, caught two more limits -- 50 -- and released them. Caught them on 3 different beds so as not to overdo it anywhere. I caught this marauder, believe it or not, on a trout magnet, which I was using for bream! Weighed 4.84 lbs and it was quite a long battle. Rod was B 'n' M Sam Heaton Super Sensitive 9 ft and reel is a Lews something, smallest I could find, I guess it's a 1000 series type reel, and line was 4 lb test Viscious Panfish. When the fish got to the boat and went under it, I thought my rod would break, it was bent double but it held up great.

The limit of coppernose I caught yesterday (25) was all males and today, we caught a number of females. They are big and they pull uber hard, a blast on a 9 ft rod.

My brother was using 2 lb test Trout Magnet brand line and we both agreed that we can't stand 2 lb line. It's just a huge PITA to use in the wind and even in calm, it's just too dang small. It doesn't seem to matter at all versus using 4 lb test. I can cast just about as far and it's far, far stronger and easier to tie. I am next going to try 4 lb Nanofil. We would like to cast farther if possible.

Bass pic below. You can see the black (has green as the other color but you can't see anything but black) trout magnet in its lip if you look close. That fish might be a spawned female?Attachment 401644

Before the actual spawn happens there is prep work to be done. The big bull males move in and begin fanning the pits well before the spawn. So yeah to catch fish on them before the moon's would be normal. They also remain after the spawn to patrol the pits. IMO this is the most crucial time...I let them be here at this point so they can protect the eggs. I try to pay attention to the actual reaction of my bait. Was it inhaled or was it simply picked up and carried off. Spawning fish will simply carry it off. As far as the dog food flavored fish. I'm not sure which is worse that or the eating worms and bugs.

Sent from my E6910 using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app

Very nice fish and comments. That was a real nice bruiser and what a fight. I would like to tangle with one of those someday.
Bob

Doing a little Google research reveals if not outright scientific data, then certainly plenty of anecdotal evidence to confirm the spawn does seem to center on the full and new moon. Again though, mainly because all activity seems to peak on those two phases of the moon, which points to the Solunar tables. But it does require the right conditions as well, of course. And as catchNgrease mentioned above, there are several days preceding and following the actual full moon so there's about a week of spawning activity I'd guess. New moon and full moon are approximately two weeks apart, so during spring-summer spawning season they'd be engaged in spawning activity more often than not.