April 18, 2016 — Let the spawn begin!
Late April through the first two weeks of May in the southern areas of Maine and New Hampshire means the largemouth and smallmouth bass will begin to spawn.
Mother Nature will alert them to start pre-spawn as the water temperatures rise. For largemouth, that perfect temperature is between 62-65 degrees, and 60-70 degrees for smallmouth.
The largemouth males sense this warming trend and start to make a bed for the females. The males clean out a nest of about 20 inches in diameter and six inches deep. While this is happening, the females feed heavily.
When the nests are completed, the male bass entices the female to spawn. The females will lay hundreds of eggs, which are fertilized by the males. These eggs are adhesive and stick to the bottom of the nest. If not, the small predator fish would eat all the eggs.
Meanwhile the perch and crappie do show up for a free meal of the eggs. All this time the male has his fins full trying to fend off all of the perch and crappie who gang up and use a decoy to invade the nest. When this happens, the bass chases the decoy away while the other predators race to the bed to eat the eggs.