Stop fishing the calendar this spring

Hey, Keith here.

The bass spawn is one of the most exciting times of the year, but it's not one, single event that happens everywhere, all at once.

In fact, two ponds sitting right next to each other can be on completely different schedules.

That became obvious to me on a trip that followed a stretch of 80° days here in south Louisiana.

I walked the banks of two separate ponds throwing a Congo Craw, and what I caught in those two ponds changed how I look at the spawn.

Today, I break down why depth and even moon phases can influence when bass move up to spawn.

BEST LINKS

What I looked at this week

• When do bass spawn? The complete spawning calendar (Anglers)

• 3 steps to grow big bass in ponds (Wired2Fish)

• All about the spawn: Targeting bass in all phases (Bass Resource)

• Gravel spawning habit (Louisiana Pond Management)

• How to design a bass spawning area (Pond Boss Forum)

Deals of the week

• Cabela's has a 6-pack of XPS SuperLock Hooks on clearance, regularly priced at $2.49, now reduced to $1.47.

• Walmart reduced a pack of Zoom U-V Speed Craws from $7.31 to $5.49.

• Bass Pro Shops knocked 50% off a pack of BPS Floatin' Lizards, down to $2.97 from $5.99.

DEEP DIVE 

Two ponds, two timelines

When I moved to my new house in Abita Springs, Louisiana, I immediately pulled up Google Earth and scanned the woods behind my place.

Ten acres of pine sat behind the house, and I was thrilled to spot two ponds on the screen. They looked close, almost connected.

When I finally walked back there, I realized they were about 20 yards apart but completely separate. No ditch. No pipe. No overflow. Fish in one pond had no way of reaching the other.

Everything about those ponds was identical except one thing.

Depth.

The smaller pond was about half an acre and roughly five feet deep at its deepest point. The larger pond covered about five acres and dropped to around 20 feet.

Same woods. Same wind protection. Same water color. Same bank composition.

Just different depths.

The first week of March, we had just come off about eight straight days of warm weather. The latest cold front never made it down to us. Air temps had touched 80° several days in a row.

I walked through the woods with a Congo Craw and a tungsten worm weight and started on the big pond first. I fished the entire bank. Picked up two bass, but both came from slightly deeper water. Nothing shallow. No cruising fish. No beds.

Then I walked to the smaller pond.

Within minutes, I saw them.

Clean, sandy-colored round beds in about two feet of water. Bright circles in the middle of dark mud. Bass sitting on them, actively guarding. Chasing bream away that tried to slide in and steal eggs.

It was obvious.

They were locked in.

I stuck with that same Texas-rigged craw and put seven bass on the bank. Every one of them came from the shallow pond.

That day was a crash course in how the spawn really works.

Shallow water warms faster

When it comes to water temperature, it’s simple physics.

A five-foot-deep pond absorbs and retains heat much faster than a 20-foot-deep one. 

There is less water volume to warm.

Sun penetration reaches the bottom more easily. The entire water column responds quickly to warm air temperatures.

That week of 80° days was enough to push the shallow pond into prime spawning range.

The deeper pond? It was still lagging behind.

If you have a small farm pond that averages four to six feet deep and a nearby lake that averages 15 to 25 feet, the pond will almost always produce spawning bass earlier in the spring.

In early March, finding shallow bodies of water will pay dividends.

The spawn happens in waves

Even on a single fishery, bass do not all move up at once.

They spawn in waves.

Part of that is biological insurance. If something disrupts one wave, another wave follows. It also allows bass to share limited bedding habitat.

On large reservoirs, you often see this play out by section.

The upper third of a lake, especially in reservoirs, is usually shallower and protected. It warms first. Bass there often spawn earlier.

The middle section follows.

The lower third, with deeper water, is usually last to warm. It’s here that anglers could be still having success on jerkbaits and deep diving crankbaits.

You're not just fishing a lake during the spawn. You are fishing sections of the lake that are in different phases.

On that March day, my two ponds were acting like two sections of a reservoir.

One was prespawn.

One was full spawn.

Conditions beat the calendar

A lot of anglers circle dates on a calendar and say, “They should be spawning by now.”

Bass do not own calendars.

They respond to conditions.

Water temperature is the primary driver. Most bass begin spawning somewhere in that 62°–72° range. Stable water levels, decent clarity, and warming trends all matter.

In Florida, bass can spawn nearly year-round under the right conditions. In northern states, the spawn may not begin until much later in the spring.

Even in Louisiana, I've seen fish on beds in February during warm stretches and prespawn fish still staging in March when late cold fronts linger.

That week of 80° weather in Abita Springs was enough to flip the switch in the shallow pond.

The deeper pond needed more time.

The moon influences movement

Now let’s talk about the moon.

Most anglers recognize the full moon as a major spawning trigger. A bright overnight full moon can push fish shallow under the cover of darkness.

You show up the next morning and suddenly there are new fish on beds.

But the new moon matters too.

Several high-level anglers have noted that the couple of days before and after a new moon can also trigger spawning activity, especially when water temperatures are already in range.

During a full moon, fish may build beds and move overnight thanks to that extra illumination.

During a new moon, with darker nights, some believe more of that activity shifts into daylight hours.

Here is the key.

The moon does not override temperature.

It enhances it.

If the water is not warm enough, a full moon will not force bass to spawn. But when conditions are right, a moon phase can create a noticeable wave of new fish.