[joe]

Hey guys and gals,
Went fishing last week, and really smoked the males. They were up shallow and were easy pickings. Caught 3 over 5 lbs with the biggest about 8 lbs. The big girl was the only fish that had any evidence of being on a bed or prepping one. (Bloody tail) Going back tomorrow but Wed. we got about 4 inches of rain. Will this back them off or put the ones that haven't moved up yet on a holding pattern? Thanks!
-Joe

 

[Jared]

I dont think the rain should affect them too much unless it's created a current, rose the lake a good bit more than it was, or was a freezing cold rain that dropped the water temps. I think your average rain would probably even promote more fish to move up as it could create run off that would place particles/mud in the water which would help the water warm up more easily.

 

[joe]

Definitely wasn't a cold rain. It's been in the upper 70's all week. Today is supposed to hit 79. Sat. low is 50 with a forecasted high of 81. Partly cloudy.

 

[Jared]

Im thinking you will be ok then. Let oldschool and the others chime in too. They may have some other info that will be useful to you also

 

[oldschool]

LMB over 4 lbs. is a female 99% of the time. If the rain causes heavy suspended silt the water where the beds are, the bass my abandon them. Rain usually causes some water clarity change making it more difficult to locate beds or bass by sight. Sounds like you a good day on the water. Try fishing a little outside of the bed sites.
Tom

 

[Ouachita]

Bass beds ought to mostly be found in places that don't get direct influence from rain runoff. Bass pick the most protected sunny location possible. Rain falling over a bed isn't likely to bother the bass.

It's the male bass (called bucks here) that swish mud off gravel to make the bed, wearing the tail down. He then swims back deeper to get a female to follow him to the bed to mate. Usually the female doesn't hang around more than a day after expelling eggs. It should be rare to find a lone female on a bed. She's going to be booted off the bed right away, sometimes parking a few more days just out of sight of the male that will guard the eggs and hatched fry. Most females stay in the next deepest water downstream, and larger ones can re recruited again by another male, as they expel only 1/3 to 1/2 of their eggs at a time. That's nature, ensuring multiple attempts in case of failures.

Jim