[knapperhead]

i've been catching a lot of fish lately that seem to be roaming and they are all about the same size. i figure they are males cruising the break lines looking for bait or a nest site. the water temp is 52-56 on a highland reservoir. i've benn fishing from 11-16 feet.where are the big females? also,are there any physical characteristics that distinguish male from female? besides size.
matt

 

[GotstaFish]

Hard to tell them apart, but I would bet those females are close by on a deeper point. If your catching males in 16 feet of water, try a little further out in say 20-30 feet and use a slow presentation with a bulky jig. Look for points, old road beds or creek channels in that depth range.

 

[oldschool]

First read "pre-spawn" post. Generally speaking any bass over 4 lbs is more than likely a female, with few exceptions. The easiest way to tell is females have eggs and the egg sacks are firm during pre spawn. You can always fillet the bass, other than that it is difficult to determine conclusively.
Tom
ps; We are discussing LMB, not spots or smallies!

 

[Ouachita]

Until the water temp reaches and stays at least 60 degrees the bass won't be very active at spawn sites. The male is the first to arrive, fanning a bed clean of silt down to clean sand, gravel, rock or wood. A male that's been maintaining a bed a week or more usually has a worn-down tail. Females will be selected by males, escorted to the bed by one, but isn't likely to remain with the male more than a week after mating. Her belly should be swollen, hanging low, and the vent should be swollen and red, indicating readiness to drop eggs.

There is a subtle difference between male and female vent area. Female vent scales seem to be indistinct, almost missing, in a pear shaped area around the vent. Males have a smaller circular void around their vent. If you find them right at 60 degrees and before mating you can squeeze milt from the male, eggs from the female. There's a special tube used to poke in the vent to extract one or the other to be sure. You'll likely extract some urine too, so look for creamy liquid or almost bloody-pink urine.

Individual bass often spawn more than once, so even though they have already expended milt or eggs the pressure builds up and you can again squeeze or extract milt or eggs.

I agree the females are usually larger. They get to feed almost an extra month a year while males guard beds rarely feeding. Females tend to hang around at the next deeper zone in a channel close to the spawn bed.

Jim

 

[Jared]

I'm not sure how true this holds up for bass but for some other species of freshwater fish, the females will often have a smoother transition from the dorsal fin to the nose, where as the males will have quicker transition, so pronounced at times it will almost look like a hump of sorts. I have seen some bass that looked like this (with a hump) over the years and I always wondered if they were males.
Like I said, I really dont know if this is true or not for bass but I have always wondered.

 

[GotstaFish]

Great information as always Jim. ;D

 

[knapperhead]

thanks for your input guys. oldschool, i did read "pre-spawn " and have been applying that knowledge every time i go fishing. i even wrote all the seasonal periods in my journal in case someone decides to delete all the info like another board did that we won't mention here. i aspire to fish professionally one day so i appreciate all that ya'll do on these boards.you ,jim and several others have really helped me get on a consistant bite.
thanks again,matt

 

[Jared]

i even wrote all the seasonal periods in my journal in case someone decides to delete all the info like another board did

Knapper, as the owner and admin here at The Bassholes, I can guarantee you, promise you in fact, that this board will NEVER EVER be wiped of all its valuable information no matter how outdated it may get in the years to come. This board will forever have every post on it that it started with from the first to the last.
:cheers:

My goal with these forums is for them to become one HUGE referrence library for bass anglers to have at their finger tips whenever they want or need!

This is coming from a guy who has kept EVERY fishing magazine he ever bought or was given since the mid 1970s when I was a little kid. I am a knowledge nut. I am firm believer in "knowledge is power". Trust me, when I say that if I have kept every magazine (and catalogued EVERY article in a database) that there is NO way I will ever delete any of this forums knowledge. If you can find it here today, you will be able to come back next year and find it too, and the year after and the year after that.. etc...

Jared

 

[oldschool]

Matt,
This year we are all going through some severe transitional weather fronts that have cooled down the water. The bass start to stage then move back when the water cools and move up as the water warms. Early cruisers are a sign of unstable conditions and the bass are just out checking their territory. Try metering around the deeper breaks and you should locate some fish stacked up. These are the bass that you need to target, not the sight fish, the water is too cold. Thanks for the feed back, it really helps to know that some good is coming out the effort to help and I know Jim feels the same. Good luck to you.
Tom
ps; if you see some big bass up cruising, back off and try a slow shallow swim bait or crank bait...you never know!.

 

[GotstaFish]

i even wrote all the seasonal periods in my journal in case someone decides to delete all the info like another board did

Knapper, as the owner and admin here at The Bassholes, I can guarantee you, promise you in fact, that this board will NEVER EVER be wiped of all its valuable information no matter how outdated it may get in the years to come. This board will forever have every post on it that it started with from the first to the last.
:cheers:

My goal with these forums is for them to become one HUGE referrence library for bass anglers to have at their finger tips whenever they want or need!

This is coming from a guy who has kept EVERY fishing magazine he ever bought or was given since the mid 1970s when I was a little kid. I am a knowledge nut. I am firm believer in "knowledge is power". Trust me, when I say that if I have kept every magazine (and catalogued EVERY article in a database) that there is NO way I will ever delete any of this forums knowledge. If you can find it here today, you will be able to come back next year and find it too, and the year after and the year after that.. etc...

Jared

And thats how it should be done right there :cheers: