Largemouth Bass Behavior 1: The Spawn

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] hey folks I'm Paula Roberts and I'd like to share a project with you something I've been working on for quite some time now the big picture is essentially a better understanding of what the heck is going on down there under the water I've pursued this fascination not only as a die-hard angler but also through my academic and professional careers in the fields of physiology ecology and fisheries management on my own time I've been studying best behavior for years now in the libraries on the internet talking with researchers managers scuba divers other anglers and from my own time on the water that time on the water though has not always been what most anglers would spend their time doing as an example I spent several years just observing the bass pond putting the rods up and just observing and taking data in an effort to better understand what influences to spawn the timing of this pond I was particularly interested in the role that temperature and lunar phases play in the timing of spawning my time spent just looking has not only been interesting in its own right but informative to my fishing as well in the process I've had the opportunities to see and develop a pretty good understanding of bass behavior as a fisherman out on the water it of course helps to know what you're looking at or maybe better what what to be looking for knowing where in the season you presently are what events are occurring what influences them and what the signs are along the way is the knowledge it helps you keep your finger on the pulse of your fishing in your fishing waters what's really exciting for me is that the technology is there now video technology that's allowed me to not only better see what's going on down there for myself up close and personal at times but to share it with you too so my first documentary is on bad spawning behavior and I've others in the works as well my footage has all been shot in public fishing waters with wild fish so the fishing behaviors you're about to see are as you might see them on your own but from a unique perspective along with some help some narration describing just what's going on so I hope you enjoy what it put together if you like what you see and are interested in seeing more do let me know I'm more than welcome constructive feedback questions and discussion I can't think of a better way to learn than to share observations and information so feel free you know far away with questions and comments all right well let's let's do it let's take a deeper look at the largemouth bass pond from the perspective of the bass themselves [Music] the largemouth bass spawn is a springtime event set into motion it's the world awakens following winter a seesaw battle between winter and summer begins the transition is anything but peaceful the natural world is a volatile place it's a wonder anything as fragile as a tiny bass fry could make it in such a world the harsh reality is that the vast majority don't make it but ever-lengthening days an increasing Sun angle assure that summer will win out firing up a new season of abundance and growth even then bats follow an ages old master plan a regimen of behaviors in order to bring a new generation into the future each stage of the spawn is recognizable in the behavior of the bass we see in front of us behavior is the link between the bass and the environmental events that have shaped them is a species a big part of our job as anglers lies in reading environmental conditions understanding how bats respond to those environmental conditions their behavior completes the job it also just happens to be interesting in its own right the spawn is the preeminent springtime event around which anglers calibrate the spring season anglers have come to break the spring season into three periods the pre spawn spawn and post spawn however not all the bats in a given water spawn at the exact same time so these terms are better understood as behavioral stages that each individual bass goes through from the end of winter through the start of summer one bass may be in pre-spawn while another at the same time is showing post-spawn behaviors this is due in part to the natural variability inherent in all living creatures but also to local water conditions as behaviors are strongly influenced by environmental events events that anglers can observe will pick up our bass at the close of winter and then follow them through the spawn season the close of winter conditions everywhere whether there's ice cover or not is defined in terms of a definite change in the basses physiology lengthening days and rising water temperatures trigger a metabolic upsurge and with it comes an upsurge in swimming performance feeding and growth this generally kicks off in earnest at water temperatures approaching 50 Fahrenheit in short bass come out of winter hungry and on the move first let's set the stage using a hypothetical water bodies stripped down to the bare essentials to primary habitats that provide bass what they need over the course of any given year bass migrate between these primary habitats most commonly during the transitional seasons of spring and fall so let's start at the beginning of the year bass come out of winter hungry so their first order of business is to find food the first major habitat shifted the year then is from wintering locations to feeding locations and it tends to occur earlier than many anglers realize this first shift generally happens not long after ice out and picks up steam as surface water temperatures approach the 50 degree fahrenheit mark 50 Fahrenheit is the temperature at which bass upshift their metabolism in comments' growing again that particular number goes a long way in defining the limits of winter conditions for bass here's a bass body scale annual periods of growth and lack of growth can often be found recorded in the bathroom scales scales can be read almost like tree rings showing the annual periods of growth in quiescence see the areas with wide pale bands indicated in orange where the fish and scale grew in the areas with crowded bands indicated in blue showing periods with little or no growth in healthy waters these bands are good indicators of a fish's age as winters and summers are recorded in bandwidth the springtime upshift in metabolism drives bass to feed and the resulting nutrition is critically important to the final development of reproductive tissues as well as to meet the physical rigors of the coming spawn the second major habitat shift is from prime feeding locations to spawning locations spawning locations are invariably shallow areas that offer good heating firm substrate and protection from wind and waves that might destroy the brood this seems to happen when subsurface water temperatures at about the 4 foot depth in my small waters reaches the upper 50s indicating a certain level of stabilization in terms of heat gain heat as we will learn is critically important to spawning bass the larger the water body the longer in there for later this takes to happen all right let's go under and take a look at migration and staging the word migration suggests long-range movement and this can be the case in large water bodies where wintering areas may be far from prime feeding responding areas but the same behaviors also occur in small waters just on a smaller scale when migrating baths use specific structural and cover elements is stopping spots along the way they're stopping to rest acclimate to local conditions or to wait for appropriate conditions for the next push is called staging anglers use the term brakes to describe the staging spots the objects along travel routes brakes are prominent objects and cover pieces that offer navigational signposts and safe resting spots habitat areas and brakes are locations migration and staging are the behaviors in small waters bats may not need to move far but they still show staging behavior defined as the aggregation of traveling bass at key locations also in small waters realize the brakes don't have to be under the water they can be above it or beside it as well beneath this overhanging shoreline tree there are six large bass these are in fact the largest bass in this pond they are collected up just prior to making their final move to the banks responding you can see that they are holding close to the surface this is an indication that they are about to spawn now acclimated and holding at the very depth at which they will soon spawn now let's go under the water and take a look [Music] the first behavior we're going to see here is not spawn related however it's so obvious it's worth noting it's called inspection behavior an ancient behavior shared by nearly all vertebrates generally better known as curiosity curiosity serves an important purpose it allows the animal to identify a novel object the important questions the fish is asking are is it faux friend food or nothing of interest enable to be ignored attention is a critical and costly cognitive function something we'll explore in future videos at this point realize that everything you lower into the basses realm is inspected obsessed and a decision about where to apply further attention is made almost nothing goes unnoticed by bass think the bass are ignoring you rest assured they are not at least until they've decided to do so alright let's revisit our inspector this particular bass is most certainly the largest in this particular pond bass group by size something that developed back when there were fingerlings like sides bass simply cannot eat each other cannibal isn't being common nor can they out-compete one another size rules when you were a fish notice that these baths are neutrally buoyant they have adjusted their gas bladders to this particular depth spawning depth about two feet deep in this pond we can see that they are effortlessly suspended which allows them to conserve energy if they were above or below acclamation depth they would be thinning to hold position this time of year sex can be determined visually simply because females bellies bulge noticeably with the eggs they are carrying this lower fish is most likely a male you can tell by his streamlined shape most truly large bass are female so aggregates of the largest baths in a given water tend to be composed of females with a few out sized males in water supporting high growth rates the size difference between males and females can be substantial in other waters males and females may be more similar in size and you'll see examples of this throughout this video so what are these staging bass waiting for well a number of factors come together to control or influence spawn timing [Music] Sonlight both photo period that is seasonal daily and heat play major roles from spawn diamond the fact that photo period remains constant year-to-year is the reason the timing of the spawn season can be ballparked by using a standard calendar but to more accurately predict when the initial spawn wave or subsequent waves will begin one must look closer heat plays a key role because biological activity rates are very much heat dependent these include the rate of Aegon sperm maturation the survival of eggs and fry and the physical rigors of spawning activity itself because of the importance of heat the bats and small shallow waters which heat faster than larger deeper waters spawn first water temperature fluctuates with available heat pretty much at the whim of the weather dropping water temperatures can put a lid on spawning activity while increasing temperatures allow it even spurred on this heat differential probably explains a good chunk of the reason why baths and far south subtropical waters has such a long spawn season while more northern baths are impinged upon by water temperature constraints resulting in a shorter spawn season [Music] the full and new moon phases also appear to play a stimulating and possibly a synchronizing role in spawn timing however the fact that these moon phase periods occupy fully half the lunar month make separating moon influence from the stimulating effects of heating events that may be happening at the same time difficult to do I'll do an in-depth segment on my own observations and data collection on moon phase and spawn timing in the future for now i'll say thats moon phase data I've collected is intriguing suggesting as strong although not required influence on spawn timing and intensity [Music] that's our cruisers characterized by continuous exploratory swimming cruising is a seeking behavior used throughout the year in a number of ways for exploration hunting and during the spawn for territory establishment and defense and for searching out receptive mates groups of large females cruising together on spawn banks is a notable early Perry spawn behavior pattern I don't know whether these early groups are mostly female because they are the largest bass or whether gender plays a more specific role I'm thinking the latter because I've come to recognize similar Perry spawn sex segregation in bluegill - this is a group of cruising bluegills just prior to the bluegill spawn and it's comprised entirely of females from a Vantage beneath the water you can see their eggs fallen bellies okay let's revisit this group of large females this was a staging group that got to go ahead to move on to a spawning Bank I call such strings of large early arrivals parades because they closely follow each other nose to tail while exploring spawning areas the initial early spawning waves are often composed of large individuals the very largest in a given water this is because the largest individuals tend to spawn first having acquired the necessary nutritional energy they need for the final maturation of their eggs the smallest individual adults the latest matures tend to spawn last early spawning has potential advantages giving successful broods that jumped on growth making later broods of food source for those spawned earlier again cannibalism is common amongst best early spawning is potentially risky though because of the greater chance of inclement weather that can result in brood losses especially in small waters that are more susceptible to temperature fluctuations [Music] spawning beds are situated on firm substrate in warm shallow sunlit water protected from wind and wave action that might disturb them bed depth is often dependent on water clarity with beds able to be placed deeper in clearer waters males are the sole preparers of the bed site with their tails and lower fins they remove silt that could smother eggs and young fry it appears that most bed clearing activity happens in the morning [Music] when the timing is right parades break up and individual females cruise shorelines looking for males with territories to pair with here's a pair just prior to spawning can you tell which is the female size isn't always the best determinant especially in waters with poor growth potential the female is often the paler of the two and has an egg distended belly the male is a bit darker less heavily patterned and slimmer that said shade and pattern can change rapidly depending on lighting and the individual fish's mood here's another pair in a pond with better growth potential the female is pretty obvious in this case defecation involved show that they were recently feeding but this will change their focus narrows in on each other and the bed site after the bed is prepared in the pair formed it's now a waiting game what are they waiting for now well not only is there a seasonal spawning period and weather and likely moon induced windows of spawning activity but there are daily windows as well the majority of spawning activity in my small northern waters happens in the warmth and low light of the afternoons and evenings this pair is in what I've come to call classic pose at a bed site the male is a smaller individual on the shoreline shelf where the bed is located the female is holding just outside suspended over deeper water this arrangement is recognizable throughout the spawn with the male's holding territories on the shallow shelves and the females holding outside again the vast majority of spawning occurs in the reduced lighting of the afternoon especially under cloud cover or in the evenings very little spawning apparently occurs at night however likely because of the role that vision plays in the courtship behaviors that lead up to spawning [Music] as afternoon approaches courtship behavior begins in earnest soliciting is first this male is soliciting actively often rapidly cruising just beyond the bedside looking to attract a receptive female to his bed here comes a pair of females and the soliciting male intercepts me he loops out ahead of them and uses contact with the females cheek to turn her in toward the bed let's look at this again one female responds positively I'll be it weekly by ritualistically rolling to shell aside this affirmative behavior will intensify as the afternoon wears on here's a male guiding receptive female on to the bed she rolls on her side as the male approaches and does headstands it's been reported and often passed around that the male must drive the female to the bed but this has not been the case in my observations it's true that males are aggressive during the spawn period this is because they will be defending the bed and eggs and brood for the entire reproductive period it appears the male's primary move during the reproductive period is that of aggression directed toward nearly anything that moves in their stake territory but receptive females are coaxed to enter and the females are equally interested participants commonly the male intercepts then heads straight to the bed and the female follows rather than being forced let's visit a spawning pair this is pair 13e and we'll revisit him throughout the reproductive period the first thing we see here is inspection behavior described earlier the pair having to make a decision about the significance of the intruding camera the female is now fully committed and the male stimulates her with contact to her belly flanks and vent egg dropping happens in short intervals and continues for one to three hours and a female may stay with a male for a couple of days female baths may spawn with more than one male over the course of the Swan period if their hormones are bent on cranking out eggs [Music] you males alone tend the brood this male is locked to the bed a sure indication that he is received and is tending AIDS prior to this a male's activity around the bed is loose he defending a fairly wide territory around the bed itself prior to receiving eggs the male is easily moved away from the bed or even temporarily away from its territory by the presence of a human or other bass predator but with eggs in the beds the male is much less willing to move off of it as the brood matures parental investment goes up by the time the eggs hatch the male is quite approachable being much less willing to leave the bed an invested male can be persuaded to leave the bed however with the right stimulus a threat to his brood [Music] the first tip is to primary husbandry jobs is to aggressively defend his brood from predators here are male spies an intruder and leaves the bed to run it off you can see the white flash as he flares his mouth at the intruder probably a bluegill let's see what this looks like underwater bluegills can be persistently pesky predators of eggs and fry in excessive numbers they can greatly affect bass reproductive success blue gills tend to know whether they are too big to be handled by the particular bass however although this bluegill is a bit large for this bass to handle the bass could still put a hurtin on blue gills also know which into the bass is the dangerous one and they know to circle around and approach from behind notice how much positioning and repositioning is going on between the two they look like two fighter planes trying to get into advantageous position on each other here's where things get a little more interesting suddenly the bass realizes he has a positional advantage on the bluegill and he takes advantage here's another such opportunity the bluegill gets himself corralled against the shallow shoreline and the bass recognizes the advantage let's take another look in slow motion you can see the bass set up the angle for the attack knowing full well that the bluegill must go in a certain direction the blue gills escape path is suddenly predictable males are surprisingly sharp-eyed and will flare and bited intruders of all sizes I've even had them approach and make biting gestures at me while I stood on the bank above them just as spring I watched a male drive off a very large snapping turtle by repeated attacks to the turtles head he succeeded the same male was very aggressive even aggressive toward the camera any movement the camera made and he was on it here's a male bass dry large female gizzard shad who is looking for a mate of her own comically or tragically she is attracted by the active male basses cruising activity as gizzard shad spawn on the fly broadcasting their eggs chased by an entourage of suitors our male bass is also attracted to the actions of the shed but with very different intent after a male has received eggs he becomes less tolerant of the females presence she and subsequent females looking to spawn are also defended against likely this ensures that his brood develops in synchrony allowing the male to defend them more effectively as his behavior changes over the course of the broods development he becoming more aggressive the males second husbandry task is to keep the brood viable by Fanning them free of silt in stagnant water that could suffocate them the male does this with his lower fins using primarily his wide pectoral fins here's male 13 II the one we had watched spawning on day 3 post spawn you can see the current generated by the basses pectorals in the algae beneath him eggs hatch in three to five days depending on water temperature the yolk fries stay in the interstice is of the substrate until the yolk is absorbed in the mussels swim bladder in mouth parts develop in another week or so the swim bladder inflates and the fry reached the swim up stage here's male 13 II on day 16 his brood has just started the swim up stage his brood of tiny swim up fry looked like a bluish gray haze in the bottom of the bed with the yolk sacs now fully absorbed from here on out the tiny fry must begin feeding just a day later day 17 the brood is up and swimming and expanding its range from the bed you can see that their bellies are now swollen with the abundant soul plankton that makes up their first food the tiny fry are initially helpless and pretty much unaware of potential dangers around them they rely entirely on dad to defend them male 13 II and his brood day 18 the defending male is no longer tied to the bed site but to the massive fry which are now free swimming defending the brood is no small task as the brood expands its range the male must work triple time to defend them [Music] with the fries increased mobility the male has more territory to defend while the interest of the sunfish and other small bats in the pond increases the task seems monumental especially considering that the male hasn't eaten in over a month in fact in the northern part of the large mouths range it's been found that males may only be able to afford to spawn every other year many fry swarms will have moved away from the bed site even away from the shoreline but can still be located by the aggressive movements of the tending male revealed by the wakes he throws in defending his brood you can tell these wakes from rising blue gills and cruising carp by the intermediate size of the wake the height of the standing wave and by the looping turns the male makes as he circles his territory around the brood now let's go under the water and take a fish side view of a male basis job using two cameras our mail has good reason to be vigilant there's a horde of hungry son fishes collecting up around his brood ready to snatch up any fry they can get a bead on [Music] we're now roughly a month post-spawn and are surviving Fri have matured into fingerlings having developed rudimentary adult features and behaviors they no measure a bit over an inch in length and they look and act like well bass the male is still with them but won't be for much longer that the brood begins to break up into smaller unmanageable groups fingerlings are much more capable swimmers and hunters and much more aware of the world around them than they were try the fingerling stage lays the foundation for a life as an active predator in a complex world we'll revisit these guys later in our next behavior video and follow their development toward the impressive predators they'll eventually become post spawn females appear to be in an internal hormonal transition period and shifting from egg production back to feeding you'll see them restlessly cruising stretches of shoreline looking for another potential mating opportunity or staging in or near cover often on vertical cover as many are still high on the water column still it's spawning death this may explain why vertical isolated cover and slow top orders are often effective fishing tactics for large post spawn bands do you see the scuff marks on this female's upper cheek I'm guessing this is where her mate was bumping her while guiding her to the nest during courtship you'll also see these females staking claim on a bed site in classic clothes however most males are already tending broods I've come to call these late females hanging around bed sites hangers because it appears their hormones don't match those of the males at this economy hangers those females that continue to feel the urge late are often large ones in the far south largemouth females in good body condition may spawn more than once in the prolonged southern spawning season this may be why I see large females still in spawning mode so late my northern waters they can afford it large females then it appears tend to spawn the earliest and may hang on the latest in contrast the remaining reproductive males those that aren't already tending broods are often the very smallest the latest matures many not more than 10 or 11 inches in length the window closes on them quickly however as the females reproductive hormones wane and the Restless roaming turns to hunting however this doesn't preclude many males from trying by the end of the spawn fungal infections may begin to develop on the Bass's bodies indicating the level of stress these fish have experienced it's been found that not all bats in fact most do not participate in spawning every year some may even succumb to the stress this is particularly true of males whose job is an especially long and arduous one females are hungry coming out of the spawn once their hormones give way although they appear low in energy at this time they come out of the spawn at a good time however with the food chain fired up and favorite prey species themselves becoming preoccupied with spawning from here on it's pretty much all about the food this change in focus shifts our behavioral story from the spring to one of summer the final chapter or the beginning of the next four adult bath begins with a reverse migration away from spawning locations to summer feeding locales exactly where these places are depends on the prevalent prey species and the predilections of the individual bests themselves there are many ways for this amazingly capable predator to make a living and a healthy population of Basque learns to exploit them all [Music]

Channel: The Nature of Fishing

Views: 518,388

Rating: 4.9436922 out of 5

Keywords: Largemouth, Bass, Bass Fishing, Fishing, Behavior, Spawn, Spawning, Underwater, Pre-spawn, Post-Spawn, PreSpawn, PostSpawn, Bed, Documentary, Largemouth Bass Documentary, Bigmouth, Glenn Lau, bass biology, biology, ecology, limnology, behavior, behaviour, fish behavior, fish behaviour, spawn spawning, spawn season, season, seasonal, research, fish research, bass, bass fishing, fishing, prespawn, postspawn, underwater, bed, bed fishing, largemouth

Id: hrZIA8dSzsQ

Length: 40min 14sec (2414 seconds)

Published: Sun May 07 2017