Worried about this years hatch

[Lucky Duck]

Been reading reports last 2 wks of spawned out females being caught east of bass islands.With full moon today that should trigger the rest of females to lay their eggs.If can get clearing water the hair jig bite should heat up the next two weeks before transition to harness and spoons.That started May 6th last year.

Interesting things Bob. Now the next questions I will ask you are:

1. Why do the females spawn with the full moon?
2.Does the jig bite just heat up due to the clearer water? Simply because they can see the bait better?
3. You touched on this last week about the switch over to spoons in May Bob, but I thought many people continue to pull crank baits into late spring and summer. Can you talk about why spoons and spinners with worms are a good bet and why some charters like Pooh Bear switch?
Thanks,
Bruce

[branhamautomotive]

normally somewhere when water temps are in the mid 50s is when the bite starts to switch over, but cranks can and do get fish all summer, but it just might be a different stick.

as summer comes in shallower bandits, wiggle wart, hot n tots, tails dancers all work well. at night when you dont have the flash from the sun caused by a spinner, cranks still are used.

I know I like to switch over to spoons as soon as it works, they are much easier to get out of the net.

last weekend most of the females still carried eggs we caught, it was only the biggest ones that appeared to have already done their thing.

there are lots of animals that spawn during moon cycles....might be a vision thing, a tide thing, I really dont know but it's a interesting thing to ponder

[itsbob]

I could be wrong on this but when reading Jim Steadke thread,he said the females come on to the reefs at night to spawn and then head out to the deeper water adjacent to the reefs during the day.Think the full moon is a cue for the fish to spawn based on best time to lay eggs.The deer doe supposedly use the moon too to go into heat.Both trolling and jigging is effected by water clarity.When water colder fish are more lathergic and will not chase at higher speeds drifting or trolling.The guys jig spoons initially in the real cold water and in very dirty water.The hair jig bite seams to heat up later when warms a little and needs a little cleaner water.The hair jig bite seams to catch mainly male fish in shallow water on the reefs or the beaches.You can catch walleye all year long trolling crankbaits.You are not going to catch much trolling spoons or harnesses below 50degrees though.Not exactly sure,but the walleye have been this way for a long time now.Sorry for writing in one long paragraph but doing on my phone and can't do it any other way.

[itsbob]

Thanks Ben,looks like we wrote this response at same time.When I talked to Keith,Pooh bear captain,said he can't wait for spoon bite to start.The charter guys using big boards,tru trip 40s and spoons is a deadly setup.They can get those TT 40s out faster and shorter leads,less tangles than the cranks they are running now.The bite is also faster and fewer missed hits too.