Bass spwn on LOZ

[Old plug]

This years awh has been somewhat of a mystery on LOZ over large  areas of the lake. I for one was convinced it did not happen for the most part. Then one morning here at the house I seen some fry but was notvsure what they were. Well thos mornig I caught a 17" somewhat skinny bass from a local dock. To make a long story short , it got deep hooked and I could not revive it. So when I filleted it mich to myx surptise it turned out to be a female with eggs. Those eggs though were were tiny and looked a bit bloody.  To me itx appears she was in the process of absorbing her spawn. Seems like hard evendence. 

 

[WeekendWarrior]

That is why nature has a way of making sure the species survives as not all spawn at the same time as you well know. Some may have spawn and others eggs got wiped out. I know I had several that were on beds around dock when the rains came and water came up 3.5 foot and got dirty, sure those got wiped out and others moved in. I know I was still catching crappie that hadn't spawned and were full of eggs that weren't even close. So the ones that did spawn the fry had plenty of cover to make it, more so than when lake was normal. I am sure you still have some spawning fish right now, not many but some.

[Quillback]

The bios claim that big female bass don't lay all their eggs at one time, they can spawn several times.

[fishinwrench]

I bet there's never been a study of whether the growth rates of eggs hatched early in the spring are any different from eggs fertilized at a later date.  

Everyone just assumes that eggs from large fish turn into more large fish (genetics and all) but I've always questioned that theory because it doesn't take into consideration the genetics of the male that fertilized them.  Does that not have an effect?  I bet it does.

[snagged in outlet 3]

33 minutes ago, fishinwrench said:

 Does that not have an effect?  

Yes

[MOPanfisher]

While I don't discount the genetics angle I would suspect that the primary thing affecting growth rates would be amount and availability of food sources and what sort of food, more nutritious food means faster growth rates.  I am intrigued though by a study about how fry from a later spawn grow compared to an earlier one.

[fishinwrench]

14 minutes ago, MOPanfisher said:

While I don't discount the genetics angle I would suspect that the primary thing affecting growth rates would be amount and availability of food sources and what sort of food, more nutritious food means faster growth rates.  I am intrigued though by a study about how fry from a later spawn grow compared to an earlier one.

I would expect all of the fry/fingerlings hatched in LOZ to have equal opportunity to feed, and all to feed upon the same thing. 

It would be interesting to know the ages of fish of varying sizes, and from different areas of the lake.

[MOPanfisher]

Agreed, the only real difference I see would be that early spawners have a very small amount of additional time to eat and grow.  Of course environmental factors will likely overshadow that advantage in the event of rapid lowering or raising of the lake pool.  Would also like to see and age structure of fish and relatative growth rates across the lake.  Most lakes have an arm or area that has more phytoplankton and thus zooplankton which as the basis of the food chain (shad gotta eat too) affects growth rates.

[bfishn]

There could be huge differences in available food type and quantity over just a couple weeks.

[fishinwrench]

A tiny little micro-bass can only eat so much, then it needs some time to digest.   I find it hard to fathom that any of them could possibly starve to death because of being born a week too soon/late. 

When I was a kid and had an aquarium the dude at the guppy getting place was all anal about not OVER FEEDING them, said they'd eat until they killed themselves if food was too plentiful.   Who do we believe?   Nature is seldom a perfect balance, and if all this useless information is even partially valid then it's a miracle that any critter with a pulse can survive long enough to reproduce.