On beds?

[Cwallis]

Anyone been seeing any fish on beds in the rivers yet. We been flat hammering them up until last week. Not enough fishing time on count of only going when the river drops. Since last week it hasn’t been a good bite for me. Would love to blame the cold front or beds instead of my own skills. What is everyone seeing?  I have not laid eyes on a bed yet. 

[Wart 57]

On 5/14/2019 at 6:15 AM, Cwallis said:

Anyone been seeing any fish on beds in the rivers yet. We been flat hammering them up until last week. Not enough fishing time on count of only going when the river drops. Since last week it hasn’t been a good bite for me. Would love to blame the cold front or beds instead of my own skills. What is everyone seeing?  I have not laid eyes on a bed yet. 

When does bass season open on the rivers ?

[Cwallis]

Not sure. I think the 31st. In all my years of fishing rivers I have never kept a fish. 

[timinmo]

Cwallis

Fished today did not see any beds.  Fishing was slow.

[Al Agnew]

Tough to see beds in the high, murky water.  They should have already been on beds beginning back in April, but the regular rises might be really messing with them.  Could end up being a very sporadic spawn, or possibly if the rains stop, a late spawn.  I do know I caught a 17 inch female on the Meramec yesterday that still appeared to be full of eggs.

[Cwallis]

That’s why I’m wondering about beds. We’ve fished every time the river has been fishable. Will be out of the country for over a week after Friday, and today the river looked great so I imagine should be a good weekend to hit the river if I could. I just noticed the last couple times out the bite was tough so didn’t know what everyone was seeing. 

[Gavin]

Just don’t bed fish for any species. Was fun but it’s no good for the fish. Do for awhile to get it out of your desires but I don’t consider it fair chase. A couple hours of practice and I can bump noses, floss fish, force feed in their mouth . Snag in the bunghole if I want. It is not fishing. The fish has to move  to the lure to make it fair. Fish a big swim jig 1/2 3/4 with a 5” paddle tail on the back or a spinner bait, crankbait. Sight fishing is only fair chase when there is nothing to hold the fish to the spot.

[Cwallis]

Can’t say I don’t agree. My concern is I was wondering why the bite has slowed down so much. Thought that could be an option so was getting observation and opinions. I’m more of an aggressive angler. I throw crankbaits a majority of the time and rarely throw in finesse unless I think it’s necessary. With that being said bed fishing isn’t my thing and I hope it didn’t come off that way. 

[timinmo]

I don't think anyone on this thread said they bed fished. 

While my stream had more color than usual, I probably had 3 foot of visibility.  For over 20 years my brother and I did multi-day floats in the second half of May.  On rare occasions  we would see beds but most of the time the spawn was over.  We all know that this spring has had a lot of high water and maybe that has delayed the spawn.  

In any case we caught a few fish and none of the fish we caught seemed to be in any stage of the spawn.  

[npierceuark]

Floated a river in the far SW corner of MO last thursday and where there was calm water and clean gravel, there were beds. Feeding was slow and the typical lures that produce on that stretch weren't working. I sat over a few of the bedding areas and watched for awhile. Males were corralling the females, lots of action down there