Double Spawn?

[Trav]

Over the years of fishing Taneycomo I have stumbled on alot of strange things but it never fails that in september and early October I will see female Bass full of eggs and even spot a few beds. Not alot, just a few every fall.

Now I have looked up the phenom and asked around about it but nobody seems to understand(or they dont believe me) what would would trigger fall hormones. I even had one guy say I live on a wierd lake...haha.

Has anyone else seen this before on Taney or any other lake?

I have fished in 28 of the 48 and 4 foriegn countrys. Done tourney trails and even guided for many years and I have only seen this on Taney.

[loo10]

Don't know what causes this phenomenum but

I'm a multiple spawner myself.

[snagged in outlet 3]

Hey Rich

I think he means twice a year, not twice a lifetime. Kidding, just kidding.

SIO3

[Trav]

You guys are no help! Haha

I have asked this question to dozens of people. No one has a logical response.

I did read an article a couple years back that striped bass farmers in california could minipulate the timing of spawning fish with a combination of climate control and water chemistry. But that is all done in a controlled setting. Designed to stagger spawning fish to have hatches on a weekly/monthly calender.

Asked a family member who is a bioligist for a texas catfishing farm and he said that if you pull females from one envirenment and subject them to stress right before they produce eggs they will spawn later in the year but he said it was moot since males rarely respond in like manner in the wild.

None of that explains september bass sitting on beds and full of eggs in Taneycomo.

[fly2fish]

What area of the lake are you seeing this in? The upper end toward the dam has warmer water temps now than during the summer. The temps during the summer were mid to upper 40's now they are in the lower 50's. If it is temps that are trigger the spawn in the upper areas this may be the reason.

[Trav]

Always below Roark creek, mostly around mile 9 to powersite. In september the creeks and inlets are usually at thier warmest, mid to upper 60s. Unless the Bass are coming from the main lake wich is low 50s and get confused. But if that was the case we would have spawn year round....not just in spring and fall.

[WebFreeman]

Maybe it has to do w/ a combo of water temp and lower light. Maybe September and april have similar levels of light and water temps. I'm just making stuff up, but it seems almost logical. (Keep in mind I have taken a biology class since I was a freshman in high school.)

[Trav]

Wouldnt the shortening of daylight trigger what is known up north as the hiber feed? Where fish eat everything to fatten up for ice over? I have cousins that live in Canada and they say that the walleye will run 60 miles a day in the Fall. Granted nothing freezes here.

I am almost positive it has something to do with water temp somehow. Just cant see the pattern.

Some questions might be, Are they really spawning again or are they waiting till fall to spawn at all? And, Is the fall spawn consummated or is it just moot hormones?

Need to get some of those GPS tags and follow a few bass around for a couple years.

[SteveP]

Talked to a fisheries biologist friend of mine today and I posed this question to him. H First off I thought he was oing to come out of his chair and jupm up and down, he said he wrote a senior thesis on this in college (umpteen million years ago) and the teacher told him his train of thought was totally off and inconlclusive. But he said that it does have to do with the shorter day... now the water temps do have a major factor in there but the "critical light dark period" is what truly triggers the spawn and causes females to "cycle" but is does not have that effect on the males very offten. So yea it does happen but as far as an actual "spawn" no it doesn't really happen.

Steve

[Daddy Carp]

This has been wittnessed by several in the Rockaway Beach area of the lake. There were bass sitting on nests. Hard to believe, but "we see'd it within our own eyes"! I've been told that it is not uncommon on this lake.

Don't know about that but I saw what I seen and seen what I saw. Now all I have to do is try to believe my eyes.