Hot and bothered ... about the spawn

I'm hearing a lot of people talking about the spawn being off for panfish and bass. I'm also hearing the panfish on most area lakes are hitting and hitting hard.

But one such angler recently said after a good run of sunfish on Madison Lake that upon cleaning them, the fish were all full of eggs.

Nearly three weeks ago, I caught a 19-inch bass that barely weighed 3 pounds. A female, its belly looked about as skinny as it could be, so I naturally figured the bass in the area had spawned.

Not even a week ago, I caught a 14-inch female bass in the same spot on the lake, and it was full of eggs.

So what does this all mean?

Well, personally, I think the weather has had a lot to do with it. Every time our area waters start to reach those magical temperatures, the weather gets cool or down right cold.

Think of this past week of weather. We were seeing 50s and 60s during the day, 40s and 50s at night. I think it's awfully tough for water temperatures to warm when there isn't enough warmth in the air to raise those temperatures.

I figure a good week of warm weather and sunshine should help finish off the spawn in the lake I fish most often, but in larger lakes, spawning stages will vary throughout the lake.

Which brings us back to the sunfish, which had surprised this angler. He figured the spawn should have already been done.

Considering sunfish spawn later than crappies and need warmer water to do so, I don't find it odd to see sunfish still spawning. Most of the temps I'm hearing from people in the area are low to mid 60s. This is just below the magic temps for sunfish, but a great temperature range for bass and crappies.

As for walleyes, well those tough, cold-water fish spawn when the water temps creep into the low 40s and ends when the temps reach 50ish. So walleye should be good to go.

One last thing on the spawning period of fish in our area. A long time ago, this guy fishing an area lake from shore decided to pass along some wisdom to me.

He told me to always concentrate my energies on the parts of the lake that warm fastest. So I went home and started researching what parts of a lake would logically warm the fastest.

Aside from the obvious shallow-water answer, I've learned something about as obvious — the northern and western parts of a lake warm faster because those parts of the lake soak up the most sunlight throughout the day.

So consider where you are fishing on that area lake. Could you be finding fish in the northern parts that have spawned, while the fish in the southern and eastern parts of the lake are spawning or are in the prespawn?

In all, make notes of the temps from the various parts of the lake you fish. Watch for shallows with temperatures in the IT zone, and go to work on those fish.