#0403 "Smallmouth Bass - Still Swimmin'"

This is a 10 inch long smallmouth bass, micropterus dolomieu, painted on a slab of black walnut taken from a tree cut down on Jack and Golda Brydon's property in Schomberg. This fish doesn't have to swim - it floats anyway.
Smallmouth bass characteristics:

• green to olive back and sides
• yellow to white belly
• body often has dark vertical broken bars
• 9 to 11 dorsal fin spines
• shallow notch between dorsal fins
• upper jaw does not extend beyond eye
• jump out of the water like Polaris missiles

Now for some science... As spring advances, bass start preparing for the spawning season. Bass feed heavily prior to the spawning ritual because they know that during the 10 to 14 days of spawning they will not feed at all. As the water warms above 50 degrees Fahrenheit, bass change their primary forage to a high-protein diet. One can use a can-opener to catch bass both before and during the nesting season when the male fish aggressively defends the nest. Angling for bass weeks prior to the official season opening pulls the male fish off the nesting beds. The eggs and fry are consumed within a couple of minutes and certainly within the time frame it takes for the fish selfie image on-board the boat. Taking fish selfies constitutes angling and is a chargeable offence. Some of these fish are kept illegally for early season fish fries as enforcement of the game laws is almost non existent. A study conducted in Charleston Lake examined how handling stress and brood predation associated with spring catch‐and‐release angling influenced parental care behaviors. Ultimately angled bass were less willing or less able to defend their broods. The male smallmouth bass typically just abandoned their nest.

As is the case with sunfishes and basses, the male is responsible for nest site selection, construction, guarding eggs and fry. Bass will use lots of different types of substrates for nests. Bass often start their nests by sweeping a thin layer of soft muck off the pond bottom and then clean a crater-shaped area to expose hard bottom that might include roots, twigs, gravel, sand, with clam and snail shells.

Smallies typically spawn about 10 days before largemouths. Not all mature male smallies excavate nests each year. A couple studies have shown that often less than one-half of the males build nests and sometimes only 25% of the males will build nests in any given year (Bayliss et al 1993, Hoff 1991). These studies found the larger, more experienced males tended to produce more successful nests compared to smaller, younger males.

When water temperatures reach 59 or 60F, the male starts cruising the shallows in 2 to 5 feet of water as he looks for vulnerable food items and inspects for a suitable nest location. Smallie nests have been found in a wide variety of waters as shallow as 10 inches and up to 10 feet deep.

After several warming periods and waters warm to stable temperatures of 62 to 64F, the male chooses a site and begins nest construction. A few smallies have been seen spawning at 70F. If there is a water temperature drop of just 5 to 8 degrees the male will often desert the nest, even if it has eggs in it. A spring storm that mixes the water and produces cooling can be disastrous for a bass nest.

Observations revealed most nest construction occurs in early morning. The circular depression created for the nest most often ranges from 12" to 70" across and is excavated 2" to 4" into the bottom materials. Sometimes the male will abandon the first construction site and then build a second one that usually serves as the final nest. Time spent building the nest ranges from 4 to 48 hours. Construction time depends a lot on if the male is building the nest in a new undisturbed area that needs a lot of cleaning or is using an older, relatively clean nest site.

Early research revealed smallie females often contain eggs with different developmental stages. If the first nest fails to produce fry, the male will sometimes attempt to spawn a second time. The female can lay up to 21,100 eggs, which are guarded by the male in his nest. Cooler air and water temperatures later in the season sometimes initiate a second spawn.

Studies have found most nest locations were on the west and north shores of lakes. Another study concluded areas sheltered from direct wind and wave actions resulted in the most nests. Perhaps the correct type of bottom material at the correct water depth are the two most important items for successful spawning of smallmouth bass. When available, smallies almost always choose a nest location that has fewer plant materials and that contain coarse sand, gravel, rock rubble, and sometimes even just bedrock. When given a choice of a variety of substrates to build a nest, smallies usually choose coarse gravel or gravel mixed with rocks, larger stones or rock rubble. The best rocks and rubble range from the size of quail eggs to fist sized cobble. Older males often use their old nest or choose a site close to last year's nest.

When the weather gets colder, and the water temperature drops below 15 C (60 F), smallmouth will often migrate in search of deeper pools in which they enter a semi-hybernation state, moving sluggishly and feeding very little until the warm season returns. The migration patterns of smallmouth have been tracked and it is not unusual for a smallmouth to travel 12 miles in a single day in a stream, creek or river. The overall migration can exceed 60 miles.

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