Well, I was hoping that more people would reply to my last post about cool spawn stories. Anyway, the reason I posted that was to investigate. Every year it seems to me that the spawn gets worse and worse. I keep on dreaming of great springtime fishing but it seems to never happen. Does anyone else notice a similar trend? It’s always something; the weather, the water levels, etc. Between all that and the fishing pressure, I wonder if the largemouths are even reproducing at a normal rate. Just a thought, but what if we stopped fishing the spawn for a while? Perhaps certain lakes could be off limits in spring time; this could be rotated to keep the lakes healthy. Wouldn’t it be better in the long run? Wouldn’t there be more fish for every one to catch? I know all of this sounds crazy, so what do you think?

By spawn fishing, I'm thinking you mean sight fishing right?

How good sight fishing is has everything to do with conditions, with the most important factors being water clarity, wind, and the timing of the spring warm up periods.

This year was my best sight fishing year since 2003. It was good for me because I hit a lot of days with good conditions. The result was a 12, a 13 and two 15's. Last year by comparison, there was tough sight fishing conditions at most places due to the prolonged rains in March.

As far as fishing during the spawn goes, the way that you can hurt it is by catching and killing fish. Luckily in California, this is not a huge problem. One of the 15lbers I caught this year, I have caught twice before, at 12lbs and at 14lbs. As long as you practice catch, care, and release, you should enjoy good fishing every spring.

I don't think bed fishing effects most lakes much at all. At some of the lakes I fish during the spawn I will rarely see big fish up shallow and these lakes have alot of big fish. I really think alot of big fish spawn at night and/or spawn deeper than the smaller fish. That would be cool to see some kind of spawning study on big female fish over 8lbs. Some kind of tracker like they put on Marlin that pops off after a couple of months. Then we might get some more info on their habits during the spawn.

I know that in the lakes I fish on the Central Coast (Lopez, Santa Margarita, Naciamento) they will close off certain bays and spawning grounds every year during the spawn. They will rotate the areas that they close from year to year. That is effectively doing what you are suggesting without closing off an entire lake for a period.

This was by far the best year i have seen on the lakes i fish here in So-Cal, including my PB fish 18lbs. a 15, 14, and many more! I dont buy into the theory about the spawn getting worse at all! It might be getting worse on Dixon as nothing big was caught or reported but you can have that lake!
Shawn R.