well so i schedualed my trip 3 days before the full moon and on the hottest day since october ( almost 80 F) . got to the pond at around 10am and until 4 or 5pm. the water was stained and u could see about 8 inches with a naked eye and 4 feet deep and 10 feet out with palorized sunglasses. i waited until about noon or so for more fish to pull up into the shallows since we've been having some 3 or so days of stable nice warm weather. heres where things got bad:

there was an unbelievable amount of small bass from 8 inches to 1 pound swimming everywhere along with bluegills, small carp, HUGE carp, sunnies and a few snakes that i stumbled upon. but they were not of my concern. I then saw this. Every 20 feet there would be a 2-3 lb bass on the bed, and 7 to 8 lb female and often times more then one, two to three feet away from the bed.
The male was on the bed and he would chase away the bluegills and small carp and whatnot. then females that were right near the bed, but would actually come onto the bed for not more than 2 seconds, also chased away bluegills or thats what it seemed like. Those bigger fish that were a few feet away from the bed were also rolling. like one next to another one of the fish would swim on its side and doing some undescribeble manuevers. ( why were they rolling? i always thoguth it was the male and female on the bed that would be rolling)
So what were these fish doing? had they already spawned and the females kind hanged around the bed? ( thats what ive been alsys reading) or were they just beginning to spawn ? please clear my mind.
This was my first time fishing the spawn. I tried catching them. The males that would speed towards the sunnies and bluegills would chase em away but they would not hit my baits. and the females that were a few feet off the bed would simply ignore my baits, even a reaction bite. maybe thats because i was right on the fish and they always saw me. i couldn't get away because they would spawn under these over hanging trees and stuff and because i was fishing from the band there was really nowhere to go. I was about 5 feet away from the fish.

NO matter what i would throw to these fish i would not get any kind of reaction from them but maybe spook em away sometimes. well i managed to catch a male on a 1 once tungsten weight and a crawbug. He was about 2 pounds maybe 2 1/4.

So talk to me what were the fish doing? have they already spawned? or just begging ? why wouldn't the male pick up my bait and carry it away from the nest ? was it because the fish always saw me?
I need you to help me out here because seing those 7 to 8 pounders and not being able to catch really tore me apart. Please help

Thanks

Sometimes prespawn females will intentionally rub and bump their sides into a stump, log or firm bottom to loosen up their eggs in preparation for laying them. This may have been what they were doing while rolling on their sides. I have seen this as well.

I find when a female is not locked onto a bed I have a much better chance of catching the fish from a distance with a stealthy presentation. It seems like when they are just "hovering" around the bed they are difficult to catch when they are tipped off to my presence. My advice would be to remember the location of the bed and come back later, stay back as far as you can and still make a good presentation.

This scenario can be frustrating at times. Good luck.

thanks for the feedback

at this point i really think that the reason i couldnt catch em was so they saw me. i mean they really saw me. I was prolly less than 10 feet away from the beds. I think that what was happening is the bass have just spawned and the females are hanging off the bed. they will ussualy stay around the bed for two weeks and then move off. while the bucks guard the fry.

Thanks for your reply Jig.

anyone else?