New to the site. I have been getting a lot more serious with my fishing in the last two years. Just hoping you all might be able to shed some light on this topic. Everything I read on pre spawn conditions says they are in deep waters and traveling back and forth to the shallows. I live in SE Virginia and a lot of spots I fish have max depths of 10-15 feet. Is there that much temp change between those deep spots and the shallows? Or how does shallow water lakes change the whole pre spawn movements/ habits?

Thanks guys

Can't answer your questions other than to say that I fish shallow, weedy water and have caught plenty of pre-spawn fish, including big ones, i.e., big by western NY standards.

Welcome to the site. Can't help you with the spawn but make sure you introduce yourself in the introduction forums.

Deep water is relative to the type of lake or river and the bass that live in those different ecosystem are conditioned to. Bass are cold blooded and their annual calendar is measured from spawn to spawn cycle.

The female bass lays eggs, the male bass fertilizes the eggs, that is the definition of spawn.

Pre spawn is the time prior to spawning, the bass have not moved into to spawning areas, they are staged somewhere else. To know where that staging area is you first need to know where those bass were during the period prior to pre spawn...the cold water winter period. Like depth of water is relative to the type of lake or river, so is the temperature of cold water. Bass must find water during the winter that isn't colder than they can survive in and that magic number for most Black Bass; largemouth, spotted and smallmouth is 39 degrees .Colder than that the DO (dissolved oxygen) are too high, the water is floating toward the surface to freeze at 32 degrees. In lakes that have Florida strain largemouth bass, the lower water temp limit is 45 degrees and this limit their distribution. Shallow water cools and warms faster than deeper water, so the winter bass migrate towards the shallower water that is warming. The bass eggs have been developing for several months and the warming water triggers the spawning cycle. Males move into spawning areas first to establish nest sites, this is your first clue; cruising bass in shallow water, the females are not far away in deeper or water that offers food and sanctuary, that area is called a pre spawn staging area.

Tom