My local fishing hole, a roughly 50 acre urban lake in Georgia, has been down about 8 feet since last summer.  it has a lot of shallow cover, but now all of that is out of the water.  They are not planning to raise the water level again until summer.  Will this hurt the spawn?  There really isnt much else in the lake besides the exposed shoreline cover and a creekchannel that is immediately below the current water level.  What happens if the fish spawn but the water is raised before the eggs hatch?

Stable water level has no impact in the spawn, the fish will still build their nests n´stuff, the problem begins when the water is being drawn from the lake during the spawn, today they make their nest and tomorrow the nest is above the water level.

The other problem is finding suitable spawning habitat. One of my local lakes is drawn down probably 5-7 feet and the normal,spawning locations are dry and the lake drops off pretty sharply in most spots. Luckily there are still some spots that can support spawning so hopefully they do ok.

Lake water fluctuation during the spawn can have a catastrophic impact on that year class. Very low survival rates occurr that can eliminate a recruitment class of bass fingerlings. This is a common problem with reservoirs that draw water down during the spawning cycle or raise the water level quickly, leaving the nest site high and dry or under cold water, both kill off that spawn. Bass are resilient fish and usually spawn in more then one cycle....they don't put all their eggs in one nest so to speak. Some nest sites will produce some fingerlings. Without good cover the fingerlings tend to become a food source, resulting in very low recruitment of that year class.

Tom