Hey all, I'd consider myself a relatively newer bass fisherman and this year I've been determined to up my craft and fish as much as I can.  A few weeks ago, I posted a topic regarding only catching small bass.  Up until this last weekend, I was able to snag at least 5-10 small baby bass per trip with the occasional perch... no big ones yet.

 

Last weekend though, I went twice and didn't catch not one fish.  This week, I also went again and got skunked.  All of the trips have been around 4pm.. so maybe I'm just going at the wrong time.  

 

I asked this guy I see on the lake every so often if he's had any luck catching the big ones... and his response was "Yeah, they're deep.. late spawn".  Since, I've attempted a variety of different lures in the deeps and still have yet to score a large one.  And, to top it off, I haven't been able to catch ANY the last three trips.

 

Anyway, tomorrow I'm going to rule out the time of day by going super early and see if my luck changes.

 

What does "late spawn" mean and how does it affect my fishing?  Is the time, early evening, not a great time to fish as well?

 

 

Bass don't spawn deep.... He was probably just spilling jibberish to look like he knew what he was doing haha

Bass are deep this time of year from the weather and where the baitfish/thermocline are...

It means the spawn was late so instead of the fish being shallow by now they are still out deep recovering from the spawn. 

 

Bass spawn goes something like this, but its not textbook

 

1. male comes in and makes a bed

2. females come in and lay eggs after sitting on the bed for a bit

3. male fertilizes eggs and protects it while female goes deep

4. male protects it until the fry hatch and then protects the fry until they leave

5. male goes deep. 

6. after a week or so they start to get hungry again and look for food. Either out deep or up on shore. 

Also, I'm not sure where you are located but if you are up north your spawn could have been just a month ago. I know where I just was on vacation they were bringing in spawning bass (filleting them) up until late June. Down south they have been done for 4-5 months. 

Lol that makes since ^^ the guy I said was spilling jibberish is probably some pro that has won millions lol

I'm up north, Jersey specifically  I've fished mainly in my private lake community lake for most of my life and had majority of the success close to shore.  This is the first year I'm actually going out a couple of times a week trying to find the 'big one'.