Wanted to hear a few opinions on this. Heard mixed reviews but from my experience it seems fairly true that bass will typically not spawn around and they are much harder to catch.. If you are seeing a bunch of gar & carp in an area do you still fish it or crank up and go somewhere else? Don't get me wrong i've still caught some bass in these areas but year over year it seems like some of these areas become more infested with carp and gar and the spots become significantly less productive

FWIW, I've seen bass swimming along with a school of small gar in the shallows of a bayou down here. They share similar habitat. But when you start catching bowfin and buffalo fish, the water quality is definitely too poor (deeply muddy/low in oxygen) for bass and it's time to move along.

Many fisherman believe gar and bass do not coexist.  If they see gar in the water, they want to move to a better neighborhood.  Gar are part of the ecosystem.  It's true gar and bowfin (mudfish in the south) can live in water with less oxygen.   This does not mean gar and bowfin seek out these areas.  If there is life in the water, there are mostly likely bass there too.

There were gar, largemouth, and spots all chowing on a Shad spawn where I was last week 

I fished some bass beds deep into a patch of lillies last week and I saw so many carp near by. The carp and the bass seemed to be separated a little, but they were not far away. I found bass beds in clearer water (maybe becasue I could see better), and carp in dirtier water. I did see some carp near the bass beds, and a few bass beds in the "carpy" water. I would often see carp swimming by while targeting a bed or reeling one in. I did leave some the water where I saw the most carp alone. I couldn't locate beds there, and I was less confident. My theory is that I was fishing some early spawners. I have heard that the bigger fish spawn first, and the shallow, stained lily pads on the north west side of the lake were warmer than the rest of the lake. These bigger males that I was on (3-5lbs) might not get spooked by a carp like a 1-2 lber might. This area holds big bass all year and I believe the carp hang around all year as well. I think it totally depends on the situation at hand.

 

 

I caught a big bowfin on its bed in 12 feet of clear water once during a tournament.....

This depends a lot on the depth of the water and local conditions.  Obviously, you are not going to find many bass in a foot of 90 degree water.   When the water is low in the Everglades canals,  fish have no other place to go.  Everything that swims is in those canals.  I once caught three mudfish off some canal bottom structure in L67. Each one weighed at least 10 pounds.  I was using a 13" worm.  I got a hit shortly thereafter and expected to see another mudfish on my line.  Turned out to be an 8 pound bass.   

If they're just in the area, it's fine. If carp or gar are spawning on a spot, I'm not trying to fish there.

 

I've caught big largemouth mixed in with schools of feeding gar, and big smallmouth mixed in with schools of rooting carp.

Have caught lots of bass in areas with large populations of gar and carp.

When the carp are concentrated and thick in an area, I haven't had much luck right there.  But I don't have to go far.  I spent a lot of time this spring on a stretch of bank that had very distinct neighborhoods of carp and bass....close together,  but not a lot of mingling.

  When I find gars, I tend to stumble into a pile of aggressive ones.  There are bass nearby, but gars just destroy the rattle traps and chatterbaits I favor in those types of areas,  so I avoid them now.  They're pretty predictable and usually visible. 

 

Interesting question, interesting responses, and oddly, I can relate to every response.

 

It’s not likely that spawn-site selection is an annual event based on the presence or absence

of other species. In established lakes, the spawning flats used by gar, carp & bass are well-known,

repeated and virtually epic.

 

Thanks to ‘Territorial Timing’, various species of fish can maintain harmony within the same waterbody.

That is, the same bedding flat used by bass, may be infested with carp during another seasonal period.

Mother Nature doesn’t have the luxury to abide by simplistic observations;

and the intricacy of her master plan boggles our tiny minds.

 

Roger