Im new to Eastern Wahington and somewhat new to bassin'. All the info I see and read about concerning seasonal patterns i.e. pre spwan, spawn, post, summer, fall yada yada, seems to mostly apply to southern states that heat up earlier in the year and stay hotter longer. I mean I hear, "when the waters between 60-70 look for em here", or "when the the water's this temp in early spring find em here." Well this is the inland North West, we seem to be lucky if the water ever gets that hot all summer long. so I need to understand how the WA. bass work. I know they arent waiting for the temps to be higher to spawn. so when is the usual spawn season what temps am I actually looking for thing like that..... sorry so long, gotta vent a little too....

PJ

The seasonal cycles are the same, they just happen at a different time than the south.  Usually we're into early pre-spawn this time of year.  But it seems we're about a month off temperature-wise this year.  

When the daytime temps are in the 60's, and the lows in the 40's, we're into pre-spawn.  Look for the majority of the bass population to spawn at the end of May through June.

Water temps don't climb much higher than the mid-70's during the summer.

Hope that helps!

Yea that does help thanks, now I at least have a starting point. cheers

PJ

You will find some of the fisheries...Banks Lake, Moses Lake....Long Lake in Spokane will frequently have large areas where water will rise to the 80s...Saw 90s in Long Lake when they quit pushing water through the system.

Great when it gets that way for those certain areas have flotsum/weed rafts that will amass in coves and get stuck in chutes and will concentrate fish....Great Flippin stuff!!

PJ,

First, get a copy of the In-fisherman "Handbook of Strategies", either largemouth, smallmouth, or both. This is a great starter. Along with A LOT more, it'll give you regional ballpark's on your question.

More locally:

Small shallow waters warm (and cool) quicker than larger ones. Diff can be a month or more, dependent on volume of water, distribution and configurations of shallow areas in the given water body.

Good luck. Enjoy!

-Paul