When does the spawn usually start in NC? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

The spawning season is a very protracted period and includes the pre-spawn, spawn and post-spawn stages.

When anglers refer to the spawning peak this is often the pre-spawn peak, when the cows

are still biting. Florida's spawn embraces almost half a year, but most would agree that "March"

is the most productive month. In New Jersey, "May" is the peak spring month, so in your region

"April" would pretty much nail it.

It all depends on the water temperature, when it hits about 53 degrees they will start to move in and when it hits 57 degrees they will really start spawning. So I would also say around april.

Pre-Spawn starts when the water temps get into the mid 50's. The fish could be in this pattern for a long time. They are in that pattern right now here in Georgia only because the water temps have risen back up to the mid 50's. The Spawn won't happen till April though unless this warmup keeps on going. Now if and when a good cold front comes in and cools the water back down into the 40's they will go back to there winter haunts. Start looking for bedding bass when the water reaches 55 degrees and continue to look until it is in the mid to high 60s. I caught bedding bass last year in water temps of 68-70 degrees, but I think this was the exception to the rule.

At 53-55 degrees you should start to see buck bass in the shallows searching for a place to make a bed or in the process of making a bed. Back out of the shallows and find a ditch of some sort that leads toward those shallows. This should be where the big females are hanging out. Fish this ditch all the way out do the creek channel with anything that can stay in contact with or close to the bottom. I like spinnerbaits or C-Rig lizards or crawfish.

At 56-57 degrees you should be seeing bedding or courting activity. At the very beginning of the bedding process you might see females cruising the shallows looking for a good bed. If you see this they will still bite so toss something in front of them like a Jig or suspending jerk bait. You might also see buck bass trying to push females towards the beds they have prepared. If this is happening you can still catch them, but they will be locked on to the bed in less than 24hours. This will be the peak of their spawn. The spawn can last for as little as a week to over a month. When one bass is finished spawning there will be others to come in and take it's place. Start looking at the Northwestern parts of the lake or coves first. They will be the first to warm up. Then as the days go by work your way down the lake. The last place on the lake or cove the bass usually will spawn will be the most southeastern parts of it.

As with any thing to do with bass fishing, they don't always follow the rules. So be ready for anything.

Can't say about N.Carolina, but here on the SE coast of Florida the spawn has definitly begun.  water temp today was 67 at 10am and so was the air temp.   By noon water temp was 68 and air was 71.