two questions:

1. what is the survival rate for hatchling bass?

2. what would you throw at adult bass that appear to be feeding on their own offspring?

i have come accross the adults nailing their offspring the last two times i was on a particular spot.  they blow up every 15 minutes or so and the feeding frenzy lasts for about 10-15 seconds.  i had some moderate luck throwing a small black spinner bait in the boils but then they stopped hitting that.

swim baits? rat-l-traps?  help.  it's killing me seeing them going crazy and being unable to bring em in.

I don't know the exact figures for survial rates of bass hatchlings, but it has to be very low.  It also depends on how you define survival i.e.  one week, one month, one year etc.

As for what to throw, this would be a classic "match the hatch" situation.

How big are the fingerlings right now.  Pick a minnow imitation in a bass finish in that size and you should be in business.  If you can't duplicate it exactly I would use a watermelon worm, trim to approxametly the size of the little bass and finesse it or dropshot.

I agree with Avid, I know rapala makes some pretty small Shad Raps in baby bass color, that oughta do the trick.  Maybe try a small watermelon seed grub on a jighead if all else fails.

I would use a Matzuo Nano-Minnow in that situation. With a split shot or two..

Rapala has a small minnow. But the colors are all wrong for "Match the Hatch" fishing

Matzuo has some green and silver Nano-Minnows. I put a black stripe down the side with a marker and it has produced excellant the last few years..

Just A Thought

GuideDog

senko weightless.  watermelon/cream or a tiki stick-babybass/pearl.  i would fish it in a jerk & pause motion and it should trigger a strike.  if they are feeding on their young, they should like on that is  dying.  by the way, this is another advantage to letting bass spawn and not take fish off the beds.  good luck

Do bass always eat their young or are they eating their neighbors young? Or do they only do this when times are tough? Does someone know more about this. This really intrigues me?!?! ike

the bass in my lake were doing the same thing yesterday (feeding off their young).. anyways, i threw out a weightless Sizmic Horny Toad and twitched it across the top of the water. After they would make a run, I would throuw it out and they would be running with it within 5sec of it  hitting the water

try a tiny fluke in watermelon rigged with a  small jig head.  i was doig that a few days ago and the bass  just killed em, granted the bass were not all that big but they were filled with lots of energy which made em fun to catch.

Survival of bass fry is very, very, very  low.  Thousands and thousands of eggs might hatch and 1 or 2 might make maturity in most instances.

Once they are off the bed, they will eat each other if they think they can swallow the other.  On the bed??  The boils might be the bass chasing off (or eating) intruders not eating their young.  

:-X  Don't you remember how your Dad told you to jump off the porch and he would catch you?  He let you fall on your butt and said, "Now you've learned never to trust anybody!"

Papa bass guards the fry faithfully for two or three days or maybe even four.  Then it occurs to him that he hates babysitting, so he starts eating them.  It is their first lesson in nature's ways.

Ever notice how ferocious little bass are?  I've caught 'em no bigger than the #11 Rapala they tried to eat and they act like street punks just itching for a fight.  Reference:  Johnny Cash, Shel Silverstein's "A Boy Named

"A Boy Named Sue"!     Dang!  I must have hit the wrong button by mistake.  

Well, that's all I have to say for now.  Anybody know how to tell the sex of bass caught when it's not nesting season?   :-?

-----------------------------------

My Daughter the Psychologist says it takes only two coincidences to start a superstition.  But for fishermen, it takes only one.  Spit on your hook and catch one, you'll do it forever.

-- Penniless Rich

A super fluke in a baby bass pattern.

It's estimated one hatchling in a million makes it to age one. That's better odds than making it to age 3. There might be 20-40 thousand eggs in one bed. The average female carries far more eggs than that and can be escorted to 2-3 more beds before running out. Male availability gets tougher the longer the spawn runs, so it's best to leave them alone. But it's the male you will see on a bed if alone, so target females off the bed in the next lowest contour drop. The male is joined by a female once per bed, lasting maybe 2 days max until eggs are fertilized. Once that happens the female is considered an intruder as much as a crappie. The male will butt her away. He'll stay with the bed until the fry swim out of his control, then swim down stream into the post-spawn blues. He doesn't eat the fry at that point, but would later when they get large enough to be worth expending energy to catch, not able to determine the ones he eats are his fry. Really vigourous males might rest up and go make one more bed and recruit another female if conditions remain suitable long enough. It'sthose males that are least likely to survive the next winter, missing too many feeding periods.  More likely the water will warm too much by the time he's able. Once the fry leave a bed and gain a little size they are soon vulnerable to any fish. Most bass would pass up tiny fry, preferring much larger meals, especially right after spawning. Shore minnows, shad, and crayfish would be more intersting. They would sooner eat a shad or panfish trying to eat the fry. Here on Lake Ouachita I think the bass started a spawn when water hit 63 in late March. Several days of heavy rain and cooling took the water temps back down to about 56, which would have killed any eggs on beds. Water rose 6 feet during that time, getting muddy, which definitely went against them. Eggs require sunlight to incubate. In that case I think they wait for more stable weather and full moon.

Jim