I have a couple questions here, I am fairly far south in FL , I have not seen what I call a true spawn yet on the lake I fish ,just a few random beds, I have been catching bass out in the deeper water like 8 to 12 feet and some up  shallow.

I have noticed this past week that the bass are schooling in groups of 3 to as many as 8 or 10 in a school and are swimming the banks in shallow water. What does this mean as far as are they spawning or going to be spawning or what? Is this a type of post spawn behavior?  They are reluctant to bite a lure or anything as well.

There are lots of bass in this lake its 22 acres I have walked all of it every week since Febuary and only seen 3 small beds so far.  Is there a chance they havent spawned yet ? the water is warm here in the 70s.

Usually around here in KS fish do this prespawn. I believe what they are doing is cruising and staging for spawn. The males tend to do this first. Then the females.  :-/  :-?

Ok I'm hoping that is the case, the bass I have seen schooling look to be males from 1 to 3 pounds, I am just unsure because Im in south FL and from what everyone says the spawn should be over ?

This is my first year living here and its puzzling to me . When I was in NC it was obvious when the spawn was happening the beds would be everywhere. Here I have seen a bed in Febuary and a couple more beds about 3 weeks ago and as many bass that are in this lake there should be lots of beds .

Boy, I don't know.  Fairly far south in Fla., water temps in the 70's, and it's mid April.  I got to believe that the majority of the fish have spawned already, although I agree in that what you are seeing is typical pre-spawn activity.  If the water has come up recently or has clouded up some, maybe the beds are deeper than you can see from the bank.  Maybe some of the experts on here have a better answer.

If you are south of the weather line, (Melbourne to Tampa) then you have bass spawning from December through May. As for seeing beds: unless the lake is really clear you won't see very many.

Depending on conditions, bass can and will spawn in water quite deeper than the shoreline. They do this to avoid predators from above: Blue Herons, Egrets, etc.

Plenty of bass have spawned - plenty are probably yet to spawn.

Im just south of you George , Im in Vero , Its a clear lake and the water level has dropped probably a foot since Febuary Its been dry here. I just cannot understand the spawn here , I can see 6 to 8 feet deep in the lake . Maybe they are gonna spawn some more . I have yet to see any big females cruising close to the bank at all. I have caught some 5 to 7 pounds  in the deeper water .

I guess I will see what I can catch this evening.

hey im a fellow south floridian...as far as im aware these fish have spawned already majority of the lakes/ponds i fish around here i see beds..but then theres the occasional lake that i notice very few beds like youve said....but im pretty sure they should be down spawning..but maybe this lake your fishing is a really late spawn lake/pond?

where abouts are you in south florida?

disregard that last part in my other post..just noticed you said vero...im from west palm

Hey dude,

Port st. lucie here, so I'm only a little south of you.

Most of the bass have spawned.

Right now the bream are starting to bed up.  

The table is turned now.  Last month the bluegills were invading the bass beds for eggs and fry, now the bass are dining on bedding gills.

I've been aggressive strikes on topwaters, but whenever I hear "shooling bass" I think "ratltrap"

good luck and have fun.

I was on the Stickmarsh today. I caught a 7 1/2 pounder that was spawned out. In the same 50 yard circle, we caught a couple that weighed 4 3/4 pounds that still had spawn in them. They're not done yet.

Since you can't see beds or fish on beds at Stickmarsh, you simply look at the fish you catch and that pretty much tells the story.

I used to fish a Phosphate pit in Broward county in the mid-nineties that sometimes had over 10 feet of visibility. It's LOADED with big Bass. I would catch lot's of Bass with spawn in them, yet I only saw a couple of beds on that lake in the 3.5 years I fished it. My point is that just because you don't see beds, doesn't mean that they haven't spawned. The Phosphate pit proved this to me.

Have a good one.

Yeah Steve, I guess they are about half spawned and half not, This is my first spring living down here I am from NC and they spawn all at once there . I guess they are different here,

I caught some this evening that were skinny ,and some that looked full of spawn. I think the lake I fish is over populated as well I catch some bass with a head you can fit your fist in and a 3 or 4 pound body.

Avid ,they are hitting topwater good here in the evening and after dark, during the day they are hitting a chatterbait good. I was using worms but the bite on them has slowed down it seems. I might try a rattl trap now you mention it.

Thanks for the help so far guys

I caught some this evening that were skinny ,and some that looked full of spawn. I think the lake I fish is over populated as well I catch some bass with a head you can fit your fist in and a 3 or 4 pound body.

around here that isnt to rare for me...but then again i am only 14 so my fist probably isnt as big as yours

Well these friggin bass havent spawned yet !!!  I have a high population (over population)in the lake I fish .  I kept 2 bass last night one about 3 pounds the other 4 or better. I figured they were spawned out by now but when I was filleting them they both had eggs that were no where close to being ready to be dropped.

This amazes me the lake water is WARM . I dont have a thermometer but  when I clean the grass off my lure it feels warm from being in the water . I cannot beleive  being this far south that these bass werent even close to spawning yet.

i just watched in-fisherman critical concepts,on aqua view and what it has done for seeing what fish really do during the yr. they observed bass spawning in 20+ water in the dead of summer.also,the weather patterns are changing rapidly and this is affecting how nature does its thing.i see patterns that ive never seen before during the wrong time of yr.and the low water conditions just magnify the abnormallys(if thats a word).in fla. the seasons tend to run together which confuse the fish and fishermen.thats what makes bass fishing so facinating!

I live in GA and thought the spawn was over 3 weeks ago!!  I noticed this schooling behavior where there will be 5-10 one pounders and one or two big bass with them.  I also noticed there are tons of tiny minnows against the bank, I am guessing they are bluegill fry.  

So from what I have read everyone is saying that they are still spawning, is this true?  If so what is the best lure for clear, warm water during this period?

A week ago I was killing them with a silver floating rapala, but that bite has totally stopped.  I used all different colors of worms on different rigs today and got one bite!  What gives?  They were feeding ravenously and now have stopped and seem to be spawning again!!!

Yeah Gatrboy you might be onto something with the comment about low water this lake when full is 22 acres its down about 2 feet so its lost a lot of shoreline possible spawning areas . Luckily it has some 20 to 30 feet holes for the bass to get down in.

Mdgreco I guess it wasnt a good day for fishing anywhere I only caught 4 bass in 2 hours today , And the topwater bite shutoff overnight here . But its been doing that all year one day they will slam topwater next day nothing.  I caught mine chunking a 1/2 oz shad colored rattl trap over the deep holes , the biting  bass here must be suspended over deep water.  I saw several right at the bank within 5 feet of me today and they had lockjaw. Saw one about 5 pounds come swimming out of a culvert pipe right in front of me.

I went back to the lake after my original post in this thread.  I caught a 1 inch bluegill in a cup and threw it next to the dock on a bobber and 2 seconds after it hit the water my reel was screaming!  I hooked into a 5 lbs+ bass!  Unfortunately for me I was using my ultra light setup and about 30 seconds into the fight the fish snapped my 4lbs. test when it shot under the dock!  

I believe the fish are still spawning, but as was posted earlier, they are feeding on bluegill minnows and fry.  I couldn't get a bite off anything other than a live bluegill, it's funny how picky bass and fish in general can be.

I was just doing a little research on chatterbaits, and the video I watched said to replace the skirt on the chatterbait with a plastic shad jerk bait.  It said this combination is irresistable to schooling bass.  I am looking forward to trying it, as I too have seen a lot of schooling bass up here in TN.

I saw probably 150 bass today if not more

The lake here has no cover or structure and the water level is low , I was fishing and got to noticing wakes just a few feet off the bank. I walked over to check them out and there would be 1 group of 4 to 5 bass weighing from 3 to 5 pounds swimming along the banks like sharks their backs almost out of the water . I watched them swim by  not biting a thing , Then about 10 feet behind them was about a 5 foot wide by 20 feet long school of bass , all Identical in size about 1 1/2  pounders the large school held a good 20 to 30 bass.

Its like the smaller bass were following the large ones it was the wildest thing I have seen . I noticed this all over the lake today

I saw about 4 seperate groups of bass like this a few large bass together followed by 20 plus smaller ones

Is this a spawning thing or what? they were covering some ground it was like sharks patrolling a beach I watched them go all way around a football sized cove doing this and saw more in other places on the lake doing the same.