When a largemouth or smallmouth get stuffed with eggs but the water temp is not right for spawning, what do the fish do? Do the fish just drop the the eggs or do they go to nest anyway?

They simply wait for the water to warm.

8-)

good question tcain, I've wondered this myself. How long can they wait roadwarrior? As long as it takes?

Water here has been bouncing back and forth between 52-56 degrees on my home lake for at least a month now. Been catching SM and LM both busting at the seems and the SM haven't even started nesting yet at least not the majority of them.

If unfavorable conditions persist, there may be a point

where the eggs are reabsorbed and no spawn occurs

that year for individual fish.

Water temperatures at Kentucky Lake dropped ten

degrees last week while we were there and the fish

bite changed dramatically. Most of our fish were

bloated with eggs, but my best fish of the trip was

post-spawn.

My point is, there is a great deal of variability even

among bass in virtually the same location and water

temperatures.

8-)

The female often moves on and off of the bed to deposit more eggs (hatchery studies support this claim). Few females drop all of their eggs at once. Instead, they expel a portion and then move off to a near by break line, bush or grass edge.

Thanks for the information, just something I've always been curious about, but was actually getting worried about this year.

By the way, saw my first two pairs of nesting largemouth today. Giving sunshine for the next few days so things are looking up.