I live in the metro area of Minnesota and I would like to know when the bass spawn phases start and end. Bass opener is this weekend and in the past I will always hear that in the spring after "ice out" the bass will be in pre spawn and cranks and T-rigs will work when fished slow and then the spawn will be a few weeks later and the same lures and speed for pre spawn bass will work as well and then the post spawn were catching them gets harder which is usually the time i wait until after the post spawn. All this time I thought it was right after ice out i would catch bass then spawn i would catch them and then post spawn i would not catch any maybe just one small one. All this in the time span of I'd say mid March after ice out into late April or mid may. Take that time span split it into 3 and that's what i believed was the time that the 3 spawn phases happened and then in summer bass were just bass nothing to change their behaviour except weather and baro pressure as soon as summer came in June i be catching them with whatever anything from top-water frogs to T-rigs and everything in between. I just recently learned that the bass spawn is occurring this weekend during opener when the water reaches 60 to mid 60 degrees and that post spawn will occur when the water reaches 70 degrees which should be around June..... JUNE! the spawn phase were i thought bass were not biting but what the hay! i caught them in the past with any lure i can throw out! can someone help explain how long the phases last and what the real time the phases happen and end.

The water is 67-71 degrees locally as of Monday in Wright and Stearns Counties, just north of the Twin Cities. It appears that most of the bass spawned weeks ago. The beds on Clearwater Lake were being invaded by grass on walleye opener weekend, which shows that they had been abandoned at least a week or two prior. There were a few other lakes that in the last week looked like about 10-20% of the beds were still active and had males guarding them.

The spawn was pushed up this year by what I believe was the warmest April on record in MN. I would consider it mid to late post-spawn at the moment, although this Bass Spawn Map I linked would disagree with me. I have been pike fishing and bass watching 6 times on 8 lakes(some connected) since the walleye opener on Sat. 5/15 and I see many old beds, very few fresh beds and even fewer bass. Last year at this time there were males everywhere you looked in the shallows on these same lakes, guarding fresh beds.

http://www.versus.com/blogs/bass-spawn-map/

Must be spring fever up north.

Take a look at "Looking for spawning bass/etzovaras, next page.

Please clarify post spawn/bassmajor, this page.

Pre or post spawn/fishohio, this page.

Should help to answer your ???

WRB

The water is 67-71 degrees locally as of Monday in Wright and Stearns Counties, just north of the Twin Cities. It appears that most of the bass spawned weeks ago. The beds on Clearwater Lake were being invaded by grass on walleye opener weekend, which shows that they had been abandoned at least a week or two prior. There were a few other lakes that in the last week looked like about 10-20% of the beds were still active and had males guarding them.

The spawn was pushed up this year by what I believe was the warmest April on record in MN. I would consider it mid to late post-spawn at the moment, although this Bass Spawn Map I linked would disagree with me. I have been pike fishing and bass watching 6 times on 8 lakes(some connected) since the walleye opener on Sat. 5/15 and I see many old beds, very few fresh beds and even fewer bass. Last year at this time there were males everywhere you looked in the shallows on these same lakes, guarding fresh beds.

http://www.versus.com/blogs/bass-spawn-map/

if its mid to late post spawn when would that phase end?

if its mid to late post spawn when would that phase end?

I'd guess anywhere between a few days and two weeks. I did see three very nice bass slashing thru the pads at dusk on Monday. They didn't look like males, they looked like actively feeding females. I took it as a good sign that things may be heating up just in time for opener. Monday set the record for high temp in St. Cloud by 7 degrees. It was 94 and super humid, and I spent almost as much time swimming as I did fishing. The temp might have thrown things off a bit. We'll see.