The Spawn is On

[Stan Wright]

Spawning peacock bass are everywhere. Seems like every rock and tree limb has eggs on it. Guarded by both parents.

According to what I've read... the eggs hatch in about 3 days. The male then moves them to a "nest". They have a sticky spot on their heads that causes them to stick on the bottom of the nest and wiggle their tails... looks like the bottom of the nest is a wiggling mass of worms. Both parents become very aggressive toward anything that comes near the nest.

After another 3 days the nutrition from the egg sack is used and the fry leave the nest to feed on plankton. The tiny fry are herded around by both parents till they reach several inches in length. A baby peacock bass can reach a length of 12 inches in a year.

[marcusn]

so what lures should be used, really fast senkos and white streamers?!

[fisher dude]

Anything you can keep on there bed they hit just about anything!

[roadwarriorsvt]

Hopefully if fish are caught on a nest, the angler will release the fish back at the nest asap. This will only help out in the long run.

[Stan Wright]

If you do catch one of the fish, you might move on to another nest... don't catch both the male and the female on one nest.

That way you won't over stress both parents... one will still be rested and able to defend the eggs.

Believe me, there are a lot more spawning fish just a few yards down the shoreline.

[Ca_Bass]

Suspending jerkbaits work nicely. Even a rattle trap jigged up and down is extremely effective..plus you don't have to set as hard or fast as if you were using a plastic bait rigged weedless. They will probably try to just blow you lure away until the actually get mad enough to hit.

[djverve05]

I used Jigs last year. Very effective. Chatter baits and small plastics swim baits will probably work as well, and if all else fails as Stan would say come to the darkside and use live bait. I'm a believer after last weekend.

[Ca_Bass]

I've tried jigs and senkos as well, which irritate them the same but sometimes I don't set quick enough..I think my color blindness comes into play, it hard for me to see when they have it. Last Friday was the first time I had ever tried a lipless crank on a bed and that really pissed them off, and I hooked up immediately.

The spawner I caught was about 3lbs, that bed also had a huge tuc around 6 or 7, I didn't want to mess with it anymore though so I let them be. There were also about 4 other smaller tucs about 2lbs hanging around the nest, but they weren't actually guarding it.

[fisher dude]

Try dropshot with 2 inch grub or 2 inch senko in bright color so you can see when it disapears hook threw nose exposed drop on nest they can blownall they want and lure just floats back right on nest they get pissed and have to actually pick it up and move it good when the tucsnjust keep blowing at it! Good you don't have to recast throw it once and bounce it without moving off nest! Also very cheap if you use anything with treble hooks there usually in thick sticks and those trebled get hung up and those lures get expensive.

[roadwarriorsvt]

Seems everyone has a different favorite lure for site fishing. Mine are in-line spinner baits. I've had good success with jigs also but prefer an in-line with a sharp treble hook.

[Ca_Bass]

I don't know why I didn't think of the dropshot rig..I always have one rigged up too! I think that will be fantastic on beds. Thanks fisher dude! Plus you can put almost everything on one.

I read some where a pretty good tip I haven't tried out yet:
Instead of using a plain weight for drop shots will put a small jig on as the weight. The only down sides I have came up with are, jigs aren't cheap and I usually use 1/8oz weight for dropshotting and I don't remember seeing 1/8oz skirt jigs anywhere maybe the strike king bitsy bugs are close.

I feel like I get a better "shake" with the 1/8oz sinkers(dropshots and texas righs). The only time I use more is if the current/wind is high. I will continue to use the 1/8oz even in water that is 25ft plus.

I think I will give it a shot this week..I'm also curious to see what lure the bass will find more appealing.

[fisher dude]

Tried that with a roadrunner on bottom and big grub on top. The draw back is you end up hooking both tucs one grabs it and the other one follows and grabs the other one then you end up breaking off in the wood. You just need one lure they'll bite it they ain't picky when there spawning! I'm not saying not to try it! I tried it just to see what would happen it's good in open water but not in cover for me.

[Ca_Bass]

I was planning on trying it in open water as well. I think it would definitely be cool to get two at once though.

[Crash]

We always used a 1/8 or 1/16 oz chart. Road Runner with a 2" Powerbait grub/chart. tail on light spinning tackle. Worked well for us.

I also remember a lot of the local kids "decoying" (as they called it) Tucs during spawning. They'd catch one of the pair, put it on a rope stringer through a hole they punched in the lower jaw. Then they would put the stringered fish back out until its mate returned and then catch the second one. It always worked (not that I encourage that, but it was 20 years ago).