SLABFEST Weekend (Cumberland County Pre-Spawn Crazed Feeding Frenzy)

[Night_Stalker]

It is "Slabfest Weekend" (pre-spawn crazed smallmouth bass).

Today's action started late at 7:30 pm and was over in 25 minutes. A dozen Smallies to hand and 3 long distance release. Rough sizes 20" down to 11". I will resume action tomorrow late afternoon.

Try for yourself…in any stream near you!

 

[NickR]

They have awoken. Do you ever catch small fish?

 

[Chaz]

Nice smallies.

 

[Night_Stalker]

Nick stop throwing midges and catch bigger fish

 

[salmonoid]

I am curious what action pre-spawn fish exhibit. I rarely target WW species, but found myself on the banks of a large river last Thursday evening. I was going to target trout, so I had my 7'6" 4wt rod with me, but when I discovered how much the water level had fallen between the weekend and Thursday, I ventured out to the river just to have a look see. About every two minutes, I saw fish exploding on the surface - some porpoising, some jumping completely out of the water, and some just splashy risers. I couldn't reach them with my setup and have a healthy enough respect of the river not to wade it that there wasn't really a chance of me moving physically closer. I couldn't ID the fish but they were all nice size. Pre-spawn smallies? Carp? Sharks?

 

[Fishidiot]

salmonoid wrote:
I am curious what action pre-spawn fish exhibit. About every two minutes, I saw fish exploding on the surface - some porpoising, some jumping completely out of the water, and some just splashy risers. I couldn't reach them with my setup and have a healthy enough respect of the river not to wade it that there wasn't really a chance of me moving physically closer. I couldn't ID the fish but they were all nice size. Pre-spawn smallies? Carp? Sharks?

Pre-spawn bass are easy to catch because they feed heavily and - in my experience - this is particularly true of larger bass as they need to maximize calorie energy for upcoming reproductive requirements later in the springtime and early summer. However, the heavy feeding evidenced in large river SMBs this time of year is mainly subsurface and focused on larger food species such as crayfish and baitfish in my opinion. Rising water temps also spur this activity and metabolic increase. In a sense, it is similar to how trout respond to the cooler temps in the fall that precede the spawn. However, I'm convinced that this process is more pronounced for river bass than stream trout. If you can locate bass this time of year, catching big ones is much easier than any other time of the year.
What you describe is strange and isn't typical of what my experience has been with pre-spawn bass. Carp are often noisy spawners - but not bass. Perhaps some bass or fallfish were feeding heavily on an insect hatch but I don't think that this is very common this time of year.
Hhmmm....

 

[Night_Stalker]

I don't get out to the river...but most likely a mix of smallies and fallfish. Maybe 31" browns... You really should use a heavier gear! :•}

A friend posted some pics of large black stonefly he saw on the susq river cement steps. I believe they are the type that crawl out then change to winged adults.

I would venture a guess that it would be emerging caddis that would trigger above and below surface hits. Someone much better versed in the river hatches may know what the current action would be. I have not witnessed mayfly hatches in any large volume yet.

My comments about pre-spawn are based on the amount of activity and the location of the fish. In certain local areas I've witnessed smallies on beds and those would not be in the heavier currents. Medium to slack water seem to be preferred for beds. The fish I have been catching are in fast channels...and some fish have shown evidence of gorging on crayfish.

I have seen in my local waters, bass behaving the way you described. I have also seen carp explode the surface in places I know they like to hang.

 

[markp]

I was fishing just recently on Chartiers Creek here in SW PA for a couple hours, the fishing was slower than normal on my normal smallmouth streamers. There was a fairly heavy caddis hatch on the water and although I didn't witness any fish rising when I caught fish dead drifting a brown WB and looked in their mouths it was littered with caddis pupa. It was crazy how many they had in their mouths. Unfortunately I did not have my trout flies with me and could not match the hatch succesfully. Just putting out there that if the hatch is heavy enough the smallies will look for it.

 

[wgmiller]

Many of the WW species are "spring spawners" and load up on the calories prior to spawning. Now if I could just find that "pod" of muskies!!! :-D

 

[Night_Stalker]

I know where muskie hang...I'm going to build some steel leaders tonight!!!!