Tour Opener Timed Right for Florida Spawn Fireworks

It’s always nice to kick off a new season with the proverbial bang, but the Walmart FLW Tour might very well mark its 20th anniversary with a Boom.

Though Florida largemouths are notoriously fickle creatures, conditions have aligned to potentially bring out a tour de force of bass-fishing bliss at the 2015 opener on Kissimmee’s Lake Toho March 5-8. Simply put, it’s all about the spawn – that time when huge female bass invade the shallows and swell daily limits to jaw-dropping levels.

Tour pro JT Kenney of Palm Bay, Fla., says that when the spawn on Toho coincides with a tournament, the competition often turns into a sight-fishing deal, but there’s also a lot of blind-casting to weed-covered areas where beds are likely to be.

Either way, Tour anglers could be walking into a straight-up slugfest.

To help explain how the spawn goes down for Florida bass in their home state – where unique variables exist – we reached out to a crew of Sunshine State experts who identified all the critical factors.

The Spawning Setup

Wes Porak, a fisheries biologist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, says individual Florida bass are capable of spawning over an extended period of time.

“Fish biologists know that Florida bass can nest more than once each year, but little information is available about how many times each individual female or male may spawn each year in the wild,” Porak says. “Scientists do know, however, that Florida bass don’t lay all of their eggs during any given nesting event. Florida bass appear to spawn in ‘waves.’ That is, groups of bass have spawning bouts periodically during the breeding season when rising water temperatures trigger nesting activity.”

Porak says the Florida bass’ ability to spawn multiple times provides an edge for survival. For example, food supplies and various environmental elements can prove challenging after an initial spawning event, but a second spawn in the same area might find more favorable conditions.

As a result, anglers traditionally witness this spawning “wave” effect on well-known tournament fisheries. Bass in south Florida’s powerhouse fishery Lake Okeechobee typically start spawning in December and can spawn as late as May. In central Florida lakes such as Toho, the spawn can begin as early as January and usually peaks during February and March. In north Florida waters such as Lake Seminole, which is on the border with Georgia, the spawn takes place from March through May.

“Spawning times can be highly variable from year to year and from region to region,” Porak adds. “The capacity to spawn at a given time of year seems to be regulated by annual cycles of day-length [known as photoperiod] and lake water temperatures that change seasonally throughout the year. The act of spawning is generally triggered by rising water temperatures in the 64- to 70-degree range during the breeding season.”

As Kenney notes, Florida’s inland waters warm slower than those closer to the coast and the state’s southern end. Therefore, the Tour event on Toho will be perfectly positioned for peak spawning activity.

But that’s not all.

Help from Above?

Many anglers accept it as fact that lunar cycles control the internal app that triggers the bass spawn. Day one of the Toho event falls squarely on a full moon.

Of course, January and February saw their own bright moons, but as Kenney points out, Florida’s relatively mild winter brought just enough cold spells to keep most of the spawners in a holding pattern during those previous full moons. March typically sees a more consistent move toward warmer weather, so this full moon will likely crank up the spawn.

“With the tournament starting on the first day of the full moon, I guarantee you there will be some guys who find places with all small fish in practice and then go back during the tournament and find out they’re all 6-pounders,” Kenney says.

Tour pro John Cox of DeBary, Fla., agrees. He spent a lot of time on Toho prior to the cutoff, and what he saw, while it was challenging at the time, has him excited about the early March potential.

“I really struggled [in pre-practice],” Cox says. “A lot of the fish were still out, and they wouldn’t come in because we kept getting those fronts. But if we get a warming trend before the event, it could be a fireworks show. Even if we don’t, I think it will be incredible.”

When Florida bass are in the mood and the weather cooperates, the bite can be phenomenal. But let some weather event – even a relatively mild cold front – hit the lake and these fickle fish will shut down and refuse to bite. It’s just something they’re not used to, explains Kenney.

“In much of the nation, the only time the fish see stable weather is summertime. Whereas in Florida our weather is so stable for so much of the year that winter is really the only time when we have significant fronts,” Kenney says. “The fish are so used to stability that a change throws them off their game.”

Limited Maternity Ward

Another Florida bass idiosyncrasy is that in any given body of water, they don’t all spawn at the same time. You’d think that the right conditions would motivate every mama bass in the lake to head for the bed. The trouble is they don’t always find what they want when they want it.

The formula sounds simple: Bass need water shallow and clear enough for egg-nurturing sunlight penetration, hard bottom to which the eggs can attach and a relatively protected area where waves won’t trash the place. That’s pretty standard for bass. The problem is that Florida lakes can be pretty stingy when it comes to the right kind of habitat.

“I think some of it is that there are so many fish trying to spawn and there is a limited number of favorable spots,” Kenney says. “The fish need a hard, sandy bottom or hard structure like the roots of cattails or lily pads where their eggs can stick.

“Most of the bottom substrate in Florida lakes is muck, so if all the fish in the lake try to spawn at once, there’s not enough area,” he continues. “It’s different at a place like Lake of the Ozarks where they can all find a place to spawn at any time.”

Weather Is Key

Kenney pointed to the overnight temperature as the key variable for a perfect storm of spawning movement. Warm nights will bring activity by daybreak, while cooler nights will precede sluggish mornings with fish gradually becoming more active as the day warms.

In either case, most anglers will find their most consistent action after lunchtime.

“A lot of guys will go to their best spots in the morning and find all 2-pounders, but then go back later in the day and find they’re now all 5-pounders,” Kenney says. “In Florida, you should be on your best spawning areas at the end of the day, not the beginning of the day.”

Feeling the Pressure

The challenging thing about a spawn-based tournament is maintaining consistency while time and fish disposition continue to work against you. Suffice it to say that after a day or two of nearly constant intrusion, bedding bass will become increasingly less cooperative.

“You’ll see some really big weights the first day [after fish move up], and then I think you’ll see them dropping off as the moon wanes and the pressure intensifies,” Kenny says. “It wouldn’t surprise me to see the winner at Toho have 30 pounds the first day and then like 14 by the last day. You just have to try and hold on.”

In single-day tournaments, Cox likes poking around inside the shallow Kissimmee grass for a sight-fishing shootout. However, he advises a different strategy for multi-day events such as the Walmart FLW Tour.

“For a four-day event, I look for the offshore spawns where you’re flipping for them in deeper vegetation,” Cox says. “The fish can be grouped up over one small patch of hard bottom. On a 20-foot-by-20-foot spot, you could catch 30 pounds two days in a row. That’s Florida – you’ll have areas where you get numbers, and then there will be areas where everything will be over 5 pounds.”