Fish-Hawk.Net

With the weather and water levels, I'm stumped as to what stage of the spawn (pre, spawn or post) the smallies are at near Kingston (for instance Wolfe island). I would appreciate members' reasonable predictions or actual experience with this?

Posted by Tufts Lab on Facebook.

Opening Weekend 2017 – Status of Bass in Lake Ontario and St Lawrence River
A number of people have been asking us whether the high water and strange weather this spring have been affecting Bass in Lake Ontario and the St Lawrence River. The short answer is “Yes, definitely”. Our lab crew has been working out there for the past several weeks and everything is behind schedule and a bit strange. Since the season opens tomorrow, we thought some of you might be interested in more information about the situation out there, so we’ve provided some observations below in this post. We also thought you’d appreciate seeing some great video footage collected this spring. The first of these video clips is also included.
As many of you already know, the high water is making access to Lake Ontario and the St Lawrence River more difficult. Many boat ramps have been closed and some are also more difficult to use. You might want to double check that the ramp is open and functional if you plan to go out in the next few days.
Some fish have also been taking advantage of the new habitat available with the high water. Our lab crew have actually observed some Largemouth spawning beside trees and bushes this spring that are normally out of the water on people’s lawns!
The high water and strange weather have also contributed to colder water temperatures in Lake Ontario and the St Lawrence River. This means that the timing of spawning for both species of bass is behind schedule compared to most years. We are now completing the final year of a study showing that Largemouth take advantage of sites with warmer water and generally finish spawning earlier than Smallmouth in the St Lawrence River and Lake Ontario. Our observations indicate that most Largemouth will either be finished, or in the final stages of, spawning (males guarding swimming fry) when the season opens this weekend. It is noteworthy that the Bay of Quinte is also generally warmer than the Lake and St Lawrence River, so most Largemouth in the Bay should also be finished spawning now. Unfortunately, the situation is very different for Smallmouth. There are some Smallmouth guarding swimming fry in the River, but there are also many Smallmouth that will still be in earlier stages of spawning in the River and the Lake this weekend. In the coldest water, within or near Lake Ontario, there have been many failed early spawning attempts (beds with rotten eggs - this happens with temperature fluctuations) and many Smallmouth that haven’t even shown up to spawn yet (very few fish in some traditionally important areas this past week).
What does all this mean? The status of the situation at this point indicates that this could be a poor year for recruitment of Smallmouth Bass in Lake Ontario. It is also another year when many Smallmouth Bass will be on beds for at least another week or two with the season open. If you are going to catch these fish, you should be aware that returning them quickly to the water can reduce the amount of predation by gobies on their eggs (we’ve documented this). Anyone that knows me well appreciates how much I like catching Smallmouth. This year, however, I think I’m going Largemouth fishing on opening weekend.

Thanks RJ for your reply and analysis. Scientific and insightful!!

Thanks for sharing that Rob!!

Thanks RJ for that great information.