Something Fishy

 Look close. This isn't a picture of leaves. Well, actually yes it is. Leaves on the bottom of the lake.  But the real interest in the photo is the zillions of tiny fish zipping about in the shallows.


Down at the lake, at this time of year, little fish are hatching...   The bass are on their nests.

Which isn't the easiest thing to photograph -- but you can just make out the fish, and the circular depression beneath him.

 The male bass prepares the nest by fanning the bottom vigorously with his tail and by rooting out coarse materials in the nest with his nose. Silt and sand are displaced and carried away with the current. The finished product is saucer-shaped, two to three feet in diameter, consisting of clean, polished stones in the centre with wide crevices between them. The preparation of the nest may take a few hours to several days. If the water temperature continues to rise slightly from 60'F., the smallmouth bass is ready for spawning. The male coaxes the female into the nest, and eggs are laid and fertilized by the male in lots of 20 to 50 at a time, until all have been deposited. The eggs settle to the bottom of the nest and adhere to the clean stones. The eggs are tiny; it takes 10 or 12 placed side by side to measure an inch. A female bass, ten inches long, may produce 2,000 eggs; one 18 inches long may produce 10,000 eggs. After spawning, the female leaves the nest and the male remains on guard. He is a most devoted parent, driving away intruders and fanning the eggs with a gentle movement of the fins to prevent silt from settling and to provide a supply of oxygen by creating a current over the eggs. The incubation period is three or four days at 70'F. and 10 to 12 days at 55'F.

Once the fry are big enough to be away from the nest, the male keeps them together (in school) and guards them for several weeks.  The kids at this nest are all happily hunting along the shallows, while Dad fins away in the deeper water watching them.  Here's one of the little ones...


And here's a close-up of Dad, never far away.

This is why it is critically important NOT to be fishing in the shallow water at this time of year. Bass love to nest near and under docks and cribs. If someone takes the male, then the fry are all likely to fall prey to the bigger fish that would be all too happy to make a meal of them, and there is no-one there to protect them.

So if you see fish near your dock, just go fishing with your camera. The fish population of our lake will thank you.