12 Nebraskaland • June 2021
IT'S A HARD KNOCK LIFE
By Julie Geiser
IN THE FIELD
Last summer during an afternoon walk around a pond, I
noticed a huge school of baby largemouth bass swimming
along the shoreline, hiding in the aquatic vegetation. Not
far away, off in deeper water, was a large, adult male bass,
ready to ward off any predators that might threaten his
school. It is the last of many jobs he has in the process of
raising the next generation of bass.
Each spring, largemouth bass, and plenty of other aquatic
species, are instinctively driven to spawn. In preparation,
the male bass — from early May to June depending on
how fast a particular body of water warms — will clear a
bowl-shaped depression on the bottom of a lake or pond by
swishing away the sand or mud with his tail and fins. This
"nest bowl" typically is formed in 1- to 6-feet of water and
can reach a couple of feet in diameter.
After his nest is made, the male tries to attract a female
bass that is ready to spawn and convince her to lay eggs in
his bowl, swimming next to her in the nest while nipping
and butting her belly. If she chooses his nest, the male will
fertilize the eggs as the female releases them. Some males
attract more than one female to their nest.
It's the male's job to tend the nest, protecting the eggs
from predators. During the incubation period, the male
will fan the eggs with his tail to move water over them to
remove silt. The eggs hatch in 2 to 10 days, depending on
water temperatures, and the new hatchlings remain in the
bottom of the nest until they are about three-quarters of
an inch in length.
While there, the sac fry depend on a yellow yolk-type
sac attached to their abdomens for nutrition. Once the
yolk sac is used up and the fry are larger, they swim from
the nest and start to feed on microscopic plankton. It is at
this stage that they become very vulnerable to predation
by other fish, including other bass.
As the fry grow into fingerlings, which are 2- to 3-inches
in length, they begin to feed on bugs, invertebrates, other
smaller fish, even their smaller hatchlings, and whatever
else they can fit in their mouths.
The ones that survive are the aggressive fish that will
repeat the reproduction process again and again until their
time is up. These are the fish anglers love to play on their
line, for the sport of a good fight, and the ones I like to
observe as I take a walk along the water's edge, wondering
what is going on beneath the surface.
JULIE GEISER, NEBRASKALAND
