Bed fishing concern

[BassDude802]

Hello! I duped Mr. LMB with a jig after I dropped it in his bed.  After I let him go he went to recover somewhere else. To my dismay, a gang of sunfish descended upon the bed and started gobbling down. Did I ruin this bed? I'm going to take a lok at the bed today and see what happened (caught him a couple of days ago) Feeling kinda bad about it   Thoughts?

[Bluebasser86]

It's possible that they ate all the eggs before he could return. Best way to avoid it is to not fish for bedding fish if it's going to bother you. Remember though, a tiny number of those eggs would have possibly survived to become adult fish, so in the grand scheme you didn't hurt much with one bed. 

[YoTone]

i recently had this thought running in my head. i saw a bass less than 2 feet away from me and wasnt phased that i was there. i threw all sorts of lures and spooked her a few times but she kept on returning to the same spot. later on i felt bad that i was picking on a fish that was trying to guard her bed. if that scenario happens again i think ill try my best to not target a fish guarding a bed. just didnt seem right.

[Paul Roberts]

I too leave the males guarding beds alone.

[BassDude802]

Lessoned learned those blue gill jumped on that bed so quickly

 

[papajoe222]

You could look at it this way, too.....In a few weeks, those bluegill will be on their beds and Mr. and Mrs. largemouth will be feasting on them. 

[Nice_Bass]

it does not matter if you are directly fishing a bed or just casting into shallow water.  If you are fishing during the spawn you are fishing bedding fish.  Nothing to lose sleep over.  (I actually don't bed fish much, but know I am catching spawning fish).

[the reel ess]

Catch some and the average size goes up. No biggie!

[tstraub]

I would not worry about it.  Those bluegill needed a good meal so they can have a successful spawn.  A very low percentage of fry make it to adulthood.  Every fish in a healthy lake is part of the food chain.  

[BassDude802]

True! There are some decent size bass in this particular water that I'm sure will take advantage of the well fed blue gill population and it will all work out.

[contium]

10 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

It's possible that they ate all the eggs before he could return. Best way to avoid it is to not fish for bedding fish if it's going to bother you. Remember though, a tiny number of those eggs would have possibly survived to become adult fish, so in the grand scheme you didn't hurt much with one bed. 

Yeah but when you have 50 boat tournaments each day of the weekend on a 1500 acre lake hammering bedding fish, seems like some damage is being done. Especially considering the fish are going in the livewell. I don't sight fish bedding fish and honestly wouldn't mind lakes being closed a few weeks around the major spawn. 

[Fish the Mitt]

14 minutes ago, contium said:

Yeah but when you have 50 boat tournaments each day of the weekend on a 1500 acre lake hammering bedding fish, seems like some damage is being done. Especially considering the fish are going in the livewell. I don't sight fish bedding fish and honestly wouldn't mind lakes being closed a few weeks around the major spawn. 

Your morality is exactly why it's an annual fight amongst the State's and their respective Fish & Game departments. Individual morality; namely the might is right mantra, is not basis for argument. Morality is relative. In this game, it's all about numbers. Studies. Research. Stats.

Not feelings.

If you don't want to fish bedding bass, it's easy - don't fish.

 

OP: As stated, some do it, some don't. Perhaps you've found a moral line to draw. Nothing wrong with that. Do you, man. Do what you're comfortable with.

[Bluebasser86]

21 minutes ago, contium said:

Yeah but when you have 50 boat tournaments each day of the weekend on a 1500 acre lake hammering bedding fish, seems like some damage is being done. Especially considering the fish are going in the livewell. I don't sight fish bedding fish and honestly wouldn't mind lakes being closed a few weeks around the major spawn. 

The question was if the OP did any damage catching 1 fish off a bed, not if tournament fishing during spawning season effects fish populations. Those debates never end well.

 

[Sam]

This has been a hot topic in the bass fishing and environmental industries.

Maryland has instituted a program that mandates all bass caught be released when fishing within specific areas of the upper Chesapeake and Potomac River. This test project is designed to find out once and for all if leaving bedding fish alone improves the spawn for that year.

Personally, I don't fish bass beds. Just me. Others I know do and without regard to any damage that may be done. Their goal is to do their best when fishing and if a bass loses its bed then that's too bad. That's them.

Catching one male off a bed will not hurt the spawn. But multiply that catch by thousands within one body of water and damage may occur.

Stay tuned for the Maryland study results. Will be interesting.

 

[the reel ess]

12 hours ago, tstraub said:

I would not worry about it.  Those bluegill needed a good meal so they can have a successful spawn.  A very low percentage of fry make it to adulthood.  Every fish in a healthy lake is part of the food chain.  

One secret to a good bass fishery, especially one without much in the way of forage fish, is that the bluegill need to spawn as well and as often as possible so there are always smaller ones for the bass' to eat.

[the reel ess]

For the guys who refuse to fish bedding bass, have you considered that the bass you catch after spawn may be guarding their fry and those fry are statistically more likely to become full grown fish than are the eggs in the bed because they've already hatched?

I'm not knocking the refusal to fish bedding bass. That's a personal choice. Just raising another question.

[Red Bear]

4 hours ago, the reel ess said:

For the guys who refuse to fish bedding bass, have you considered that the bass you catch after spawn may be guarding their fry and those fry are statistically more likely to become full grown fish than are the eggs in the bed because they've already hatched?

I'm not knocking the refusal to fish bedding bass. That's a personal choice. Just raising another question.

ive seen bass eat their own fry...

[contium]

14 hours ago, SemperBass said:

Your morality is exactly why it's an annual fight amongst the State's and their respective Fish & Game departments. Individual morality; namely the might is right mantra, is not basis for argument. Morality is relative. In this game, it's all about numbers. Studies. Research. Stats.

Not feelings.

If you don't want to fish bedding bass, it's easy - don't fish.

 

OP: As stated, some do it, some don't. Perhaps you've found a moral line to draw. Nothing wrong with that. Do you, man. Do what you're comfortable with.

It's not a moral issue for me. Its a greed issue. I want more fish to catch in the furture. And I agree, in a properly managed water, it is about studies, research and stats. Unfortunately, around here the CDFW is a bit of a joke.

[the reel ess]

3 hours ago, Red Bear said:

ive seen bass eat their own fry...

Yes, I've heard that, after they guard them a couple weeks or so, they'll run through them with their mouth open as if to say "You're on your own now."

[fishwizzard]

I try not to fish bedding bass (but have moments of weakness) simply because I spend so much time politely explaining to dog-walkers about bedding fish and asking them to refrain form letting their dogs trample through them for a few weeks out of the year.  Most people have no idea about fish reproduction and are happy to help out. The few that don't seem to care about the fish seem to care when I show them a treble hook and talk about their poor dog's feet. 

The three people who told me to get bent got the rangers called on them for not leashing their dogs.