Is bed fishing ethical?

[BigAngus752]

14 minutes ago, Glaucus said:

I was fishing a bed in a clear water bass and bluegill pond. I caught the male and bluegills completely devoured the eggs

I could see how this would change my mind also.  Very interesting.  

[scaleface]

A Bass lay's thousands of eggs and the entire population lays millions . This is natures way to ensure that   there will be a healthy bass population.  A body of water will only sustain so many fish .  Catching bedding bass is not something  that concerns me .  

[Catt]

32 minutes ago, Glaucus said:

I had no problem with it in the past. However 2 years ago I was fishing a bed in a clear water bass and bluegill pond. I caught the male and bluegills completely devoured the eggs. They came in for the feast seemingly out of nowhere. I released him as fast as I could but the damage was done. I felt absolutely awful. I had known this could happen, but I had never seen it until that moment and I wasn't proud of myself. I'm one of those guys who takes it hard when I gut hook a fish and it ends up dying. Rare for me these days but it happens to everyone. I had that same feeling knowing I'm the reason that bed got destroyed. Now I will never intentionally fish one again. 

 

So there's no more bass in that pond?

 

[Bluebasser86]

9 hours ago, MN Fisher said:

Simple answer to this is that the state(s) where the tournaments are held denies tournament licenses during spawning season. The State DNR/Dept of Fish and Game/whatever would have that information, so it's simple to plan.

What do you do about fish being kept to eat then? Bass are fair game for food around here and I've seen plenty of 4-6 pound fish go home in buckets or on stringers during spawning months. No laws against it, they were keeper sized, nothing to be done.

 

I'm also curious how many people that are staunchly opposed to catching a fish off a bed are going to ignore their PB sitting locked on a bed? The female doesn't do most of the nest guarding, so if I find a big girl willing to bite I'm going to try for her. It's pretty rare I can see many beds in our dirty lakes anyways.

[scaleface]

2 minutes ago, Bluebasser86 said:

It's pretty rare I can see many beds in our dirty lakes anyways.

Same here and when I have I was unsuccessful in catching it  .  One bass kept picking my lizard up by the tail and depositing  it outside the nest .

[MN Fisher]

3 minutes ago, Bluebasser86 said:

What do you do about fish being kept to eat then? Bass are fair game for food around here and I've seen plenty of 4-6 pound fish go home in buckets or on stringers during spawning months. No laws against it, they were keeper sized, nothing to be done.

 

I'm also curious how many people that are staunchly opposed to catching a fish off a bed are going to ignore their PB sitting locked on a bed? The female doesn't do most of the nest guarding, so if I find a big girl willing to bite I'm going to try for her. It's pretty rare I can see many beds in our dirty lakes anyways.

Half a dozen people catching bedded males for eating isn't as devastating to the nests as 2-3 dozen tournament people catching off the beds.

 

Far as the females, I pointed that out earlier - once they've dropped their eggs, they head out for feeding while the males guard the nests. Searching for females isn't going to affect the beds at all once they've spawned as they have nothing more to do with the hatch.

[Bluebasser86]

9 minutes ago, MN Fisher said:

Half a dozen people catching bedded males for eating isn't as devastating to the nests as 2-3 dozen tournament people catching off the beds.

 

Far as the females, I pointed that out earlier - once they've dropped their eggs, they head out for feeding while the males guard the nests. Searching for females isn't going to affect the beds at all once they've spawned as they have nothing more to do with the hatch.

Male bass are rarely large enough to keep in the lakes here that have a minimum 18" length limit. I think more than anything our state is just terrible at managing bass. 

[Mobasser]

Spring is always the time that most folks will be fishing. Bed bass are caught. I don't target them, but if I catch one so what? I'll snap a pic or two and let her go.

[jrwerner310]

2 minutes ago, Mobasser said:

Spring is always the time that most folks will be fishing. Bed bass are caught. I don't target them, but if I catch one so what? I'll snap a pic or two and let her go.

I agree. I dont target them. I will only keep a bass long enough to snap a picture or two and let them go.

[kenmitch]

I'm with the I don't intentionally target and fish for bedding bass crowd. 

 

Around the spawn is my favorite time of the year to fish. It's the best time of the year to catch larger bass for me at least. I just avoid the really shallow spawning areas during that time of the year. I'll fish around the staging areas for the one's that'll chase my crankbaits. 

 

 

[jrwerner310]

1 minute ago, kenmitch said:

I'm with the I don't intentionally target and fish for bedding bass crowd. 

 

Around the spawn is my favorite time of the year to fish. It's the best time of the year to catch larger bass for me at least. I just avoid the really shallow spawning areas during that time of the year. I'll fish around the staging areas for the one's that'll chase my crankbaits. 

 

 

I fish mostly from the banks so its hard to avoid them. This will be the first year that I get the kayak out and fish the staging areas so that should be fun.

[kenmitch]

1 minute ago, jrwerner310 said:

I fish mostly from the banks so its hard to avoid them. This will be the first year that I get the kayak out and fish the staging areas so that should be fun.

Kayak fishing is the bomb compared to bank fishing. Good luck on your adventure!

[Glaucus]

1 hour ago, Catt said:

 

So there's no more bass in that pond?

 

Not my point or position in the slightest 

[jrwerner310]

22 minutes ago, kenmitch said:

Kayak fishing is the bomb compared to bank fishing. Good luck on your adventure!

Thanks. Im just getting started. Ive had it for a year or two but havent gotten out on it much. When I did I was nervous and only tried Bluegill fishing. I did get out on it a couple of times bass fishing but I may have brought to much with me to make it fun. And not to mention I still didnt have a clue what i was doing on it.

[FCPhil]

I can understand the debate about whether bed fishing overall hurts the fishing, like whether keeping bass vs. catch and release hurts the fishing. But I don’t understand how it is an ethical issue...we are hooking them through the jaw and dragging them through the water just to pick them up and photograph them. If that’s not an ethical issue I don’t get how bed fishing is. We are the alien abductors of the fishing world...just don’t abduct them out of their beds!

 

(I’m all about catch and release, but for the sake of the fishing)

[Mike L]

NO, It is not

 

 

 

 

Mike

[Catt]

33 minutes ago, Glaucus said:

Not my point or position in the slightest 

 

So the bluegills didn't wipe out the entire population?

 

Generally, a good male that is aggressive and active will attract more than one female to his nest and spawn with each of them. Along with that, an active female will spawn a number of times and, in most cases, in a number of different males' nests. She moves down the shoreline making it with different males. The male sits in one spot and waits for more females to come by. I think that is sort of a hedge (on the part of the female) against an infertile male spoiling the hatch of a good fertile female. So she spread her eggs around and he spreads his fertility around. That ensures a higher success rate for that spawn.

 

Ken Cook fisheries biologist from GET A LOCK ON THE SPAWN By Tim Tucker

[WRB]

Before posting about how bass spawn you might want to take a few minutes and study it. 

Male bass select the bes site and initially clean the small area out of bottom debris then wait for female bass to come near to check it out. The male either decides to attract the femal or reject her. When the pair decide to stay together the femal may or not clean the bed site again before egg laying, this process take several hour. The male and female are now chasing away other females until the female lays her eggs, then the male fertilizes the eggs with melt. The female is exhausted and may or may not stay around for several more hours, then leaves to rest. After recouperating the female may still have eggs and looks for another male with empty bed site and repeats the process up to 3 cycles of egg laying, this reduces the chances of putting all their eggs in 1 basket.

I fought for about 10 years to get live bait banned during the spawn cycle in our local small trophy bass lakes without success. Giant bass were being caught easily off beds using live crawdads, Water dogs and big bait fish all egg eaters bass kill on sight.

The argument was always bass are resilient spawners and the DFG doesn't manage lakes for trophy bass fishing, only sustainable bass populations and that was obviuosly successful.

The bottom line is bed fishing or fishing in a nursery doesn't dramatically impact the bass fishery overall, like it or not.

Tom

[Tennessee Boy]

I don't keep the bass I catch and I don't really enjoy fishing for bedding fish.  That said when it comes to protecting the resource,  I buy my fishing license knowing that the money is being used to pay experts to manage the bass populations in the lakes I fish.  Some lakes needs to be closed to fishing during the spawn,  some need strict size limits,  some need slot limits.  The people making these decisions know what they are doing.

[NYWayfarer]

Last year was the first year I intentionally targeted a bedding Bass at a local pond. Took a while to entice it to strike but I eventually landed the fish, took a quick pic and released the fish. It swam right back to the bed and continued about it's business.

 

Went to the pond the next day and it was still there.

 

There is only so much I can worry about an animal I make a hobby of using a sharp object to rip it out of it's environment into one it can't breath in before tossing it back all traumatized.

[OCdockskipper]

3 hours ago, RAMBLER said:

...When you went cruising for women (in your younger days) did you start in a maternity ward?

If I was interested in a young one, I would...

 

DISCLAIMER - Just in case there is a soul in the world who didn't understand the above post, it is a joke.

[Djohn]

Never much cared for the tournament guys catching them off the beds and hauling them miles away to weigh in. Every thing in that bed gets eaten by others.

[junyer357]

I have no problem with it either way. If it was detrimental as some make it it out to be, the fish populations would show it.  I look at it as part of natural selection. Bream gotta eat too, and get bigger so other fish can eat them. 

Ive targeted and caught bedding fish. Its not like you just see it, throw to it, and catch it. Ive worked for over an hour several times for one. Tons of times it picks they by tail and moves it just off bed, or flare up at it puffing gills out and does everything but suck it up.  

Another thing to keep in mind, it doesn't only happen for a few week in the spring either. Ive seen and caught bedding fish as late as sept and oct. 

[ohboyitsrobby]

If I'm fishing a tournament and I see a good one on a bed I'm gonna try real hard to catch it. If I'm fun fishing not so much. I can't bother myself too much when lots of people are knocking the sides outta prespawn bass loaded with eggs.

[WVU-SCPA]

I get more joy watching fish on a bed and how they react to things then actually catching it.  A cast or two and then its time to move on.

 

PA law prevents harvest and tournaments during the typical spawning season,  it also states it is unlawful to make repeated cast into a visible nest.  I have never heard of it being enforced but I appreciate that it is on the books.