My first and last bed fishing experience

[Edro]

Well saturday I fished a small tourny, and found a few beds in the process.  The wind was blowing 35 mph and I couldn't stay on the beds to fish them, so I left them and decided to come back on sunday. Ended up finishing 4th in the tourny.  Went back sunday and tried my hand at fishing the beds. The first bed had a male on guard. I have read that if you pull the male off the bed the female will come up to protect her eggs. So I started fishing. I finally got him mad enough to start taking my lure (shakey head and a fluke). I set hook in him, but he came off at the boat and went straight back to the bed. The next time he took the lure i broke my line on the hook set. The third time he took my lure I got him in the boat and put him in the live well. Expecting the female to take over the guard duties, I left and returned an hour later. When i arrived back to the bed, Two huge carp were on it causing havoc.  I then took the boat over the bed and scared the carp off and released the male back to guard what was left of his bed. I have never in my life felt sympathy for a fish until now. I felt horrible. This male was protecting his nest and I pulled him off of it and allowed thousands of eggs to be destroyed. This is my first and last bed fishing trip.  I will never pull another fish off the bed. Just my take on a touchy subject.

[RoLo]

Thanks for sharing that with us...it takes a man

Roger

[Paul Roberts]

I am an angler, hunter, and was for several years a fur trapper. I raise chickens and quail for eggs and meat -so my son will grow up in this wacky world knowing where food comes from.

But, I am not destructive. I draw those lines for myself, with the help of good information when I can get it. And I know enough not to impinge my ideas on others, unless I suppose something's detrimental to me and mine -like suggesting others release the big ones.

I don't bed fish either. Last one I caught off a bed was a tired male near a parking lot. His mouth was punctured and bruised, and he swam away weakly then just lay on bottom while bluegills picked his bed clean. I saw this same sort of thing with trout and salmon, often involving repeated snagging and releasing -until those fragile salmon just turned belly up and floated away. I call that destructive behavior.

I also have a pet peeve around mutilated fish jaws from repeated release in my heavily fished waters. I took to going barbless with treble hooked lures and found no increase in lost fish, and found it SO much easier to unhook them.

This fish won't have much of a maw left when that infection is finally quelled. This is not uncommon in some of my waters. It's not OK with me.

[bassnleo]

IMHO the issue is not bed fishing but rather bed fishing and NOT immediately releasing the fish back to the bed. Had you not kept the fish in the well for an hour, more than likely the carp would not have caused havoc.

This topic has been beat to death, and then some, on many threads here. Touchy subject with many.

Bottom line is that each angler has to decide ethically or morally if they are for or against bed fishing.

There have been a multitude of studies to suggest that bed fishing bears no impact on reproduction numbers.

The comment "to each his own" comes to mind.

[D4u2s0t]

Exactly why I won't purposely fish for bedding bass... Taking a bass off a bed and moving on, and especially taking both the male and female in my opinion shows nothing but total disregard for continuation of the species, and a lack of respect for both the sport and for the fish... just my opinion.  I don't care if other people do it, I mean I wouldn't say something to someone on the lake or anything like that, but you won't find me doing it.

[Paul Roberts]

IMHO the issue is not bed fishing but rather bed fishing and NOT immediately releasing the fish back to the bed. Had you not kept the fish in the well for an hour, more than likely the carp would not have caused havoc.

This topic has been beat to death, and then some, on many threads here. Touchy subject with many.

Bottom line is that each angler has to decide ethically or morally if they are for or against bed fishing.

There have been a multitude of studies to suggest that bed fishing bears no impact on reproduction numbers.

The comment "to each his own" comes to mind.

Good post.

[Edro]

I don't have a problem with other people doing it, but i will never sight fish for bedding bass again. This trip was a learning experience that I will not forget. Just because you pull and hold the male off the bed, doesn't mean the female will protect the bed. This was the first bass i had ever seen on the bed. I wanted to learn more about sight and bed fishing so I tried it and didn't care for it at all. Sorry if I started something, just wanted to share my trip.

[D4u2s0t]

you didn't start anything, and many people here share the same view on this topic.  there's loads of people that won't target bedding fish.

[Paul Roberts]

I wasn't trying to start an argument. I was just stating my experience. I don't have a problem with other people doing it, but i will never sight fish for bedding bass again. This trip was a learning experience that I will not forget. Just because you pull and hold the male off the bed, doesn't mean the female will protect the bed. This was the first bass i had ever seen on the bed. I wanted to learn more about sight and bed fishing so I tried it and didn't care for it at all. Sorry if I started something, just wanted to share my trip.

No worries. You are welcome to share your thoughts. You said it well. 

I've never heard of females moving in to take over a male's job, although I've read that female florida bass are more apt to be protective of beds than northern bass.

[Edro]

I read it somewhere, don't remember. I read a lot about bass fishing, as I'm sure most of you all do. Maybe I was wrong.  Anyone want to share some knowledge on the female role in guarding a nest. I might have been misled.

[Glenn]

IMHO the issue is not bed fishing but rather bed fishing and NOT immediately releasing the fish back to the bed. Had you not kept the fish in the well for an hour, more than likely the carp would not have caused havoc.

This topic has been beat to death, and then some, on many threads here. Touchy subject with many.

Bottom line is that each angler has to decide ethically or morally if they are for or against bed fishing.

There have been a multitude of studies to suggest that bed fishing bears no impact on reproduction numbers.

The comment "to each his own" comes to mind.

Good post.

Great post!  Let's not rehash the ethics of bed fishing yet again here. 

[Edro]

Well done a little research and my previous knowledge was wrong. I read so much that it gets cluttered. The male bass guards the nest while the female usually hangs out deeper around a drop or deeper cover. I wish i knew this sunday. Thanks for the replies.

Jason

[Paul Roberts]

I read it somewhere, don't remember. I read a lot about bass fishing, as I'm sure most of you all do. Maybe I was wrong. Anyone want to share some knowledge on the female role in guarding a nest. I might have been misled.

I took to observing the spawn a few years ago, to get a handle on the real influence of the moon phases on spawning. I got to watch and record a lot of behavior.

From what I've seen, northern female LMs (here in CO) spend 1 to 3 days at a bed with a male. They do defend somewhat, or at least are aggressive. They are less apt to chase away bluegills than the male, but will eat one if the opportunity presents itself. They are very willing to chase away other females though. Their willingness to feed around a bed (except when in the act of spawning) makes them catchable, and I have done this in past years, with fewer personal issues than disturbing the male. He's got a long and tough job ahead of him.

[Edro]

That's pretty neat.  Nature is amazing, and cruel.  Sometimes just watching can be better that catching.

[Red]

I have never bed fished before this year.  I caught two that I could see were on the beds.  Took forever to get them to bite, after I took a quick pic and released them.  I came back a while later and both fish were right back on their beds, so that was good.  I don't have a livewell so thats not even an option for me really.  I would say that I most likely will not go looking for beds again in the future.  I would have felt terrible too if something like that happened to me.

Cliff

[DINK WHISPERER]

I will not bed fish ever on purpose...............................seems like cheating or tacking advantage to me.

[Fish Chris]

First off, nature expects some beds to be a complete loss, and it does a fine job of protecting itself.

Why do you think bass lay thousands of eggs ? The fact of the matter is, with, or without man involved, exceedingly few of those eggs, maybe only 1 in a thousand (highly variable of course) might survive to adulthood (breeding size) anyway.

A guy feels terrible that he might affect the outcome, of one nest. So he won't bed fish. But then he goes out, sticks a fish while blind fishing a crankbait, or spinnerbait (or whatever) and by bad luck, rips the gill of that one breeding sized fish, that was the sole survivor of a bed 5 years ago, and it dies. Well that sure sucks, don't it ?

"Fishing" affects the fish. If a guys primary goal is to not have any affect on the fish, the only way to do that is to stop fishing altogether.

In most parts of the country, sufficient recruitment of juvenile fish, is far less of a problem, than is over recruitment, leading to overpopulations of small, stunted fish.

Something that has a much more drastic affect on bass spawns, than bed fishing, is fluctuating water levels (common in man made reservoirs). Sometimes, right after a major spawn, a lake level will drop far enough, and fast enough, to effectively eliminate an entire year class of fish !

It's been said that this is why Spotted Bass have wiped out some of the trophy Florida strain Largemouth lakes in Cali....

Why ? Because Spots spawn deeper.

Don't let human emotions / feelings, affect the way you feel about fishing. Base your decisions on the actual facts of the matter.

Is your lake suffering from under recruitment ? If not, don't worry about it. If so, you might try to have something done about it, like Christmas tree sinking, supplemental stocking, etc.

I love bed fishing

Peace,

Fish

[Edro]

Thanks for the different point of view chris.  I actually never took the time to look at the whole population of the species.  You are right nature protects itself, with certain strategies.  The lake I fish is full of 8-10 inch not heads. So it probably wouldnt hurt to start taking some of those home to eat.  They actually have a slot limit on the lake.  Take anything escept 12-15.  You can go one day and catch 20 fishing and never break the 15 inch mark.  Like i said thanks for the different point of veiw and insight.  Good fishing