What is your opinion on this?

[bassboy1]

What is ya'lls opinion on catching spawning bass?  I have heard some say that it puts undo stress on the fish and it is not right.  Others say that they catch spawning fish every year, and there are often TV shows catching spawners.

What do yall think?

[frogtog]

Don't realy like it but I'am sure I have caught a few. Everybody says its ok and that it want hurt them. Well in eastern NC we use to catch Herring that migrated

up the rivers and it was fun. You could catch all you wanted, no problem. Now

its the year 2007 can't have one in your possession. Just aren't anymore.

If we hade only know back then we could have done something about it. So I would say that if you go out just to catch beding bass, you could be losing what

you love to do. Better to be safe than sorry!

( ONLY YOU CAN SAVE OUR FISHING ) :-/

[KU_Bassmaster.]

I love it.  I personally think it has little to on effect on the fishery.

[5bass]

Here's a link to a recent discussion of the great spawning debate.

http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1170294876/0

[Redlinerobert]

I don't see anything wrong with it.  Numbers are healthy where I fish and on the increase.

[justfishin]

I don't think fishing for spawning bass is a crime or anything. It is my decision not to do it, thats all. Everyone has that choice. I am only speaking for myself. I did it years ago and caught some big fish in doing so. I am just older now and chose not to fish for them on beds. Its just too easy and while I am not so sure of how much its stresses them to be caught I just chose to let them proliferate in peace. I am not going to knock anyone that does this nor do I support it. Its up to each fisherman to make that decision. Good luck.

[Grey Wolf]

NOPE!

[rocknfish9001]

Our season is closed for some of the spawn, and then there is a strict "catch and immediate release" season, and then when bass season opens, the bass usually are off their beds.

[Valascus]

I have absolutely no problem with fishing for spawning bass. But I do have my own strict set of standards for doing so. If either gender of fish is caught, they get removed from the hook very quick, weighed, a quick snapshot taken, and released directly back onto the bed.

I don't like it when someone catches a spawning bass and then keeps it or sticks it in their livewell for later release in a different location. Just something I personally don't agree with. I am not about to tell anyone how to do their fishing, but to me, that is essentially writing a death sentence for the fry. Without the protection they need they are easy pickings for other predators.

I also have fiath and trust in the Missouri Dept. of Conservation. If they do not have any regs against fishing the spawn then they must have studies and proof that back up the fact that fishing during the spawn does not hurt a bass population...at least not on bigger bodies of water.

[.ghoti.]

I don't fish for spawning fish. That's just my preference. If you want to, and it's legal in your area, then go for it. Some states do not allow this, most do. I've read articles supporting both ideas, and I have no idea who is right. I prefer to err on the side of caution.

I do, however like to see the spawn starting. I know that if I see fish on the beds, all I have to do is find 8' or more of water close the the bedding area, and there will be fish there, ready for the taking. Not all of the fish will be spawning at the exact same time. So, out there in a little deeper water you can find both pre and post spawn fish. This is a great time of the year for getting a big fish. You just don't have to target the beds to do so. Find that first drop off into deeper water, and get out a jerkbait and a spinnerbait. I can hardly wait.

Cheers,

GK

[roadwarrior]

Not me.

You can read a lengthy discussion on the referenced thread above, but I'm not jumping up on the soap box today. Bed fishing is simply something I don't do.

[Bladesmith,]

I personally think that bed fishing is rather like hitting below the belt. There are plenty of other catchable bass on any water that are not spawning. Our lakes and rivers are getting more pressure than ever before, and if we want to continue to have the fine fisheries that we now enjoy in this country, we had better be willing to take measures to protect them, now.

Not to be offensive to anyone of a different opinion, but folks that keep saying it doesn't hurt the fishery remind me of the old buffalo hunters that didn't think they could ever kill off all the buffalo. Seen a herd of free ranging buffalo, lately ?

[bighed]

I've done plenty of it and have mixed feelings about it.  I've not bass fished outside of this area much so these opinions apply to local lakes only.  I suspect that it would be very different in places where the fish grow much slower.  My first trip to Fork was to go bed fishing back around 1988.  At the time not many people were doing it or even knew how to do it.  The fish were not beat on the way they are now that everybody knows how.  At the time you could flip a lizzard on the bed and watch the fish charge and eat it within a minute or three.  Now, if you find the fish as soon as it's on the bed you may experience this thrill.  More likely, the fish will have already been caught several times and will have to be knocked in the head for half an hour to get it to strike.  I find this a little distastefull.  Texas Parks and Wildlife tells us that this has no bearing on the reproduction of the fish and infact that most fish spawn in water deep enough to not be sight fished.  A few years ago there was such an abundance that they were actually collecting short fish from Fork and moving them to some lakes in West Texas as I remember.  Right now there are more >12" fish in the lake than I've ever seen.  Last fall we could easily catch 20-40 in a day.  I doubt there is a lake in the USA that has more bed fishing taking place than at Fork.  It doesn't seem to be hurting the fish population at all.  So I'll be doing some, don't feel guilty about it, but don't feel the thrill about it that I once did.  

[bighed]

By the way, did you know we often get a secondary spawn in November around here?

[mferris]

i don't like it..you can't tell me it doesn't affect the females after going thru the stress of a weigh in and than being released nowhere near their nest..i don't fish tournaments and i don't fish for them on their nests...

[Hookemdown.]

By the way, did you know we often get a secondary spawn in November around here?

Really??? I've never heard that before

[georgiabassfisherman]

i will admit i do catch bass while on the beds and i do have mixed feelings about this i enjoy the fun but then yet i think that it does put stress on the fish but i always try to get them off as soon as i can and released back to the beds. i will not catch one though if i know for a fact that she has fry with her it could make them scatter and then most of them will be eaten.

Gary

[Pa Angler]

Well in PA it's illegal to fish beds you can catch and release in open water but repeated casts into their beds is a NO, NO so I guess there's a lot of pros and cons on the issue also up until the last year or so in NY you couldn't even target Bass to catch and release 4 of us fished the St Lawrance around Cape Vincent in 2005 and the NY regulations handbook stated this as such.

[bass2187]

its something i dont do on purpose. Did it last year once and once i removed the bass from the nest i saw bluegills raid it and start devouring eggs. I felt bad after this so that was the end of me fishing for bedding bass.

[justfishin]

Did it last year once and once i removed the bass from the nest i saw bluegills raid it and start devouring eggs.

Excellent observation. This is one of the main reasons I do not fish for bass on their beds.

[Isaiah527]

I choose not to pursue fish on their beds.

[Guest avid]

I have faith in the professional managers.

If they say it's ok, than it's ok.

that's why different lakes in the same state have different rules.

(And yes, Politics is always an issue but that holds true for EVERYTHING)

[BassBeat101]

I fish when the powers that be say that I can fish.  I don't necessarily target bedding bass, although in a way I guess I do simply because I always fish where they are, no matter the season.  When I started this sport I was very concerned about fishing for spawning bass, however after awhile I came to my personal conclusion that fishing at anytime of the year will eventually do some harm to some of the population - if they're not breeding, they're hunting, or trying to survive. In the wintertime fish are trying to conserve as much energy as possible - catching one expends more energy then it was planning on using - and if I catch a large female in the winter, I may have caused her to use up what little energy she had left, causing physical (possibly fatal) harm - which wouldn't even allow her to spawn in the spring anyways.

I just practice strict catch and release, do my best to help the environment/water sources as a whole, and go from there.  I don't feel that the buffalo are a fair comparison - few hunters of said species practiced "catch and release" - and our biologists today are much more educated on the possibility of extinction.

Daryl