Bass Questions

[BBRich]

My opinions on this usually get me blasted, but here goes..

I don't target bass out of season, for simple fear of losing all of my gear or my boat. It's not worth it.. BUT I don't see what the big deal is if you're targeting something else and catch a bass. Have you ever watched Bassmasters or shows where they target a bass on a bed?? They don't just eat. They guard the nest from predators. Those guys often have to leave a lizard sitting on the bass bed for many minutes before the bass even decides to hit it. And usually they just suck it in and spit it out. Unless you can SEE that bass on the bed and wait for it, you probably won't interrupt a bass on a bed. In the case of dragging a jig, throwing live bait around in the shallows, that's a bit different. But if you're throwing a topwater plug, spinnerbait or crankbait in shallow water you are 90% likely to be fishing too fast to catch a bass off it's bed. The ones you are getting would be pregnant females, who need to lay their eggs no matter what, so as long as you let them go ASAP they'll be fine and the spawn will live on. If the MNR believes that the spot you are fishing has too high concentrations of bass for you to fish a pike lure in, then that spot should be a sanctuary like Markus said (i.e. the inner bay of Long Point Bay).

That's just my thoughts on the subject..

[Markus]

Hey M.T.

Now you have a reason to Troll...
Only walleye and pike can be caught trolling

ET, where I fish, when the bass move in, you can't troll any lures that'll keep the bass off! I can leave the dock, toss 2 lines behind the boat and be back to the dock in 30 minutes with a limit of 3 lb smallies.

I've even caught them on my down riggers off NK spoons!

When I take my 2 kids out bass fishing, we troll. They take turns as the rods go off. Once we had 4 rods buckle together...each with a nice 3+lb smallie on the end.

[eye-tracker]

ET, where I fish, when the bass move in, you can't troll any lures that'll keep the bass off! I can leave the dock, toss 2 lines behind the boat and be back to the dock in 30 minutes with a limit of 3 lb smallies.

Markus...
That was some of my humour, because tournament bass anglers can not troll -- most people think you are fishing for walleye or pike . I have also caught a boat load of smallies on humps and flats in July and August when trolling water for walleye.

[Markus]

Sorry ET! That's my lack of tourny knowledge shinning through! However, I did know that and it went right over m head.

[M.T. Livewell]

Funny ET, I guess I had that trolling comment coming didn't I?! Touche!

MT

[RJ]

I hoped this subject would come up...

We also hit 4 feet of water on tourney day...and after catching a few bass we thought we better move....but after haggling about it for a few minutes we rationaled like CCB...that these fish weren't spawning yet...so we fished on...

My personal views on this is somewhat like Markus, if the bass population was in jeopardy in the lake...then make areas sanctuaries....

The other moral question I guess is should we be having pike/walleye tournaments in lakes like Mississippi?...where you know you will be banging OOS bass alot...what if we had a hot spring and the bass were in full spawn as water temps would be up?...

Considering the big eye of the day came out of a foot of water...and Hawk himself lost a big pike within a few feet from shore...the beds would be in jeopardy in an early spring situation...

As far as the MNR goes....How are they going to tell me I'm fishing for bass with a spinnerbait on or a crankbait?...I guess throw on a red devil... Incidental catches are going to happen....

This subject came up on a musky board I frequent alot....it was suggested that pike/walleye season be closed until musky spawning is over...I wished them good luck on having that happen!..

RJ

[MichaelVandenberg]

Some food for thought base on a couple comments...

Anglers (should be anyone holding a fishing rod) interested in bass should not have to wait till a bass population is in trouble to stop certain angling practises that may harm a bass population.

I find we are often to reactive and not proactive enough. We often wait till the situation is bad before something is done to correct that bad situation. Why don't we try to prevent things from going bad and do our part as best we can.

At any rate. I think we all got the right idea from this discussion.

Cheers,

Mike

[eye-tracker]

Well we are on the topic...

What about all of the female walleye caught through the ice in the winter full of eggs while staging for the spring spawn?

[Markus]

This is a great discussion, I'm I hope we can keep the opinions coming.

Probassing, don't take what I'm about to say as a personal attack, it's just furthering my own position.

Your comments about being proactive are good ones. I hear them a thousand times, and a few other cookie cutter responses like them. However, do you have any numbers to support your statement? Let's talk about Mississippi Lake. How are the bass numbers? I will wager that there has been a lot of prespawn bass caught over the past 50 years. How much has this affected their population?

I admire peoples opinion regarding this matter, it's a reflection of their heart being in the right place. But we do have specialists in the field and if an anglers accidental catches would be damaging to fish stocks, the area would become a sanctuary.

Long Point Bay is a great example. The inner bay closes and becomes a sanctuary to protect spawning bass. This is great. However, the Bluff Barr which is 5 miles away, holds a great number of pike and remains open. Now this time of year, it's 95% Pike and 5% bass. Should I honestly stop fishing Pike because I pulled a bass in the boat?

[Markus]

Well we are on the topic...

What about all of the female walleye caught through the ice in the winter full of eggs while staging for the spring spawn?

This is a great point ET.

What about the spawning Pike that are full of eggs being speared in ditches?
What about the spawning Perch being hauled through the ice?
What about the rainbows/salmon being targeted in creeks during the run?

These species are being targeted while they make themselves the most vaulnerable. I think bass have it prety good. And conservation is on all our minds now. But hooking a few out of season accidently is nothing to feel guilty about.

[Xenos]

There are few areas on the Madawaska river that are closed until this weekend to protect the walleye. If the bass population was a concern in the Mississippi, I would expect they would turn the bird sanctuary into a fish sanctuary as well. If I understand correctly the bass population is doing extremely well in that lake and Ottawa in general. Obviously no one on this board would target a fish out of season, however fishing the shallows in May should not be a concern, these bass are not ready yet, and it’s the eggs that were worried about. Once June comes around I feel we do have responsibility to avoid the shallow bays. Until then I can be found anywhere.

[Mick]

IMHO

There seems to be a pretty healthy bass population at Mississippi Lake based on what everybody seemed to be saying on Saturday. I heard alot of "well, no walleye but did I ever run into alot of bass"

Fishing shallows in the spring is a great way to catch pike and walleye. Big pike and big walleye. Check out this link on this site http://www.fish-hawk.net/hawkshow/Pinec ... t-Pike.htm and look at those pike. They were all caught in under 3 feet of water. Now should the boys be apologizing for catching those pike in shallow water given that some bass were caught in that same bay?

Fish like the shallow bays and inlets because the water is warm. If a particular species is in jeopardy, adjustments are usually made as they are on Mississippi with the sanctuary in the river. Nobody I saw was targeting bass (except one boat of locals) and the COs seem to be doing their job on Mississippi given the sanctuary.

Mick

[topwater]

Ok so now its my turn to stick my neck out I was also on Mississippi lake last weekend we trolled for pike and walleye for a while then decided to look for some crappie. Now if your looking for crappie at this time of year your fishing in shallow black bottomed bays IE: perfect bass spawning bays . While targeting the crappie I caught one very small largemouth and one very large largemouth , Both were quickly released but I did not move out of the bay and don’t feel I was endangering the spawn.
Now if I was catching a bass for every two or three crappie that would be a different story, as much as I love crappie I would have moved on. Case in point last year we were fishing for crappie, we could see some huge ones but they wouldn’t touch our jigs, we could also see some bass in the area that we avoiding as much as possible. Now we had some minnows with us so we put one on and sure enough the large crappie would take the minnows in a flash but unfortunately so would the bass so no more minnows simple solution
Now the problem is some purists would assume we were targeting bass and hence the bad blood, now the point of all this is this I’ve seen all the arguments pro and con, and I detest anyone targeting spawning bass, but it is not against the law to fish the shallow bays and there is a period of fishing these bays before the spawn and we have to remember that. Now some will say that we shouldn’t need a law to say don’t fish the bays, OK agreed. But I will put forward this scenario that I seen on another site. “There is a very late spring and many bass are still on the beds come opening day, Now the same people that condemned me for fishing crappie in that bay are out pulling the bass off the beds because they are IN SEASON”
Please don’t get me wrong I’m all for protecting the spawning bass ,but not at the expense of all other spring fishing
And thats the way I see it

[big-o]

Hi Guys & Gals

I had this conversation today with Glen Merkley.....I am a avid crappie fishermen...In the spring i tarrget shallow bays that heat up first...hence Cappie...As topwater said, last year i put on a 2 inch minnow to try and catch the 15" to 17" crappie ...as soon as the minnow hit the water a very large bass smacked the bait , the fish was released and I never used the minnows again, we dropped to 1/16 once jig heads with 1"power grubs That seem to work .no more large bass were caught...a few 6"to 8" bass were!! This year we hit another small bay using ultra light gear 2lbs.to 4lbs test line and 1/16 once jigs 1" grubs...caught a wack of crappie...a few 6"bass and as Topwater said one very large bass..If any one seen the tackle we were using they know that we were not tarrgeting bass...!
Now it is opening day of Bass season (as topwater said) and we have had very cold spring ,water temps were down and didn't start to get into the 60's till late may, early June......opening day... Bass tourney...Some fish are still on thier beds...you as a tourney fishermen head into a bay a YOU see a very large bass sitting there!!!! this is a fish that could put you in the money....do you take it...IT IS a LEGAL FISH..but still on the spawn!!!! That goes for rec fishermen too...a 6lbs bragging fish... WHAT DO YOU DO... BE HONEST

[Markus]

He get's a fun ride in my boat, then a smooth ride in my truck and finally he gets a friendly introduction to my taxidemist.