Scientists weigh in on bedding bass...

[t-bone]

Thanks to a collaboration between the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation and B.A.S.S., you can now sit in on presentations made by some of the most educated bass scientists in the United States. Podcasts of talks from the Conservation Summit at the 2012 Bassmaster Classic are now available for anyone with an Internet connection. You can also access the podcasts on a mobile device.

Here is the link to all the podcasts:
http://129.15.97.19/bass/
for mobile:
http://129.15.97.19/bass/mobile

Some interesting ones...
Learn about the effects of bed fishing from three scientists, each with his own podcast:
Dr. Cory Suski, University of Illinois - http://129.15.97.19/bass/Suski/Suski.html
Dr. David Philipp, University of Illinois - http://129.15.97.19/bass/Phiipp_1/Phiipp_1.html
and Dr. Mike Allen, University of Florida - http://129.15.97.19/bass/Allen_2/Allen_2.html

Looking at real data from real scientific experiments will help us form our opinions...

[t-bone]

Listened to Suski's podcast...
Apparently Northern bass are much easier to catch on their beds as compared to Florida bass BUT the Northern bass have a much larger amount of eggs.

[djkimmel]

It is interesting that they keep finding out all kinds of things but the answer to the real question that matters to anglers - does bed fishing negatively affect bass populations - stays the same.

I really liked the one that said male bass that were caught off beds were not as good a father as male bass that weren't caught. Yet there was still an amazing population of adult bass in the test pond. They should have clarified that the comment about being a 'lesser father' didn't actually mean the bass population suffered.

That's the problem with all these newer studies. They contain bits of information that sound scary when they should stress that these scary bits actually were not shown to affect the bass population as far as not enough bass recruited to keep the fishery healthy.

They should stress more often that bass are big panfish. They are prolific spawners. It takes only a few successful beds to keep things level. With an average of 3 good spawns out of every 10 we are able to have the great fishing we have now. The years we don't have a good spawn don't correlate to fishing pressure, but other more important factors such as weather.

It is good they keep studying bass since it is the number one most popular gamefish in the US. I also hope that it eventually leads a few behind the times fisheries management groups to finally get over their fear of change and other issues to allow more bass fishing opportunity like the vast majority of the rest of the country. More opportunity might mean more anglers and more license sales. It shouldn't mean less like we have now.

[t-bone]

What I found interesting was how long a fish has to be off it's bed before the eggs are really impacted. It's pretty clear that if a angler catches a bass of a bed and returns it within 5 minutes (take a picture and hook out), the bed is likely to not be negatively impacted.

[Genie]

Are the studies saying that beds are affected that fast?  Seriously?  I've done a lot of bed fishing and I have never seen gangs of predators surrounding a bed like the gangs of New York or the shadow killers from Ghost or something.

[dartag]

On my lake the bedding
Bass are probably all caught 5 times before they are done spawning.  Does not seem to hurt the population at all.   there has been a paper tourney every weekend since
The opener.   

[djkimmel]

The problem with all these studies and discussion, and a major factor for why they can't just say bed fishing hurts bass populations is because there are so many variables. The example of bed predation when the male is gone is a good example. On some lakes, there may be gobies in the area that attack the bed right away. On another lake, the gobies may be in the water but not around all the bedding areas. On other lakes, there may be gills, crayfish, whatever - same deal - some beds may be attacked and cleaned out and some beds are left alone.

I always ask them 'how many beds have to be successful to keep the population healthy and going' and not many biologists have a good answer to that question maybe depending upon their area of work, their location and even personal opinions.

There are studies that show a few successful beds are all the population needs and even more specific studies about the beds location, spawning timing, the bass that are the key 'suppliers' of the bass population. All of this is some what similar and somewhat different from lake to lake.

Studies have repeatedly shown the annual weather has much more to do with it than fishing. The effect of fishing pressure on bass populations is nowadays is usually in the negligible range among factors. There are even some years when fishing pressure is high, the weather seems to be less than ideal and we still have a good spawn. The fact is with the rate of voluntary catch and release bass fishing Michigan bass anglers already do, there's not much more we can do to make it better other than not fish. That obviously won't work for anyone. People who pursue the resource are almost always the overall best stewards of the resource and that goes beyond how many we catch and when we catch them to the real important things like clean water, a clean environment and proper habitat.

Bass are big bluegills. They are very prolific spawners and have been successful at what they do for a long, long time. We have shown in the past that if harvest rates are high enough, we can harm some populations but the reality of today is we have 14 inch size limit that allows bass to spawn once or maybe up to 3 times before it can be harvested, we have a limit of 5 that can be kept in possession period, we have a limited harvest season and those last two don't really matter that much anymore in the overall picture because 80 to 90% of bass anglers voluntarily release all the bass they catch.

There may be some lakes that need help, but they need help whether we are fishing for bass all year or not. We can't afford to let fishing license sales continue to slide 4% a year in Michigan by withholding fishing opportunity because we want to be 'conservative' or manage all 11,000 lakes and the Great Lakes to the lowest common denominator. We already have rules and regulations in place to handle the aspects of bass fishing issues we need to address.

The more we limit opportunity through restrictions, through closed seasons (with the annual intra-angler bickering) the more likely it is that less youth take up fishing and more existing some anglers spend their time doing some thing else other than fishing. We are a natural resources economy and we should make the most of that. There are plenty of studies and existing real world bass fishing experience to demonstrate that we could have year-round catch and release bass fishing in Michigan. Any other issues people might have regarding bass fishing should be handled separately from withholding opportunity.

[djkimmel]

One of the biggest eye openers I ever saw was when I was just getting started in tournaments trying hard to be a student of bass. I was on Saginaw Bay after the regular opener watching the majority of the spawn going on in front of my eyes.

I was in a canal that gets spawners every year around the same general time. I was catching a few but mostly I was just watching how the bass behaved. What they did. How they reacted to me, to bluegills, to minnows, to people walking by on shore.

Some of the bass were still guarding beds and a few were guarding small fry already. You hear quite a bit more about how to catch bass off of beds than you do about catching bass guarding fry so I was really curious about their behavior. Of course, looking back now, I wish I had already been spending more time figuring out the behavior of the bigger post-spawn females and non-spawning bass a little more but that came later.

Anyway, I was watching several male bass swimming with their fry, ducking in and out of cover. They would charge almost anything that came too close most of the time. Sometimes, they would drift away and hide though. Not even just from me but other fish sometimes. Very curious why they would charge some and avoid others?

I was watching one particular male for some time when - like someone flipped a 'your time is up' switch - the male bass' posture and behavior completely changed in an instant from protector to predator! This male bass turned aggressively and ripped through its own fry eating a whole bunch of them! I was shocked because you don't hear about this. That was the end of the protection. That male bass left and didn't come back as far as I could tell the rest of the afternoon. To me, it looked like it quit protecting. In case you're wondering, I was not trying to catch this bass. I was just sitting next to a wall watching it swim around.

I think that moment made me realize how easy it is to read a bunch of stuff and think yourself into one way of thinking without seeing all the possible variables, seeing what your own experience tells you about exceptions and contradictions that exist in the complex outdoors environment.

There are many, many things that people 'believe' or at least follow along with that are based on 'that's just the way it is' kind of thinking. By people, I mean everyone, not just anglers but biologists too. So, I don't mind new studies that try to clarify things because there are always more things to discover, but with all the real world experience we already have with bass and looking at the numbers of anglers Michigan is losing each year, I'm no longer willing to wait until someone maybe, possibly, finally gets around to doing a study that some people think finally says it is okay to bass fish some more in Michigan. I think the majority of bass anglers now realize we can fish more for bass and in general, bass will be okay.

If and when more studies give us more insight, the MDNR has the authority to do things about it. The MDNR also has the authority to do something if a fish appears to need immediate help. They do this type of thing with others kinds of fish all the time.

[t-bone]

Just the opposite - it takes quite a long time before the beds are impacted.

Are the studies saying that beds are affected that fast?  Seriously?  I've done a lot of bed fishing and I have never seen gangs of predators surrounding a bed like the gangs of New York or the shadow killers from Ghost or something.

[djkimmel]

On some lakes in some locations the eggs can be eaten pretty fast. On on lakes or other parts of the same lake, not so much. They don't really tell you does this actually make a difference with a species of fish that is a prolific spawner like bass.

It has been interesting watching Kim and Danny Stricker on Hook 'N Look evolve on this as he has watched bass caught from beds and what happens or doesn't happen at various locations up close and personal.