If no one keeps bass...

[YpsiBass]

Why is the harvest limit 5?

[bob o]

because more people catch and keep than you know about

[TimH]

That's for sure.  If your around lake st. clair (9 mile especially) or any of the metroparks, just look at what people are keeping.  You'd be surprised to see how many bass are actually kept.

[Manxfishing]

Growing up, We ate what we caught
And the first couple years BASS held harvest tournaments

It's changed over the years, Hard core bass fishermen don't keep bass and all tournaments are catch and release
But there's still people that eat what they catch.

And back in the 70's the legal size for bass was 10" in Michigan
I remember it going to 12" and then to 14"

[dartag]

I see bass on stringers on my lake all the time.  Still the number kept is a small percentage of bass in the lake. 

[YpsiBass]

Given that the landscape of the sport has changed and so many people are pro-bass conservation, why aren't more people in favor if lowering the catch and keep limits?

[21XDC]

Many that do keep bass, Don't follow the keep season, size limit, or creel limit anyway.... Laws/Rules only effect the honorable people, and most of those release 100% of them anyway.

Kind of like gun laws, They don't effect criminals.

[dartag]

   You are allowed to keep 5 fish per person in your live well.  They are in your possession even though you plan to throw them back.  When you catch your sixth keeper and are in the process of culling you have 6 fish in your possession.   If at that time you are approached by a CO you are in violation.  This is if you are fishing alone.  It would be his determination.   Some states do not allow culling.

Kind of a grey area. 

This has been debated on the internet for years. 

Like Mike said some don't follow the rules.  Luckily some get caught every year.  The MUCC Magazine used to publish the CO reports. 

[djkimmel]

We are fixing the definition of culling so it is legal to keep fishing in Michigan even when you have your limit in possession.

We have not pushed for changing the 5 bass limit because it is not necessary to further restrict people. Our bass are doing fine in big part to the voluntary live release rate of keeper bass being anywhere from 60% to 93% (Lake St. Clair has the highest voluntary release rate at the 93%).

It's very hard in Michigan frankly to get exception rules for bass tournaments because so many people have been allowed to think it is okay to think poorly of them and the anglers who participate in them. Many opens and non-club tournaments have already voluntarily reduced their possession limit to less than the 10 bass 2 anglers can keep so 5 works well for them.

If we reduced bass possession to 2 or 3 it would have little effect on team tournaments who have done this but possibly significant negative effect on groups who still keep 10 bass. What would it accomplish? Would it make our bass fishing remarkably better? From what we do know about our bass populations across the board it would probably make little difference to our bass populations considering how well many already are doing.

It could negatively impact angler satisfaction. Those anglers who want to keep some bass may bass fish less or quit bass fishing (believe me, it happens when you restrict anglers) out of dissatisfaction. We don't need less anglers fishing less, we need more anglers fishing more.

It could negatively impact anglers who do keep 10 bass to weigh in and cause some negative impact on how many times they fish. Again, if there is no real gain I personally don't support restrictions that aren't necessary. Restrictions always cause harm to how many people fish how often so I never support them if they can't be proven necessary.

All the dynamics together right now equal we have pretty good bass fishing across the board. Generally, where our bass fishing could be better it isn't how many bass people are keeping that are the problem, but things that bass need like habitat and forage. We maybe can do something about that if we get organized and try but we would need to do the right thing - identify the real issue and come up with a solution(s) to that issue(s).

[TheFishinPollock]

Mann I rember the 70's on Otsego lake. My pops , gramps and Herman  would all go out for a week and bring in their daily limit for 6  days. Those 10's were so small. lol 

Then I rember gramps female dogin bout the fact the keeper size went up 2 inches one year. He never was happy after that.

[Waterfoul]

People eat bass?  YUCK!  LOL!!   

[dartag]

People eat bass?  YUCK!  LOL!!   

I tell them.  " Didn't your mother tell you never to put money in your mouth "

[djkimmel]

Mann I rember the 70's on Otsego lake. My pops , gramps and Herman  would all go out for a week and bring in their daily limit for 6  days. Those 10's were so small. lol 

Then I rember gramps female dogin bout the fact the keeper size went up 2 inches one year. He never was happy after that.

Love it when an old guy calls me a 'special interest' that wrecked his bass fishing...

whatever...