Guys already bass fishing

[gmetime24]

I'm getting really annoyed with all the pictures and talk about bass fishing on Instagram and Facebook here in michigan. One guy was posting pics of smallies he caught on jerkbaits, claiming he was going after steelhead. Another claiming to be crappie fishing and has a pic of a smallie caught on a DS with a 6inch DS worm hanging out of its mouth. It's a ridiculous law to begin with but to have people out targeting bass must mean they know the DNR will do nothing about it. The part that really bugs me is if you claim to be a sportman of our state at least follow the rules

[troossien1]

I just posted something like this id fish... just no pictures please!

[mikesmiph]

We have this every year. Some people just don't care, as long as they get to do what they want to do.

[21XDC]

Yeah... I get to pay $25 for a trout license, and I don't need or want it... That's what I get. 

[gmetime24]

If guys wanna go break the rules then go for it,  don't put it on the internet with comments and pictures. Makes me (someone who waits till C&R) think twice about staying home when the weather is perfect outside. At least man up and say your bass fishing, I don't want to hear this "crappie fishing" bs

[21XDC]

While I think rules are rules... When you catch 3,000 bass a year and let them all go no matter the season, I don't see much difference. The season is to protect the spawn and stop the harvest of fish.

We are not harvesting.... But the catch and release is during the spawn... 

I find this rule for us "Bass fisherman" that release all year nonsense... We put more money and effort keeping this sport and sport fish at the top.. We promote catch and release all year more than any other species.

Anyway... Rolling through a stop sign. parking near a fire hydrant, speeding, not using your turn signal 100% of the time rank the same rule/ethics to me....

You break the rules you want, and let others break the rules they want.... Your no better. 

[thedude]

why does it matter if they post pics? If someone wants to break a [ridiculous] law then they should be prepared to face the consequences. I wholeheartedly support them. It just drives the point home that it's a useless, unenforceable law. I suspect that many of the folks fishing bass right now are perfectly ethical, honest sportsmen. If the DNR and state gov't want to make criminals out them, then they should think long and hard about what's most important - recruiting and maintaining a community of ethical and passionate fisherman, or taking those that would promote conservation, C&R, and scientific fish management and revoking their privileges.  It's a bit idealistic, but we live in a country where at one point, idiotic and overreaching govt was met with rebellion. I'll chalk it up to civil disobedience. Do it or don't - it's your choice. The ones who look stupid are the DNR and the legislation that have done nothing to either enforce or change the law. While we sit in a perpetual gray-area of indecision, i can hardly fault anyone for wanting to get their money's worth out of the license and boat registration they purchased for the "privilege" of using it.  Our gov't should should be a servant of the people and i see this closed-season nonsense as pure laziness on their part.  I'd encourage everyone to go crappie fishing right now and post as many pics of your accidental bass catches you want - it just further drives the point home.

For anyone with issue it, let he without sin cast the first stone. I'm sure no one has ever done 71 mph on the freeway....

[Team houston]

Well said.

[Genie]

thedude for president!

[dartag]

Like Mike said this comes up every year.    I live on a very popular lake.  There have been bass boats out fishing since the ice went off.  There is no way to tell if they are bass fishing.  It is not illegal to fish.  Posting bragging photos is there own right.   They want to brag about breaking the law it's fine with me.  I can catch some nice perch this time of year and will be out there.  This computer fishing is getting old.  I might take a break for a while.  

See ya on the lake.  

[lynxer]

Until the law changes I support it!


C&R is just around the corner, I can wait..


Plenty of panfish to go around!

[gmetime24]

The law for us bassfisherman is complete garbage. We release all year round and do more for our sport that any law by the DNR. This law is so pointless and it's not really enforced anyway, I've never heard of anyone being caught

Until it's changed I will wait for C&R, if I'm on the water I will be targeting panfish. I don't want to see your picture tho of crappie fishing when that is clearly not what's happening

[PineLk 49]

May as well go pike or walleye fishing!!! It's closed season..who cares May as well go poach a deer too. The law is the law period. This is a very good reason that us bass fishermen have a negative perception of entitlement to all other fishermen. Everyone has their own opinion and I will stick to mine. I will not be one of those bass anglers that get looked down on. If I'm in the minority, so be it

Dave

[MSURoss]

May as well go pike or walleye fishing!!! It's closed season..who cares May as well go poach a deer too. The law is the law period. This is a very good reason that us bass fishermen have a negative perception of entitlement to all other fishermen. Everyone has their own opinion and I will stick to mine. I will not be one of those bass anglers that get looked down on. If I'm in the minority, so be it

Dave

I believe we have "negative" perception because we complain, but for good reason. How is it fair walleye and pike fishermen can fish year round but we can't? 

[gmetime24]

Ross, I believe pike and walleye actually start a closed season on March 15th and it runs till the opening of bass C&R. The Great Lakes are the only waters that walleye stays open year around. Someone correct me if I am wrong

[thedude]

Ethics and laws are 2 very different things. Obeying the law does not automatically make you an ethical person - nor does breaking it make you unethical.  There are common values as sportsmen/women we can all agree upon - the crux of which is to not do anything to that will be a detriment to the resource. Laws that protect against the abuse of a resource (such as poaching or game limits) are something that most can get behind from an ethical stand point because there is at least some generally accepted (and scientific) rationale behind them - so in that case ethics and laws overlap and seem to be the same. I don't see C&R fishing out of season as being the same thing ethically. I see a law that has everything to do with politics and bureaucracy and nothing to do with promotion of the sport or any intention of protecting the resource. I think it's unamerican to blindly accept what our gov't feeds us and that extends all the way down to the most trivial of fishing laws. I will let science and common sense dictate my ethics, not gov't agencies.  

It goes both ways - there's plenty of legal things we can do that aren't exactly ethical in most peoples eyes - shooting a 6 month year old deer, catching a 7lb smallie on a bed in june and eating it, catching salmon in the big lake and throwing them back after a long fight & netting them (they die after release) and so on.

If you want to get on a moral high horse over the issue, then "because its a law" is not an argument. There really is no ethical argument against C&R before the opener. There's a legal one, and IMHO if someone wants to break the law then it's is their problem to deal with the repercussions and no one elses. If it's that big of an issue to you personally, you should report the pictures to your local CO and be done with it. As I stated earlier, i'm extremely happy people break this law. It illustrates its ineffectiveness and uselessness. If it were important, i want to see it actually enforced and i want to see those responsible for dropping the hammer to pay the political cost - or those same people can just acknowledge it and make the change instead of leaving us in a no-mans land where otherwise law-abiding citizens have to make a judgement call as to if they want to gamble on what side of the law they will fall on.

[gmetime24]

Well said, maybe Ill put a vote down for thedude for president 

[Frank]

i found a quarter on the ground yesterday and im going to claim it as income because thats the legal thing to do.  i may be in jail by then though because I pulled out of my driveway and drove two houses down without my seatbelt.  Ill be turning myself in later today.  what i did was clearly unethical and i should be either shot, or jailed for what i did

[stackenem]

$140.00 or more if you get caught and they will give you the ticket if they see you. They use video cameras to catch you.

[JBASS]

Thought you can fish for dog fish any time of the year?

Had to join the train...