Hey Dan - Bass Season ?

[SethV]

When will the discussion start again around bass season modifications?  It is great that we have a somewhat better season with the C&R starting late April, but when can we have a hope of abolishing the season all together?

I still hate waiting for June to really get started....makes me really grumpy this time of year!   

[DDBethke]

Seth,

I agree, and I'm sure we all do...as it is beyond frustrating paying for a boat all winter and then to have to wait even longer (months) to fish out of it let alone talk about fishing out of it!

Dan we know you are fighting for us, thanks!

Duane

[Bender]

I guess I have not been around long enough to know the history of the law, but I sure don't like it and it doesn't make sense to me.

If somebody knows the proper channels to petition for a change to this law please post it up. I know there are many frustrated anglers that would join if it would help make this change.

[Waterfoul]

The law is there to "protect" the fish during their spawning season.  BUT, every state around us has proven, with scientific fact, that fishing at this time of year does NOTHING to harm the reproduction of bass.  In fact... in Michigan the spawn doesn't even get into full swing till the season opens on Mem. Day weekend.  The State has in fact proven this to themselves and chosen to ignore the data (remember the Hardy Pond, Kent Lake, and Lake St. Clair studies that prompted the C&R season in the first place???).  The State of Michigan is soooo backwards on this.  I think the only reason the NRC won't change the season is they would then have to admit they were WRONG.  What lawmaker wants to admit he/she was WRONG???

Well, to all those politicians and officials:  YOU ARE WRONG!!  ADMIT IT!!!!

I don't mind the C&R season... but why can't it start on Jan 1st when the Catch and Keep season ends??

[skeeterman190]

 Ok im not going scientific or anything like that here. I feel your pain.. Being from Indaina i can fish legally before you but. ask me where i do 99% of my fishing when April is done. The answer is Michigan. Yes there are some huge bass here and arent that hard to target right now. ( If you know what to look for and certain conditions plus a little luck you catch some big fish.)But i do state this extremely.. BIG FISH not numbers. yes there are those days that you will get that but if your a tournament fisherman here in Indiana this time of year you better be ready to fish for 5 bites and make those count. Our DNR does absolutely nothing for our lakes. Id bet almost all our liscence fees go to stocking Lake Mighigan with trout. Plus we dont have the size of water here. Our biggest lake is 10,000 acres and thats 4 hrs from here. most are 500-800 not alot of water.  I guess this isnt really going anywhere but here. BE THANKFUL FOR WHAT YOU HAVE! Your DNR and more people care for your waters than ours. ice fishing is another huge part of things. Not trying to ruffle any feathers here but a majority of the icefisherman are meat fisherman..ive seen too many 12" bass laying on the ice to make me happy.. if you have them out there taking bass from the lakes that hurts!! something YOU dont have. Id take it in stride and be greatful..

[Waterfoul]

Which is why it should be Catch and Release from Jan 1st to the Mem. Day weekend opener.

[cr]

I fished a BFL in Florida and they handed out permits that allowed you to get around the slot limit, you could possess fish that the general public couldn't, as long as they were released. Why cant we get something like here? A one day permit so we could have T's? It would help the economy,right? Charge a couple bucks a head.

[bassassasin88]

All I know is the fish are still gonna get hammered on there beds this year, So the rules are not helping anything. The state is also losing money not letting us fish. Complete BS. I agree that they wont admit their wrong. Did you guys see Stricker show the dnr guy the video of the smallmouth going right back to its bed? Awesome.

[djkimmel]

Like so many regulations, our bass regulations are sometimes based more on social issues - what people think - verses scientific and biological issues. This is common throughout the country and a challenge for most DNR's in most states to one degree or another.

It took over 20 years of waiting and education attempts to get where we are now. The test bass season went on for 16 years. I think about this issue a lot. Funny, I was actually working on 'next step' plans this morning before I saw this post. I won't personally wait another 20 years if I see any opportunities that seem realistic. If other interested parties want to help out, I'll definitely work with them too. It's always a team effort.

Here are some of the issues that will be part of any next steps we might take - things that have to be considered whether they make us happy or upset:
-Fear of change - always a big one;
-Fear of a loss of the great bass fishing we have;
-A number of persons still believe our season is setup to protect the spawn, or should be;
-Some anglers are uncomfortable with or against any bass fishing during the spawn;
-It would need to be demonstrated that the interest and support for a longer is season is fairly broad and accepted;
-Some anglers think any change attempt is driven by 'selfish' bass tournament anglers who keep wanting 'more;'
-We would want to win the support of the MUCC because they are a large and influential, broad-based outdoor organization;
-The issue of some walleye anglers thinking other walleye anglers would fish for walleye illegally while saying they were bass fishing would need to be addressed - this might drive whether or not we win support from MUCC;
-Some anglers feel persons who already break the law by fishing out of season should not be 'rewarded' by having that behavior made legal;
-Some persons are concerned too many bass would be killed during the ice season;
-Selfish desire of some anglers or lake property owners o not have more persons fishing for 'their' bass or on 'their' lake;
-Lack of Michigan bass studies recently to demonstrate in a structured manner what is going on with our bass;
-MDNR is severely challenged with budget and personnel issues;
-Urbanization continues to affect the attitude in a negative, or more often, apathetic way towards hunting and fishing including the loss in numbers of anglers and hunters;
-Bass anglers should make sure any action does not harm what we already do have by considering the issues above carefully - some think we might lose what we have if we try for too much due to some or all of the reasons above, maybe a negative backlash.

I don't believe it is time yet to attempt any major action, but I will continue to do various activities to test the waters every so often to see if additional bass fishing opportunity might be prudent and feasible. I know most of us on here are supportive, but we are a special breed of angler attracted to each other by similar thoughts and opinions.

[Skip Johnson]

Id like to see Lk St Clair open for C&R from Jan 1st till memorial day, actualy Id like a 12 month keep season but I think C&R from jan 1st till memorial day would have 0 effect on the bass population and give Michigan Anglers a great early season location. I could live with that law 
It would be nice to see a Jan 1st C&R season on a west side lake like Muskeegan or the grand river and up north like burt/mullet or traverse bay or something.....then stick it to the law breakers that cant live with that 

there all big water areas or attatched and could sureley handle a C&R season IMO.

The 1 day release permit like CR mentioned sure would be cool as well but I doubt that will fly becouse during the month of May smallies are easy pickin off the beds and probobly shouldnt be relocated away from its bed.

[SethV]

I agree a year-round C&R season would be a step in the right direction, but I would really like to see Michigan join the rest of the country and just abolish the bass season all together.  There is just no need for it.

I sure would rather be on the lake fishing a tournament today than sitting at home.  I would also be contributing to the ecconomy rather than surfin' the net.

Dan, as you continue to work on this, please ask if you need time or $$ from us.

Seth

[bigjc]

We as the community of outdoorsmen, sportsmen, fishermen, etc. need to learn from every other group that has a political interest.  We need to be better at lobbying for our interests.  In order to do that we need to (1) clearly and accurately develop our case.  For example, in this short post, we have several ideas mentioned: some who are suggest a longer C&R season, some who think we should have a year-round C&R and some who think we should simply abolish the season all together, which is what most other states have.  (2) We also need to develop better relationships with our elected officials.  Any interest group that gets anything accomplished does it's fair share of lobbying in Lansing.  I have been part of such groups in the past, and it is not only effective, but it is absolutely critical.  (3) Most importantly we need to let our collective voices be heard, in an intelligent and articulate manner. 
We lost the Dove Hunting issue to a bunch of Out-of-state tree huggers, who did a good job of articulating their message and spent a ton of money getting their voices heard.  Those of us who are deer hunters are, as we speak, losing our freedom to bait, due to a lack of good science and information.
Write to you elected officials and write to them often.  Let them know that you are paying attention to what they do in Lansing.  When you write them be polite and speak facts.  Get on their email mailing lists, if they have one.  Ray Basham is my state senator and he does a good job of keeping in touch with his constituants via email.  Dan is right that we are losing numbers of hunters and fishermen, so we need to do an even better job of representng our interests in Lansing and in Washington.

[djkimmel]

We have always needed to increase our involvement, effectiveness and grasp of the facts as a group. One of the main reasons I started this web site. The two years before the season changed saw great participation and involvement from many, many anglers. That has a lot to do with how it turned out.

At this time, I have no personal plans to mix having more bass tournaments into the bass season issue. Too many complications and a whole other batch of issues to confuse things and make it much harder to achieve any change.

Too much negative attitude towards bass tournaments in northern states, Michigan included. We'll work on that issue too though as we go along. I'd like to see it get better.

[Lightningboy]

I think we can really boil the lack of change down to two issues.

First, the DNR has to cowtow to public opinion, no matter how uneducated.  If asked, the common public will have difficulty deciding based on any factual information.  They'll simply lean hard toward protection, especially since they will listen to any opponent who postulates loudly enough.  There are enough "traditionalists" in this state who are willing to voice an opposing opinion to anything they see as change in the status quo.  As my grade school principle Sister Edwardeen used to say, "the empty barrels make the most noise".  Say anything loud & long enough, it becomes the truth in people's minds.  Hence the modern political strategy: stay on message.

Secondly, there is no impending event to force the public to explore this issue.  The threat to bear season in the past was close enough to our near & dear need to bait whitetails that we were running scared.  It caused us to force the issue at coffee table conferences across the state, thereby "making" the uninformed and undecided actually examine the issue.  Unless we have some impending event to bring this issue to the limelight, it'll stay in the fridge, let alone the back burner.   

Perhaps we're taking the wrong tactic in all this.  Many times activists force an issue into examination by public acts of civil disobediance.  Maybe we should go "break the law" in droves by targeting bass, in the hopes of dragging this issue into the limelight.

Only problem, is we would have to be prepared to lose if we can't unite enough to truly educate the public on the issue.  Makes me think of one of my heros, Ben Franklin.  After being one of the first signers of the Declaration of Independance he said, "We must all hang together, or for sure we will all hang separately".

The dude was a riot.

[Waterfoul]

Well there you go.  As soon as my boat is ready I'll need a back seater to start breaking the law! 

[djkimmel]

Just please don't talk about the actual act on here. Thanks.

[BigSmallie]

When ever dealing in these types of changes........there will be some kind of "Give & Take".

I personally do not feel we would ever get the D & R to open the season year around.   So we need to unite on a "compromise" to the current law.   

My personal take on this......and one that I will be discussing with our local State Representative later this month, will be to have a catch and release season from April 1st to the season opener.   But.....I'm not talking about an "immediate release".  I'm going to propose that fishermen be allowed to weigh-in the fish and then immediately release them. 

This would allow for tournaments to be held from April 1st to the regular season opener with immediate live release after weigh-in.    Of course...you will have the potentional for dead fish and other problems......but there are pit falls with every idea.   However....with a catch & not immediate release, I feel "meat hunters" would not participate because they would be required to release their catch.   This would stop them from taking home females full of eggs, something you would have with an "open season".    I honestly feel this would benefit only true bass fishermen.....which is who we are fighting for.

I'll do a little futher research before our meeting with our State Rep., but this is the plan I intend to pursue and push for.

Now......don't everyone club me over the head at once!  LOL!

BS 

[SethV]

I'll do a little futher research before our meeting with our State Rep., but this is the plan I intend to pursue and push for.

BigSmallie-  I like that idea.  I don't care about eating them, I just want to give them a boat ride!     If we could get the tx season started April 1, it sure would help to spread out all of the events - in turn we could fish more trails.  More fun and more $$ in the state's ecconomy!  Let us know how your conversation goes and if you need help!

[bassfan586]

What about a special license like the all species one?  You pay an extra fee to fish catch and release or catch and keep earlier.  It seems like a win win situation.  Dnr gets some much needed revenue and so does the state thru taxes due to equipment purchase to gas.  I know a lot of us would pay extra to bass fish sooner.  It seems it would be easy to determine what you were fishing for if you were stopped.  A least maybe a special permit to do it on lsc.  That way you avoid the mess of out of season walleye and pike on inland lakes all together.  What does everyone else think?

[BigSmallie]

Seth:
Thanks for your support........I'm trying to figure out the best plan of action that would allow us to have tournaments without having meat hunters destroy our fish.

Bassfan:  THANK YOU!   That's a great idea.   As I mentioned....and as Dan knows very well.....when working with these people, there is give & take.   If we have to pay more to fish early......I'm all for it!!    And.....like you said...generating more money for the D & R....which I'm sure they would love...and make it easy to sell our idea.

BS