Michigan Catch and Release Bass Season Opener Saturday April 24th 2010

[dartag]

Exactly... who wants to fight the crowd while rockbass and pike fishing??   

that lake does have lots of pike.  fed them lots of jigs this fall.  amazing how they can cut 40 lb braid with them teeth.  only 4 month to go.. 

[Skulley]

I'll second that, have a good winter everyone and lets try to keep the frustrated cabin fever posts down to a minimum...I may be guilty of one or two myself  Im sure a few here can agree they have also 

I'm not getting cabin fever this year........I went to the doctor and got a shot.  I'm all set!!!  I got my shot!!!    All dogs got to get their shots once a year........even big ones!!        


BD         

[Mike S.]

I live right by Muskegon Lake (2 miles to be exact), and Mona Lake, and I just love the fact that I can go fishing for sheephead and dog fish with crankbaits and spinnerbaits when the ice is gone.  Those sheephead put up quite a fight.  But, I really hate going to Snug Harbor on Muskegon, and seeing people fishing from the wall keeping bass out of season.  They get pretty crafty in their ways of smuggling fish.  I sat and watched an older man this summer boat 5 bass that were way too small to be keepers, and throw them in his cooler.  He was only 15 to 20 feet from my boat while doing it.  When he put #5 in his cooler, I asked him if he was done.  He asked why.  Then I told him that the legal limit was 5 fish 14 and over, and I could tell his were short.  He got mad and grumbled a bit, then I told him the DNR was just a phone call away.  He immediately took off, but didn't let his fish go.  Can't win them all, but at least he wasn't putting more short fish in his boat in front of me.

[djkimmel]

No matter what we do, there will always be people like that, but it doesn't hurt to make things a little uncomfortable for them... as long as they aren't the real crazy ones.

Not safe to confront or get involved with the real crazy ones. Leave that for the people who are trained to handle them.

[Durand Dan]

As mentioned by Skip, over harvesting fish is the reason that the laws were in acted. It all started in the 1890's when Teddy Roosevelt and the Boone and Crocket club saw that the nation's game was being eliminated by greedy hunters and fisherman. Roosevelt who was an avid hunter and naturalist, helped persuade Presidents Cleveland and McKinley to start setting aside forest land to stem the tide of destruction. Later when he became Gov. of New York and President he declared millions of acres national forests and set up enforcement procedures which is where we are today.
Well that's the history lesson for today

[Mike S.]

Good stuff.  I hate to see illegal fish get taken, especially bass.  I don't even like to hear guys at work talk about eating them.  But, unfortunately, people are always going to take them, legal or not.

[detroit1]

I'm ok for right now...but ask me again in 5 weeks. later...

[Bender]

Up here in New York it is really screwy. Most of the state has a CIR season from Dec. 1-third Sat. of June and keep season the rest of the time. In my region there is no CIR season so officially I can't fish for bass until almost July locally. I have just begun looking into this and what I have found so far is that the law was left up to the regional directors. This makes even less sense to me because in 50 or so times on the water I saw only one other bass boat out there. I'm sure there were a few other boats targeting bass, but most of the time I had the ramps to myself and these are 2,500-5,000 acre lakes. Maybe they just don't know anybody fishes for them, but then why would they try to protect bass?

[Waterfoul]

So I guess you'll be doing a lot of pike fishing then eh Chris??   

[ROI Outdoors]

Thanks for the info Dan.

But...... A closed seaon on bass in Michigan only forces me to spend my dollars in Illinois, Indiana and Missouri for nearly 4 months... and I'm not the only one.  I would love to legally fish for bass as soon as the ice is gone... great fishing that time of the year.  This is one thing the new DNRE needs to take a look at changing, in my (bass fishingaholic) opinion.  

This is something we should really all look at moving forward - the economic impact alone is argument enough.  We already have a diluted and cramped tournament season here with the 4th highest tournament participation in the US, add another 2 - 3 months to that and instead of guys driving out of state there will be guys driving into the state.  With the DNR & DEQ merger the timing couldn't be any better to create positive change.  

Michigan has the most freshwater fishing opportunity in the WORLD yet we have some of the most ancient conservation policies, with such a down economy one would assume the state would look at innovative ways to grow revenues and this one is a no brainer.  Bass generate more money to the state of michigan than any other species by a longshot but bass and bass fisherman don't see any real return on the impact they provide - instead we spend the money on things like stocking steelhead and salmon; there isn't even a closed steelhead season yet we still spend money stocking them - it seems a little backwards.

The C&R thing perplexes me as well; we can catch fish but have to immediately release - what if that fish puts a up an amazing fight and needs a little TLC to gain its strength?  Take Flow-Rite Systems for example; they are a Michigan based company that has livewell systems proven to revive fish - what if you made the case that a fish caught has a higher survival rate by going into a Flow-Rite livewell than being immediately released?  With the advancements such as the Shimano Live Release System we could easily make a case for having tournaments during the C&R period on conservation and economic levels.  

I'm down for ride to Lansing anytime so who else wants to go?

[motocross269]

ROI, Can you cite a source where Michigan has the 4th highest tournament participation in the US....I am not calling you out but if you can show me that as fact I would like to use that as ammo in some of my debates with my southern counterparts...

Thanks....

[Fishmael]

I've caught rock bass on 1/2 oz jigs before, so I think I am all set.  I also caught what was maybe the state record sheepshead on Muskegon Lake on a jerkbait...I didn't know what the record was at that point.  I looked it up later as was amused...It was only a sheepshead I guess.  I caught a master angler crappie on a 5 1/2 inch jerkbait this year.  Spinnerbaits, cranks, jerkbaits, jigs, dropshots, senkos...I think I will do some serious rockbass and crappie fishing this year. 

[ROI Outdoors]

ROI, Can you cite a source where Michigan has the 4th highest tournament participation in the US....I am not calling you out but if you can show me that as fact I would like to use that as ammo in some of my debates with my southern counterparts...

Thanks....

This is an old article and the #4 ranking was in 2003 - who knows what it is at today but I know the # of tourneys has dramatically increased over the last 7 years.

http://www.dnr.state.mi.us/publications/pdfs/Fishing/BassRegulations.pdf

Taken directly from the publication:

"With more than 1,000 tournaments per year, Michigan ranks fourth in the nation, and is the only northern state in the top-five tournament states (Kerr and Kamke 2003). By itself, this is a powerful statistic which attests to the quality of Michigan's aquatic resources in general and to its bass fisheries in particular. Currently we have no definitive numbers on the trend of bass fishing tournaments in Michigan, although, they are likely increasing given general trends."

Michigan has the most freshwater in the world so now all we have to do is tap into that potential - the stage is already set so lets get some better bands!