There is very good research that shows that catching bass off a bed reduces survival of the progeny in the bed. However, no studies have expanded this to look at population impacts of such mortality. I think it will be difficult to prove either way. There are so many other mortality bottlenecks that can compensate for higher mortality at any particular life stage (e.g., egg, yolk sac, etc.), which makes it very difficult to evaluate.

It’s funny, because in the south there are a ton of anglers that actually target fish on beds on many lakes, but recruitment is not limiting in those systems (e.g., bass populations are at or near the expected carrying capacity).

In the north, there is a traditional thought that fishery managers need to protect fish during spawning, but there isn’t really any evidence for that. There are a lot of crazy rules up here that are based on tradition that are not backed up with any science (closed seasons, regs against trolling) . In Wisconsin, you can’t cull fish (trade live fish out of a livewell for a larger fish after having a limit), but even their own data shows that very few anglers ever catch a limit, so the number of fish culled is miniscule in the big picture. I think sometimes people get very anxious about potential individual fish deaths, when in the old days we would have eaten every one we caught anyway.

The evidence in the literature certainly doesn’t suggest that fishing during the spawning season has limited recruitment.

It’s possible that bed fishing is limiting populations, but the evidence if you look at black bass populations across the country, they are better now than they were in the 80’s, and I think it’s mostly due to very high catch and release. There are examples where people harvest bass, but overall, F (fishing mortality) for bass has declined greatly. People used to catch them off the bed and eat the adult. Now we catch them off the bed and release them.

Dusty, help me out if you know some, but I know of no examples of recruitment overfishing in black bass populations.

The major problem or difference between north and south bass management is the fact that the north is way behind with regards to research of black bass. Many of the regulations are outdated and more traditional than anything else. We're starting to look at bass specifically now up here, so hopefully we'll figure this out.