Just a thought......If you want to fill up your freezer next year without having to actually kill any bass yourself, you should come on down to a Federation tournament on Candlewood and ask for the fish that have expired after the weigh in. A couple years ago, my father took home about 20 fish that did not make it that day. We had bass all winter that year.

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.

Sorry, I don't want to get into the technical definitions of these things, but they're important to understand. Especially when it comes to overfishing, most people think about recruitment overfishing when growth overfishing is more likely to occur (deals with maximum yield).

Basically recruitment overfishing is when you remove adult fish out of the population so that the adult population remaining or spawning biomass is reduced to a point that it doesn't have the ability to re-up the population again. This would be in theory what people are concerned with when they see pictures of dead bass. I'm not aware of any lakes where this is a real issue for black bass, period.

Growth overfishing is when animals are harvested at a size smaller than the size that would produced the maximum yeild per recruit.

What separates a sport fisherman from a commercial fisherman is the fact that sport fisherman fish for FUN not for food. Please i can understand somebody keeping a middle size or a couple of small fish once or twice a year but that right there is crazy. i mean i dont know how big that pond is but i dont agree with "PLENTY of big bass left" argument at all.
Dusty you seriously need to study some fish biology before making some of the comments you have made.

That happens BECAUSEEEE of OVER harvest of BIG FISH not under harvest of fish in a lake.You dont have to look too far. you just have to open up the DEP's lakes and pond maps guide and read a few pages in the begining.
And please Dusty and Bass rebel. i dont see any sense in the deer population comments or comments which say he did that he does that he keeps ten he keeps the big deer, he jumps into a well so i ll do the same....
I am not for those who say dont keep a fish at all. no.BUT 5 fish of that size in one day is too much. its not about how many you kept in 30
years or a hundered. its how many did you take from the current living one's in one day and what effect THAT has on the lake.remember you dint keep those 30 from one lake in 30 years.
enjoy your fish

study fish biology....I have over 40 credits of fisheries and fish management, and no stunting does not happen because solely because of overharvest of big fish, there are a number of factors that may cause it, one could be overharvest of large fish, one could be under-harvest of fish in general...too many fish competing for limited resources results in slower growth rates and number sof smaller fsih with fewer big fish, either way the system ends up with overcrowding...

Don't degrade this thread by turning it into personal things. You are absolutly correct, overharvest of large fish potentially creates stunting and is the number one cause of stunting...but if you look at what I posted you will clearly see that I make it clear that harvesting the large fish is the issue.

Trust me, I am educated enough to stand by the things I say....and the deer comments were not meant as a you did it so i will do it....they aare attempts at making comparisons between populations and selective harvesting...take them or leave them.