bare with me..

[Hula_Grub]

j

Do you feel that there is a connection between our great fishing and having a closed season.. or is it more a matter of us having more water and less pressure than other states.. .

I think one also has to consider how much more catch and release is done by bass anglers than by 'eye or northern anglers...

There are monsters in DeMontreville and Annie Battle, and with the 20" limit on Mille Lacs, monsters there too. As much some folks hate more regs, the regs on these lakes have done wonders for increasing your chances of getting a nice bass in these lakes.

In my mind, when I add in the fact many areas of the country and Ontario, never mind the year-round opportunities in MN, are now going to year-round seasons with some significant portion of the year C&R, I believe that MN could easily support year-round pressure on the bass that live here. If anything, conventional wisdom says we'd educate the bass and make them harder to catch, thus improving their chances of growing up big and strong.

But, I'm not a biologist either. I'm just someone who wants to be able to catch and release more bass. Perhaps there could be a compromise study done, where a decent bass lake with the potential for some serious pressure could be made year-round C&R...

[zepman]

I think the closed season does some good for the bass population. As a multi-species guy, I really don't mind it either. The beginning of each open water season is always a nice progression of pannies, walleyes, and then bass.

I think the MN DNR does a fantastic job at managing our waters...why mess with something that has proved successful for so many years.

[Deitz Dittrich]

Very interesting debate.. thanks for keeping it civil guys! Been fun to read all responses.

[Irish]

I think what you guys are saying about ice giving the fish a break is a very good point. Technically the closed season is only 3 months but you have to add 2+ months of ice into the equation. So we can really only go bass fishing for just over half of the year.

[TonkaBass]

I really dont see the harm in having a catch and release season year round for bass (then open as usual for tournaments). Catch and release is practiced so often by anglers these days, its almost a catch and release season the way it is. I am no biologist, but this issue seems to be way more clear cut than a lot of the other issues the DNR has tried to tackle. I am sure I am not alone in this, but I would even be willing to buy an optional stamp that allowed me to fish bass, catch and release, year round...

[chief]

Gentlemen,

The ice season is hardly a vacation for Minnesota bass. It is, in most ways, a time of hardship and decline. Bass survive winters via a life/death equation that leaves little room for error. It's literally a hand-to-mouth existence that often requires them to use up stores of calories laid in from the previous fall.

Ice out, and the regeneration of the food chain that accompanies it, never comes too early for Minnesota bass. When it does arrive, they have to recuperate. They have to put on weight and avoid predators, and females must complete egg development. Then......they have to endure the rigors of spawning. Mind you, they do all this in the context of our State's fickle weather.

I think bass deserve a break this time of year.

(P.S. It would be very interesting to see angler reaction to a $10.00 (+/-) c&r stamp.)

[Hula_Grub]

I like Tonka's idea of an "early bass" stamp that could be used to fund the study. If we noticed any decline in the health of the population, wouldn't 99% of us immediately call for a closure of the C&R season? Perhaps the stamp would only be valid on designated bodies of water that are representative of the local ecology around the state.

[mabr]

Id gladly pay $20+/- for a stamp to allow me to fish earlier than june. Id be willing to bet most serious bass guys would also. And I would also concede if I seen that if it did have a negative affect on the population, I would be the first to admit i was wrong. But I really dont see that happening.

But in saying that, I would like to see some type of restriction on using live bait. WHY? I know how many bass i typically hook deep during a year of fishing and it isnt many. At the most probubly 2 a season if that. But throw in live bait and i think that numbber would go up considerably. This may not be practical I know, but it would be a wish list for me.

Im not sure if everyone reading this really understand what this sport means to some of us. Whether tourney fishing or just trying to figure out their patterns its a sport I just love and enjoy just trying to solve the puzzle. For me at least, if I kill a bass I truely hate it Ive spent 10 minutes trying to revive one just so it can fight again. Now dont get me wrong as I stated earlier, harvest is a great tool in management of some lakes but that can come during the traditional opener. IMO

[Jig Master]

Mabr your post is excellent. I feel I am also one of the few who has a true passion for bass fishing. It means more to me than 95% of the fisherman out there. I would not want to have a longer season if I thought it would harm bass populations. It wouldn't and so I think the bass season should definitly start earlier.

[zepman]

I like the optional bass stamp idea...I'd be all for that.

I also think that people keep and eat bass more than most people realize.

[gritsnham]

I think that bass fishing is great in Minnesota but feel that little of that has to do with the closed season. An artifical only of simply a CPR season would not hurt the population to any large degree.

If anything I feel that most bass populations suffer the biggest hit in spring. With small hooks and panfish bait as a kid I know alot of gut hooked bass just wont survive that kind of stress. They get fought longer on lighter tackle and have a higher chance of getting hooked to a degree of mortality.

Then when the season does open up I would say bass fishing can be at or near its best over the season (especially to those that dont fish very often or that hard) When someone keeps a limit of spawining size bass this time of year they hurt the population alot more than released bedding fish.

I also feel that fish caught on artificials off beds usually become alot more negative towards other baits and thus would be less likely to take other baits (live bait) and could even have a chance of increasing spawing sucess.

Im going to school for an Environmental Science degree and have taken a few fish ecology course/related courses and this issue is never even discussed! My professor asked to "get back to me" when I asked his opion on spawning fish and angling.

Personally I think its hard to argue that a good thing is working but if I can fish bass longer and thats what I want to do this time of year without hurting the population...I say why not? The DNR should at the very least study the issue and think about the revenue potential a stamp or something similar could produce. The answer IKE got about the reason of the season seems silly to me in todays world.

Either way we all on this site should really try to express or feelings on this if we want the season changed. Open a few lakes in a few countys to year round CPR and see what happens!

[Sproguy]

Guys,

Great discussion thus far! I think some great points have come up. I saw this come up a couple times in this discussion but I think the largest factor that is not being discussed here is we have grass! I have fished in many areas in the South and most of those giant reservoirs are totally devoid of grass of any kind. The ones that do have grass have the bigger healthy populations. Guntersville as an example, the Elites were there this past weekend, it took 18.5lbs a day just to cash a check! Pickwick and Wilson the week before (both have grass coming back really well) and every angler in the tournament brought in a limit the first and second day. Check out the tournament standings from lakes without grass and yes the winning limit is often very impressive but the weights from the field are often much lower.

Weeds or Grass are the biggest factor in a small fishes ability to become big fish, imho! I honestly believe that we have such great fishing in this state because of the way in which nature built our environment. Ice is tough on a fish but not as tough as not having anywhere to hide.

Yes as some has said, some of our lakes have a tremendous amount of pressure, but they continue to produce year after year, because they have grass. 20lb limits were just a common thing on Minnetonka for years, then the weeds got cut back and the limits became 17 to 18, now they are back up again.

We could have a year round open season and with our limited pressure (yes there are exceptions) and limited interest in the species (walleye is the king of the state) and the amazing grass our population would be just fine, imho.

Lastly - Regarding a "stamp" for catch and release, I would pay $200 for one, why not, I spend that on gas in two weekends going to another state to fish!