Bass on Opener?

[LOWinEYEin]

I use the same lures for Bass that I use for Pike, Is this considered illegal or is it basically up to the CO?

[Mark Christianson]

Lots of topics revolving around this in some fashion.

Hard to ticket a guy casting a spinnerbait for Pike. Then again, if a guy is back in a secluded bay, whizzing spinnerbaits around, it is pretty obvious what the "intent" is.
Or maybe it isn't that obvious to some.

Such a tough call in a lot of cases.
But not so tough in other cases.

If your go to bait is a 7 inch plastic worm to catch pike, well then that would be hard to fight....

A CO I know had this confrontation last year:
Guys were fishing with small spinners before season. They were witnessed by the CO to be catching smallmouth. He approached them, and they "claimed" to be fishing panfish. Well, it just so happens that panfish in this stretch of the Miss are almost non-existent. So the CO flat out told them, that if he saw them catch one more bass, he would ticket them, and they could fight it in court.

No easy answer to the question. That is for sure.

[LOWinEYEin]

Yeah, its a tuffee. Disregarding the obvious Worm, frogs ect... I like fishing Buzzbaits, big poppers and Spinners ofcourse. These can be alot of fun with gators.

Any CO's on this site???

[Mark Christianson]

I would be VERY surprised if there aren't a few that are FM members. Lots of info out here, and sometimes too much info that could get some people in trouble.

[FlipR70]

My Opinion,

As stated above, I think it depends on the water you're fishing.

I regularly fish water north of Mill Lacs where I'll catch greater than 30:1 Pike:Bass fishing a spinnerbait. In fact, that's what I'm planning for this weekend. I like to eat some pike here & there and I can't believe that one could say that I'm "targeting" bass when you can go fishing 10 days in a row with spinnerbaits and not catch a single bass. Things do change in the fall, but in the spring, it seems that the pike are so much more aggresive that you'd be hard pressed to catch hardly any bass with a spinnerbait.

I really wish that you could catch & release gamefish out of season with enormous fines if they found one in your livewell.

Just MHO,

FlipR70

[united jigsticker]

30:1? Dang, you're good!!!

I used to do nothing but cast spinnerbaits before I discovered the joys and success of Crappie fishing.

I have caught...3 Bass on spinner baits to who knows how many Pike. Funny how I could cast a spinner for 20 minutes in the same shallow weed bed and get just Pike...Then tie on a plastic worm and get 3 Bass like nothing.

Yeah...Spinner baits, especially this time of year, are Pike targets in my book...

As a matter fo fact, I have caught more Dogfish on spinner baits then I have Bass on spinner baits.

How does that make ya' feel???

------------------
Good fishing,
UJ
[email protected]

[SluggoMaster]

I love spinnerbaits for Northerns, but I also have GREAT luck using the 4 1/2 inch Husky jerks. I catch a "few" bass on them, but by far, I catch more northerns on them. Personally, I don't know if I could get away with fishing one during opener, since the lines are very "fuzzy" between Northern lures and Bass lures. Opinions?

[hanson]

Why does everybody want to 'bend' the rules?

Topic of this thread is 'Bass on Opener?' I assume this means you want to fish bass but if questioned by a CO, you'll tell him you are pike fishing. Just wait til the season opens, its not that hard.

On the other hand, if you are talking about Pike fishing on opener, and worried that the CO will think you are bass fishing, I say have at it. In my opinion, you're throwing a spinnerbait, maybe you have a jerkbait rigged up on another rod, you are using steel leaders, and you have a big net in the boat, I see no problem. Have fun. If you catch an incidental bass, let her go and don't worry about it.

But, if you have a bass jig on a flippin stick, a senko on another, a carolina rigged worm on another, and you are fishing a spinnerbait, you might be in for a ticket. No way would I believe you are fishing Pike.

[FlipR70]

Let me be VERY clear that I am NOT fishing for bass before season. On this particular lake, there are few ways to catch reasonable numbers of Pike as easily as with a spinnerbait. I do not view this as bending the rules in any way because my true intent is to catch pike (and eat a few of the many 3lb class pike in this lake).

In fact, on the particular lake that I am fishing, there is a very large population of northern pike in comparison to bass. When I fish with a spinnerbait, I catch very few bass because there is a significantly larger population of pike and they appear to be much more aggresive. During the regular bass season, I use T-rigs & jigs under docks as well as some other tactics which seem to bias my catch toward bass (even so, I end up with a lot of bite-offs which I attribute to the many pike in the lake).

My comment at the end of my 1st post was that I wish that the DNR would change the rules to allow CATCH & RELEASE out of season. I respectfully disagree with those who say it would damage the LM population since our neighbor (Wisconsin) opens their bass season well before the spawn and they seem to have fine populations of bass regardless. I can't speak as well regarding SM bass because I just am not nearly as familiar with them.

I would welcome the input of a CO to tell me that my assumptions are not correct. If they are not, I would change how I like to fish for Pike.

FlipR70

[Mark Christianson]

Flip

Email the DNR if you want a CO to comment. They will forward your note to someone in enforcement, and you can get the answer from their point of view.
Here is their email:
[email protected]

[psegriz]

Well until I read this thread I never give it a thought. My go to pike fishing method the 1st month of the season would typically be considered a bass method. Go into a shallow bay put a frog on a weedless hook w/slipsinker and cast and jig it off the bottom. On a lake where the bass out # the pike I still catch 3 X as many pike as I do bass doing this. As the water starts to warm I'll catch more bass but that is usually after the bass season has already opened. Yea I guess when I think of it I'd probably have a hard time telling a CO I'm gator fishing.

GRIZ

P.S. WhaTT yes there are 2 CO's that are FM'ers that I know of. They apparently don't want everyone here to know it though and I can see why. I just figured out who they were by looking at profiles. It wouldn't surprise me one bit if most of them are FM'ers.

I've looked now and those CO's must have blocked thier profile cause nothing comes up.

[This message has been edited by psegriz (edited 05-28-2004).]