Food for Thought

[DarkShadow]

Yeah - post a picture of 2 or 3 LMBs on a stringer, and people will completely LOSE THEIR MINDS.

But post a springtime picture of 5 bass in a livewell at the launchramp, resulting in the deaths of 50,000 fry (which equates to 50 adult bass)... crickets...

I think your example above is what this article is trying to expose.

(In fact, in some places, those 2 or 3 lmbs on a stringer might be considered selective harvest, ultimately helping the fishery.)

But I think the study, like your comment above, is hopefully eye opening to those who think releasing a bedding fish and it going back to its nest, means the angler hasn't affected the future of the fry one bit, when in fact, this scientific experiment proved otherwise.

So to summarize bed fishing...
keeping a fish and eating it, fish dies, and offspring die.
Keeping a fish away from the nest or fry its guarding for the rest of the day(turny or glory shot) fish lives offspring die.
Taking too long to release a fish caught from a bed some of the offspring will die.
Releasing a fish immediately back there is a chance some of the offspring will die.
Staying home and posting random crap on the internet, a bird could eat the fish and they all still die...

The bass population in most lakes is not in jeopardy, catch and release immediately is the best practice short of not catching them at all. I don't lose any sleep at night wondering if i inadvertently caused the destruction of some eggs or fry. What’s the survival rate of bass anyway, 1%?

With this kind of thinking, can't you just come to the conclusion that because every little living thing on earth eventually dies, who cares about it?

And isn't it kinda disingenuous bundling 'natural predation' with human influence, and saying that since birds eat the fry, it doesn't really matter if people bed fish or not? I hope the economy isn't that bad, that people are depending on eating fry from our lakes for their basic survival.

I'll buy someone a Filet-o-Fish if that's the case. (Offer only valid on Fridays, PM me for more details)

Exactly. If you have ever been fishing outside Southern California, you wont think it's so fine. Our lakes around here are tiny in all reality. Having a tournament during the spawn on a 500 acre lake sure as heck isn't doing the population any good.

And my comment about relativity wasn't even referencing lakes outside of Southern California, because the quality of the fisheries elsewhere is hard to quantify when you have a plethora of factors affecting them, such as population, geography, fishing pressure, and environmental variables.

I was referring to these same lakes, where years back, it seemed that the population and average size of fish were in better shape than they are today. Of course, this is all based on anecdotal evidence and recollection, and the comparing of notes with other anglers who have also been on the water for decades and shockingly notice similar findings.

But we could be completely wrong.