A couple catch and release bass

[Giz9219]

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Edited May 27, 2015 by Giz9219

[Chas0218]

You have a PM....

[SteelieBum]

Word to the wise, new law makes it illegal to photograph fish out of season .

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[Giz9219]

Thanks already heard

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[Dylan585]

Word to the wise, new law makes it illegal to photograph fish out of season .

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i think that's true... Not necessarily right or popular, but true... But now with that said I watched a 5 pounder tofay swimming around its bed in about 3.5 feet of water. I could very, very easily have caught it and it wouldn't have been far... I don't really think that there is an easy law in regards to catch and release seasons Edited May 29, 2015 by Dylan585

[L&M]

DEC changes stance.

 

http://www.syracuse.com/outdoors/index.ssf/2015/05/dec_changes_stance_we_do_not_ticket_anglers_for_taking_photos_of_fish.html

[Xxx]

I totally agree with the last paragraph of that write up. Once you pull the female off her bed the gobies devistat the eggs and the nest. They should have never changed the law making it legal to target out of season bass. The season was implemented for a reason to protect the fish and the offspring!!

[justtracytrolling]

I always agreed Pap, but the bass fishing has improved nationwide in the last 20 years and numbers and size are up statewide on large mouths. It doesn't seem to hurt though you'd think it would.

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[Xxx]

There are a lot of guys telling me the smallies aren't in the numbers they used to be, but the ones they are catching are all nice. So the stories go, since the smallies are supposed to be feasting on the gobies are they just that much harder to catch or are the bigger ones nasty enough to keep the gobies from destroying there nest. I watched a show on the fishing channel saying there worried about the smallie population in Lake Ontario, they claim there is 1 gobie for every 2 square foot of lake floor, it showed the smallies totally exhaust themselves to the point of death to protect their nest is this what's happening? I don't know. Maybe the large mouth are doing well, oh one other thing they mentioned about the gobies is they are seeking deeper water than what they originally thought also, I know I caught them out in 30-40ft but they are claiming they are deeper. When the bass are on the nest you can catch them with a bare hook for gods sake why do this to give the gobie more of the upper hand. My brother-in-law is a semi-pro bass angler and last year won a new bass boat and he wins the Beltzville lake tournaments all the time, if you can win on Beltzville Lake you got your $hit together, and he comes up to our camp a few times a year, and he notices a decline in his catch ratio. He normally has 18-25 fish days last year his best day was 6. Yes there's always other factors that come into play, I'm just using him as an example. I don't fish for the large mouth but the smallies are a fun fish to catch, pound for pound I think they got it.

[Giz9219]

I see what your saying Pap,but the lake I fish is a 100 acre private lake with very low fishing pressure,I can go out for two hours and catch 15 bass,my best is a couple 6 lbs there,I caught one 24" with a 16" girth last summer,but the battery in my scale was dead and had no camera,was guessing around 7-1/2 lbs,and a couple 8 lbs have been caught,and I always catch and release my fish.but I see your point on the gobies.

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[BSmaster]

It is a good debate.  Let me first add that I do not target bass out of season although I have caught them out of season. I could see adjusting the CnR seasons for bass based on a lot of different criteria (my personal favorite is to open it 1st Sat in May in waters where there are pike and walleye).  It would look a lot more like trout regs accross the state.  It would be different depending on where you fish and different because of different factors.  Gobie terror for Lake O and its tribs as well as parts of the canal and a few of the lakes associated with the canal and perhaps Cayuga and eventually Seneca but in my mere mentioning of what could be there has to be readers getting fired up about it.  It is like shutting down the tribs in the fall because of googans.  It won't happen easily.  Bassholes provide a lot of $$ to the economy just like the Orvis crowd does in the fall.  Abstinence in theory does work but in practice it doesn't.

 

My 2 pennies,

Joe

[BSmaster]

I didn't catch any bass last weekend.  But the weekend before all of the bass I caught were prespawn with absolutely no red on their tails.  When season opens fisherman will be slaying them off the beds.  Think of all of those tourny fish sitting in a live well.  Gobies, gills , perch - they all eat.

[Xxx]

It doesn't take many years of poor to nonexistent hatches to really reduce the population, just take the Lake Erie situation where the walleyes were almost extinct, we are not over harvesting here but in a sence it's the same thing. 150 boats with 6 fish in the live well like BS mentioned the gobies and gill are thanking each and every guy out there, next year they will have 2-3 fish in the well, and the following year there might be some no fish boats. They can make the walleye legal size 18" from the first island of the Black River and above the dam 15" but they can't put a no catch and release on certain lake? I don't get it.

[EsoxAC3]

It is a lot of additional stress on a bass to be caught and released off beds. I see the same areas getting pounded over and over by anglers out of season. Those fish are caught numerous times. I am not a marine biologist but it would make sense that mortality rates increase as some fish are caught multiple times. We have a remarkable bass fishery on lake o and the St. Lawrence. LOU is a great forum for Dialog like this...... Awareness promotes conservation. Tight lines!

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[Dylan585]

It is a lot of additional stress on a bass to be caught and released off beds. I see the same areas getting pounded over and over by anglers out of season. Those fish are caught numerous times. I am not a marine biologist but it would make sense that mortality rates increase as some fish are caught multiple times. We have a remarkable bass fishery on lake o and the St. Lawrence. LOU is a great forum for Dialog like this...... Awareness promotes conservation. Tight lines!

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With that being said, I caught a lot of bass in deeper water on Thursday. I'm not really sure what that means about where they stand when it comes to spawning but what I am saying is that the places where I try for pike I catch a lot of bass