Pulling bass off of their nests.

[Fred 30]

I was wondering if fishing for bass and pulling them off of their nests puts their eggs at risk? Most of the stuff I have read says it does. I think that is why southern Ontario has a closed season in the spring. Is it different around here?

[Thefishleclair 175]

If I remember correctly we did have a small amount of time that we were only allowed to keep 2 bass under 13 inches during the spawning time. Then when the population exploded and bass were being caught in lakes that had none there before the size and time line was lifted and put back to 4 any size.

[mad scientist 140]

With bass, it's the parental male that guards the nest.  Protection of the eggs, yes, but more crucial is the protection of the fry....a couple days after the eggs hatch, the baby bass become able to swim - but they spend a few weeks basically just hovering over the nest in a cloud.  That cloud of baby bass is an easy meal for perch, sunfish, etc.  Harvesting a bass off the nest during that period essentially guarantees that its brood will be wiped out, but studies have shown that even catch-and-release fishing during the nest-guarding period can result in the loss of entire broods.  In some cases, this is because perch (or whatever) swarm the nest while the male is being played and handled; in other cases, the male is too exhausted after being released to be an effective guardian; and in still other cases, the male either dies after being released or is so stressed that it just abandons its nest.

 

In southern Ontario, bass season is closed through to late June.  This covers most of the parental nesting period in most years (bass spawning is temperature related, so in cold springs they may nest later).  This is partly to protect the broods, but more importantly, it protects the adults...nesting bass are very aggressive and easy to find.  Targetting nesting bass in a small lake can have significant negative impacts on a population.  

 

In Northwestern Ontario, bass are much less popular than in the south (yeah, yeah, some ardent bass angler is going to argue with me on that, but it's true...mostly because the walleye fishing in southern Ontario is so poor).  The main reason that bass are open all year in the north is to deflect pressure from the walleye fishery - by giving people an opportunity to fish for bass during the early part of walleye season.  The tradeoff is that the catch and possession limit for bass is lower here than in the south.

[arvey 154]

ssshhh this is another subject that has to be spoken quietly , say the wrong thing and there's bass guys here that figure your trying to knock the cheese off their cracker and go ballistic. at one time it was 6 of any size and it was not that long ago. then it went to 13.78 inches until july 1st. I think that's when the population around here exploded and then it went to four of any size.

[Fred 30]

Thanks for the info Mad Scientist.

[Pro fisherman-Stud Muffin 420]

Usually the bass are left alone as most lakes with bass have anglers targeting walleye during these times.

 

I don't think I've seen too many ppl targeting beds. So many different size lakes to hit you can almost skip that part of spawn by fishing a shallower lake pre spawn early then move to deeper lakes later and still fish the pre spawn bite. 

 

Make sense ?

[PI 5]

Catching nesting bass is like beating a wall chained midget with a crow bar and then thinking you are GSP just winning the UFC title.