Luckily I think in Michigan you’re starting to see uptick in fishing leveling off. Bass is pretty low on the list of things to fish for in this state as we touch 4 of the 5 Great Lakes have 1000’s of public lakes 400,000 miles of river bank.
however, I have noticed this year that I have had to down size line and tackle a little bit to get bit consistently.
Eventually bag limits for all species are going to be reduced due to the advances in fishing technology, techniques, and the internet. We have allready seen it with bear hunting here in Michigan. We have record number of bears but, the MI DNR reduced the bear tags. Their reasoning is that hunters are becoming too efficient at harvesting bear. It will eventually trickle into the fishing side.
the Michigan DNR is finally starting to focuse in the land lakes and rivers. The salmon crash on Lake Huron and Michigan kinda forced thier hand. Some of our inland lakes have not been surveyed since the 1930’, 40’s, and 50’s. They do not have the funding or the staff to do it. All the money is allocated to Great Lakes salmon, trout, and walleye. I mean rightfully so as that is where the majority of the Money is spent and license's sold.
Ive soften my stance on FFs but, this fish tips things crazy. Just having FFS dosent mean you’re going to catch fish. Just because, you have spent the money on the boat and gear don’t mean you are automatically entitled to fish just jumping in your boat. Need to put the work in with the blood, sweat, and tears. Eventually you will be rewarded. There’s been times especially starting out target specificly for bass that I struggled mightly, heck sometimes I still do.