This past week, we gut hooked a nice 4lber. Bled all over, tried to revive her but to no avail. Tossed her back in right next to a osprey nest. Got to watch the chain of life take place. Sucked but it was also really neat to see that nothing hoes to waste.

In many states throwing a dead fish back into the water is a violation of game laws. Wanton waste of a game specie or something like that. The reasoning goes that the fish would have counted against your creel limit if you were keeping them, you'll see ppl throwing back small fish that are dead so they won't count against their creel. Check your state regs on that or throw it in the nest and hope nobody sees.

The old argument on the spawning issue there are studies that show that fishing during the spawn including keeping fish off of the beds results in a neutral impact on the fish. In other words fishing doesn't add to the mortality or does releasing them lower mortality, if there was a negative impact on the fishery by fishing during the spawn there would be laws against it. Apparently there is some evidence to show that in the northern states there is some type of negative impact, or the fisheries ppl are just keeping old laws on the books to keep the animal right wackos off their backs

I just fish really stained water so I can't tell if they came off a bed.

Ok, so you don't like the garbage pickerel/pike/musky that eat the bass fry. What do you do to the garbage trash "father bass" that eats it's own young. Nothing personal meant, just debating the issue. I totally understand respecting wildlife, but to say that you care more about a fish than people: well you are just looking for an argument on that one. If that is how you feel, don't fish.

Mike

man sure didnt know this topic was gonna cause so much conflict its almost funny

Ok, so you don't like the garbage pickerel/pike/musky that eat the bass fry. What do you do to the garbage trash "father bass" that eats it's own young. Nothing personal meant, just debating the issue. I totally understand respecting wildlife, but to say that you care more about a fish than people: well you are just looking for an argument on that one. If that is how you feel, don't fish.

Mike

Wait i like catching pickerel too. But this place is heavily fished elbow to elbow so saving a few hundered bass just maybe ok. I did return the pickerel to the water too.

Our bass here were once hatchery raised and the old bass hatchyery is still there. I believe that heavy pressured fishing can reduce the numbers of bigger bass if there takin to eat. Our goverment came out withe a survey a decade back that suggested taking the smaller bass to eat so the larger bass could spawn to keep the numbers up.

man sure didnt know this topic was gonna cause so much conflict its almost funny

No conflict at all we all have out opinions and thoughts. That makes our country so great we can speak our minds in a civil manner.

Those fish dont belong to you. They belong to God, he allows you to enjoy his creations and fully expects you to respect them, be they fish dog or sunset.

There now that I've taken to this politically incorrect level, get ready for the good night irene post

I wonder what your god thinks about you abusing his creation by stuffing them with hooks, with sometimes fatal results. Bass are no different than any other game. Food.