Whenever I picture a bed fisher, I see my pregnant wife being harassed. Needless to say, I do not do it.

>> In smaller clear water natural lakes it can have an effect. You can cruise the bank and see just about every bed made.

      Yes, you'll see lots of bed sites and you'll catch lots of bucks, but angler catch-rates for 'cow bass' on the bed are embarrassingly low.

 

>> Bad thing is they are pretty hard to catch.

     Well actually, that's the good thing.

     Though my wife and I practice C & R, we no longer sight-fish. We didn't stop sight-fishing because we're so noble,

     but realized that we can boat those same cows far more effectively during the pre-spawn and post-spawn

 

         Roger

If you notice I mentioned live bait was used. There are a couple guys I see doing this on a regular basis. Mark the bed, come back to it, and throw a crawler, leech, shiner or crawdad into it and sit and wait. These guys just seem to want to get a picture at the end of the day. I've tried sight fishing a couple times but as pointed out, the bigguns are tough to catch in gin clear water and I just don't have the patience. A couple years back there was a 6+ nesting right off my dock. Tried flipping a few baits in there and she didn't even move. Caught a 3" bluegill and tossed it in there and she attacked it with a vengeance. She didn't spit it out right away either. I tugged slowly for a while without setting the hook and finally she spit it out. Couldn't force myself to set the hook.

Bed fishing with live shiners is a big part of the Florida bass guide business, the bed fishing pressure is intense.

Tom

 

It's tough to fish with shiners in 2 feet of water, which is where most "visible" beds are in Central Florida due to the staining in our lakes.  I have caught more large bass in probable bed locations in 4-6 ft of water in small open pockets in the Kissimmee grass, also hard to to shiner fish.  

 

Where I see most shiner fishing is on the outside lines of vegetation.  I believe they are catching pre and post spawn fish in these locations.

 

While I don't like the fact that trophy hunting vacationers usually keep the DD bass, the revenue from non resident licenses accounted for more than 2.8 Billion of the fisheries revenue for 2012/2013 so I will deal with it.