I watchd this video, and thought it had lots of interesting information. It is a little long, and of course I'm sure that some of the opinions could be debated by other biologists or fisherman, but all in all I think it is worth watching.

 

 

Thanks for the link, I’ll listen soon. I love eating bass, a delicious white flaky side effect of our favorite pastime 

It would be interesting to hear what you agree, and disagree with as a fellow biologist.  I liked his honest answer I don't know to the question of how do bass see color.     

Well as of April I’m a maintenance man but I did wildlife work for ironically the same amount of yrs as the interviewee 😂 

I haven't watched it yet, but I'm going to, thanks for the link.

Steve Bardin is the man and I've learned a lot from listening to him over the years.  Bass anglers often don't understand what is best for fisheries - even with the best of intentions.   I mostly hear other fisheries biologists in other places echo the points made here.

 

Basically, applying his philosophy to small bodies of water can radically shift the size in a positive direction.

 

Too many little mouths to feed with no competition or predation = stunted dinks.

 

Happens on big lakes too.

 

It's wise to keep small or unhealthy fish if you like catching bigger healthier fish on small highly stretched fisheries with tons of competition for forage.

 

Great video.  Thank for posting it. 

 

Please watch this video if you think the world is about to end due to over fishing and FFS.  Please!

 

This kid has 368K subscribers to his channel.  That's huge.  He needs to learn the difference between structure and cover. 

3 minutes ago, Tennessee Boy said:

Please watch this video if you think the world is about to end due to over fishing and FFS.  Please!

Bardin is a good dude. FFS and fish populations is currently being argued and viewed in a very limited sense, though, including by most biologists and related reports I've seen. There’s a much deeper dive yet to be had instead of the ‘one size fits all’ argument most Internet/forum positions seem to take, including in relation to a lot of studies that never get mentioned in these arguments. He also seems to be waffling a bit on the WR bass/recent species separation controversy, so still not 100% certain where his thoughts align there. 

11 hours ago, Tennessee Boy said:

Please watch this video if you think the world is about to end due to over fishing and FFS.  Please!

I think the biggest controversy on FFS. isn't weather it hurts bass populations, it is weather or not it should be allowed in bass tournaments.  Methods such as trolling, the A Rig, or using a net are not detrimental to the over all population of bass, but are not allowed by many tournament organizations.

I personally like the idea of FFS being used in competition, but do believe those that oppose it's use have solid arguments against it.  Water quality, habitat, bag limits,  proper release techniques  and some good  luck will determine the health of a fishery,

I've always been a believer in selective harvest...and I do so with bass. My own training in Aquatic Biology along with thoughtful comments by Al Lindner way back when made my mind up for me on that front.

 

24 minutes ago, king fisher said:

using a net are not detrimental to the over all population of bass, but are not allowed by many tournament organizations.

I would much rather them use a net than to heave them out and let them bounce on the deck like too many of them do...would be much LESS stressful on the bass.

55 minutes ago, Tennessee Boy said:

He needs to learn the difference between structure and cover. 

It's pretty crazy how many people I know/fish with that dont know the difference. My FIL drives me up a wall because he thinks everything is structure. 

25 minutes ago, king fisher said:

I think the biggest controversy on FFS. isn't weather it hurts bass populations, it is weather or not it should be allowed in bass tournaments.

I agree but there is no shortage of people here and elsewhere that think it’s harming fisheries.   There is very little scientific data on it now.   I expect we will see a lot of articles being published in the near future.  I’m all for changing size and creel limits to improve fisheries.  I just think they should be based on science not emotion.  I have FFS and would welcome different limits for those using it.  That would make more sense than what Mississippi did in my opinion.  I would also love to see the data that drove Mississippi’s decision.

Being able to see the fish underwater is what it's all about for most tournaments nowadays. I mean, if anyone has that upper hand available to them, they'd certainly take it. I know I would. If they say they wouldn't, they'd probably be lying. Why loose when you can win? As far as FFS hurting the fish populations, I really can't see that happening. Most bass fishing is catch/release. The fishing is much the same as it was before but with the added ability to track the fish better. There's also more tournaments on more lakes, and with FFS uncovering BIG fish out in the middle of these lakes suspended deeply, the flood gates have opened. Just more people fishing to get them, recreational as well as tournaments, the mob has invaded!  

I got to listen while driving but forgot what I was going to post on here before we stopped the car 😂 

 

I definitely feel that biologist is sharp as a tack and uninfluenced by the vocal minorities 

 

I really liked how he pointed out the genetics don’t matter if the habitat isn’t there 

1 hour ago, Tennessee Boy said:

  I would also love to see the data that drove Mississippi’s decision.

My bet is a preemptive strike in response to worriers 

I actually credit them (MS) for trying to protect what is widely recognized as some of the best trophy crappie lakes in the country based on their study data without restricting access, tournaments, overly complicating rules, etc. Waiting for the data showing that the trophy fishery crashed, and THEN reacting to it, is a bit foolish. Lots of write-ups mentioning some of their findings as the reasons for the change. Like I mentioned earlier, there is a much deeper discussion that needs to take place beyond what the vast majority of Internet discussions entail. 

41 minutes ago, Team9nine said:

Lots of write-ups mentioning some of their findings as the reasons for the change

Would you mind sharing some links?

7 minutes ago, Tennessee Boy said:

Would you mind sharing some links?

 

Open Access write-up

 

MS Crappie study article

2 hours ago, Team9nine said:

Waiting for the data showing that the trophy fishery crashed, and THEN reacting to it, is a bit foolish.

 

Exactly.  Prevention is much easier than trying to fix it after its crashed.  Minnesota waited way too long on this with northern pike and its a problem that's never going to get fixed.  Our lakes are loaded with stunted, aggressive pike that no one keeps even though the daily bag limit is 10.  Too many big ones got harvested for too long.  Two years ago the MN DNR dropped the daily sunfish bag limit on over 100 lakes here from 20 to 5.  Its a direct result from winter ice fishing pressure and the increased used of FFS/live sonar through the ice.

 

I don't personally like keeping or eating bass even though I've done it before.  I'm not much of a fish eater period.  Ate so much of it growing up that I've kind of lost my pallate for it.  On rare occasion I don't mind a meal of walleye, pike, or perch though out of cold water.  I find that saltwater fish has much more taste.

 

There are a lot of lakes that would greatly benefit from selective harvest of smaller sized bass.  Each system has a maximum amount of resources available and the term used is carrying capacity.  Too many mouths to feed and not enough to keep them all fed.  Taking home a few 12 inchers every once in a while is helpful.

What a great vid.  Very knowledgeable and informative.  Thanks for sharing this.

That was great, thank you very much for sharing. Interesting tidbits throughout the video.

If you read between the lines, I feel like most to all creel limits really should be a slot limit with maybe one over slot to protect the general public from mounting their pb if they desire.  And those slots should probably target smaller and possibly more fish to make up for the appropriate biomass reduction.  Very interesting video, thanks!

 

scott

For catfish Tennessee has a limit of one fish over 34 inches and no limit on fishing under 34 inches.  I think something like that would make sense for a lot of other species,  especially crappie.   Fill your freezer with dinks and let the big ones grow to be trophies.

Thanks for sharing @king fisher very informative.

1 hour ago, Tennessee Boy said:

For catfish Tennessee has a limit of one fish over 34 inches and no limit on fishing under 34 inches.  I think something like that would make sense for a lot of other species,  especially crappie.   Fill your freezer with dinks and let the big ones grow to be trophies.

Sometimes effective strategy but dinks grow into trophies 

 

with every dam being unique, every reservoir is a case study 

40 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

Sometimes effective strategy but dinks grow into trophies 

Statistically speaking, only a small percentage of the overall population makes it that far. And dinks don’t spawn because they aren’t mature. Protecting larger females that are already producing or capable of reproducing is how you protect the reproductive process of a fishery. Plus it takes a long time to replace one when it’s harvested.

 

Ideally, a nice even bell curve of a fish population would be present with a good mix of smaller, medium, and larger fish.