26 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

18” minimum length to keep a smallmouth in almost all of East TN. I ain’t too proud to slice one up but I’d starve to death trying to catch enough. White bass is the way to go for legal keeper food 

 

If we had an 18" limit here in my neck of Michigan, I could never keep one from the waters I fish. A-Jay would stay well fed, though.  😆 

Here in MN there really is no bass management at all.  There is another fish that swims in the lakes and river that is managed.  I have fished a few lake that need selective harvests to cull out the small to medium sized fish.  I don’t think there is enough harvesting of bass to make a difference.  I catch a lot of dink large mouth around here.  
 

now Mille Lacs lake seem to have a good portion of bigger smallmouth.  I am not sure why but I catch few dinks per large fish there.

I've been told by the guy who runs our local DNR bass, bluegill, shellcracker and catfish hatchery that you can't fish a pond out. He said a certain amount of fish simply won't bite a hook. More likely, several factors come into play, including harvesting EVERYTHING. I believe fisheries biologists are playing the odds when they say what they say.

 

That said, I practice catch & release because I want to spend the time catching, not cleaning fish.

On 4/7/2025 at 8:10 AM, osummerer23 said:

Look at pan fish and live scope over the recent years. As they saw the impact of live scope on pan fish, states started reducing limits and seasons. From 25 fish a day to 10 because they know each angler that went out had more success than previously. 

 

This has happened here on over 100 lakes already.  The bag limit on sunfish went from 20 to 5 daily due to increased pressure and usage of FFS during the winter ice fishing.

 

Most recently, a specific big lake here also dropped the daily perch limit from 20 to 5 because of so much winter angling pressure, and also the increased effeciency of FFS while ice fishing.

 

The bucket brigade is not happy.  But its reality.  Look up all kinds of fisheries collapsing due to over harvest, especially in saltwater.  The cod fishery will likely never recover.

 

Not saying that every significant reduction of a specific fish population is due to over harvest, because its not.  Environmental factors have played roles here quite often too.

 

I used to work for the DNR years ago and the data I collected in the field went straight to the biologists and specialists.  That data was integral for helping to manage specific lakes and species of fish, and whether to implement special regulations.

15 hours ago, BassinBrett said:

Here in MN there really is no bass management at all.  There is another fish that swims in the lakes and river that is managed.  I have fished a few lake that need selective harvests to cull out the small to medium sized fish.  I don’t think there is enough harvesting of bass to make a difference.  I catch a lot of dink large mouth around here.  

Are you sure about that?  Minnesota has closed seasons, catch and release seasons, bag limits and special regs for the Northeast zone and a southern zone for both large and smallmouth bass. That sounds like a management plan to me. Bass populations in northern states are pretty healthy, there isn't a lot of fishing pressure on them and most bass fishermen release most of their catch. It's pretty difficult to enforce a regulation that requires the harvest of bass so except for rare locations it isn't done very often.  Walleyes on the other hand, are seldom released, get a lot of pressure and require stocking so management of them gets considerably more attention

 

Fishery management goals a sustainable harvest for the public use. Fish are there for the public to catch and eat not for specific groups to catch & release.

Few exceptions are the Texas Share A Lunker program to raise trophy size bass for the public to catch.

California considers Black Bass species a self sustainable fish that doesn’t  require a restocking program or management beyond a 5 fish limit over 12” long. A few California lakes have occasional slot limits to harvest a specific year class and/or protect a year class from over harvest. Outside of initial Black Bass*  introduction/stocked it’s rare addition bass are stocked by the DFW.

Tom

* Black Bass includes 5 species in California; Northern and Florida Largemouth, Smallmouth, Northern and Southern Spotted bass, depending on the lake.

7 hours ago, WRB said:

Fishery management goals a sustainable harvest for the public use. Fish are there for the public to catch and eat not for specific groups to catch & release.

Few exceptions are the Texas Share A Lunker program to raise trophy size bass for the public to catch.

California considers Black Bass species a self sustainable fish that doesn’t  require a restocking program or management beyond a 5 fish limit over 12” long. A few California lakes have occasional slot limits to harvest a specific year class and/or protect a year class from over harvest. Outside of initial Black Bass*  introduction/stocked it’s rare addition bass are stocked by the DFW.

Tom

* Black Bass includes 5 species in California; Northern and Florida Largemouth, Smallmouth, Northern and Southern Spotted bass, depending on the lake.

So can I assume since their motivations are not in the best interests of sport fisherman that their insistence that harvesting is not detrimental to a fishery is inaccurate or a half truth?

You assume “sport fisherman “ don’t eat what they catch, not true only applies to a small group angers.

Tom

On 4/10/2025 at 10:49 PM, WRB said:

You assume “sport fisherman “ don’t eat what they catch, not true only applies to a small group angers.

Tom

You think the bass fishing community is a small group of anglers in the sport fishing industry?

53 minutes ago, Ohioguy25 said:

You think the bass fishing community is a small group of anglers in the sport fishing industry?

1) not all anglers catching bass release them.

2) ocean anglers out number bass anglers and eat what the catch.

3) trout anglers out number bass anglers.

4) walleye anglers are not C& R 

5) catfish angler are not C& R

Bass anglers that practice C & R are a small group compared to all fisherman, somewhere around 20% bass anglers vs 80% everything else.

Tom

Been donating lil unhealthy looking runts and trash fish/panfish to hungry folks back at the marina every trip out!  It's very appreciated and it helps my big girls.

The science tends to lean towards a smaller bass population amounts to a higher likelihood of big fish. I've seen this in several ponds we fish around the house. The ones with bigger fish simply don't have the same amounts of dinks that the normal ponds do. The argument was raised already about carrying capacity. If a lake can sustain 100lbs per acre, that can be any combination of fish, 100 dinks, 10 10lb fish or anything in between. Selective harvest is the way to go. Keep the 1.5-3lb fish and release the rest. 

32 minutes ago, Drew03cmc said:

If a lake can sustain 100lbs per acre, that can be any combination of fish, 100 dinks, 10 10lb fish or anything in between.

 

I mostly believe this, however, in our species and other species, like dogs, our metabolic rates drop as we age. If this is also true with bass, a pond could support a higher total weight of larger bass than smaller bass with their higher metabolic rates, which means they'd eat more.

26 minutes ago, Swamp Girl said:

 

I mostly believe this, however, in our species and other species, like dogs, our metabolic rates drop as we age. If this is also true with bass, a pond could support a higher total weight of larger bass than smaller bass with their higher metabolic rates, which means they'd eat more.

 

 

My experience is that big bass don't stop eating but they do get smarter.  I'd say they're eating more food more often than any other size class on the pond but they're very dialed in on whatever it is they want to be eating and very difficult to distract or fool with artificial lures on most days where they're in eating mode.

 

I think basically the smaller fish are eating *everything* and not just the types of things that bigger bass would want to eat and this is helpful for balancing the ecosystem.

 

You definitely don't want only large bass on a pond.  But those midsize ones are definitely the ones that limit the growth potential of your big fish.

 

How much you care is entirely up to you?

 

Catching 13 year old 4 lb fish is just as fun as catching a 2 year old 4 lb fish.

 

It's just that releasing the 2 year old fish - it will probably get bigger before you catch it again - the 13 year old fish is done growing.

 

In general the easiest way to not overthink this whole deal is keep medium small fish that look off.  Big eye balls.  Thin tails.  Concave bellies.  Big gashes or lots of sores etc.

 

It isn't hard in a day catching 13 fish ranging from 1-5 lbs to know which one or two I would remove for the betterment of the lake etc.

 

And realistically - the rate that the people who keep fish catch bass is basically zero here.

 

I think you just gotta get a feel for the body of water and then you'll have an idea how best to help it along.

8 hours ago, WRB said:

1) not all anglers catching bass release them.

2) ocean anglers out number bass anglers and eat what the catch.

3) trout anglers out number bass anglers.

4) walleye anglers are not C& R 

5) catfish angler are not C& R

Bass anglers that practice C & R are a small group compared to all fisherman, somewhere around 20% bass anglers vs 80% everything else.

Tom

1) The overwhelming majority of bass fishermen practice catch & release.

 

2) ocean fish outnumber bass exponentially. Surely any responsible discussion about this shouldn’t compare an ocean and a lake.

 

5) Catfish, walleye, perch fishermen are not the same category of angler as bass fishermen, who are fishing for sport - the challenge, strategy and fight of the fish rather than sitting there with a rod in their hands. I understand what you’re saying but trying to argue that bass fishing and walleye fishing are remotely similar is disingenuous. Not to mention walleye are regulated much more than bass.

1 hour ago, Drew03cmc said:

The science tends to lean towards a smaller bass population amounts to a higher likelihood of big fish. I've seen this in several ponds we fish around the house. The ones with bigger fish simply don't have the same amounts of dinks that the normal ponds do. The argument was raised already about carrying capacity. If a lake can sustain 100lbs per acre, that can be any combination of fish, 100 dinks, 10 10lb fish or anything in between. Selective harvest is the way to go. Keep the 1.5-3lb fish and release the rest. 

So basically for smallmouth they should have slot limits forbidding keeping fish over 12-14”, and as it is it’s useless.

3 hours ago, Swamp Girl said:

 

I mostly believe this, however, in our species and other species, like dogs, our metabolic rates drop as we age. If this is also true with bass, a pond could support a higher total weight of larger bass than smaller bass with their higher metabolic rates, which means they'd eat more.

Larger fish eat more food to grow or maintain their weight. I could point you to several podcasts with biologists talking about this exact subject. One or two are from Alex Rudd, Bass After Dark and probably a few others.