I keep hearing people say that they don't like bed fishing or they prefer not to bed fish. Is this purely because they feel guilty about disturbing the reproductive cycle or is there some other reason folks don't like it? Personally, it doesn't matter if its bass on beds or cruising cobia, sight fishing is my favorite way to catch em. 

People don't like sight fishing because guides and pros need to sell tackle 😂

 

There's kind of this narrative that like trying to intentionally catch a fish is bad but random casting is ethical - kinda absurd.

 

In my humble opinion a lot of the narrative we are fed surrounding bass behavior is made up and most shallow bass that are biting artificial lures are near their nests.  It is now my belief that this is ALSO the case in deep water with artificial lures 😯😯😯

 

YMMV - I think people kinda need to understand that bass spawn literally everywhere and for the most part it's about the only time they are biting in the middle of the day.

 

People will burn me alive for saying this - but it's been my observation year after year.

 

Make no mistake - a spawning fish isn't necessarily a catchable fish but it sure is a fish and casting at random spawning habitat and hoping for the best doesn't make you a better person than someone who wants to see the fish they're trying to catch IMHO.

Cuz they don’t bite and I think I’ve seen 2-3 of them in my lifetime. I’d probably love it if it ever worked 

I think @Pat Brown has an important point - If you are catching fish shallow during the spring time, you are very likely catching some bed fish whether you like it or not.

 

I will definitely cast to bed fish a couple times if I see them, but I'm not a fan of working over a single bed for 20-30 minutes to force a bite.  I'm fine with others doing it, but its not my thing and just doesn't feel right to me.

 

Where I have stronger feelings is tournaments that take place during the spawn, and the bed fish are stuck in a live well for a day, then released miles from their bed.  I haven't looked for data, but I have to believe that has some impact on the overall reproduction rates on some lakes.

I'm guessing mostly two reasons:

 

1) There's less sport in it.

2) You are taking away what is guarding the eggs/fry which is the future.

I don’t hate it.  I don’t even dislike it.

 

But I tend to stray away from it a bit for a few reasons.  They often don’t even seem interested in what I am using to invade their space. And often it boils down to “frustrating a fish” in order to get them to bite. And I fully realize that fish aren’t biting out of hunger all the time.
 

But for me I’m less interested in catching them that. I’ll make a few casts to one I can see and sometimes catch one but I hardly ever purposefully bed fish.  

 

When I see big brown trout on their redds I won’t fish for them period even if the season is still open.  For one you will actually harm the population by doing so, but it just seems like a cheesy way to catch a fish and outside my own personal code of fair chase. 
 

 

i love aiming my livescope at em!!  

 

just kidding!!!    in my early days.  like 3 years ago, i could and have pestered a fish for a long long time trying to get it to bite.  me and my dropshot lizard.   its kinda how i learned how to stand up on my kayak for hours.   i got out of my own head, because i was focused on the fish.

 

it just didnt feel that sporting, picking on a fish programmed to strike at a lizard intruder.    now, i just long cast them, and i am not fooling myself..i am probably still landing occasionally on their heads during the spawn.  

When you throw a jig next to a juicy lay down and feel a solid thump and jack a 6 lber out in May you think she's ambushing bluegill there and feeding on them - but you threw a 12" worm - that ain't no bluegill - I reckon you just caught a nesting bass - seeing as how you targeted optimum spawning habitat.

 

Consider this - scouting fish and then blind casting to them - you actually are often MORE likely to catch spawning fish - so is it knowing where they are that takes the sport out of it?  My experience is that spawning fish are just as difficult to catch as any fish - most of the time on a tough day fishing it's a tough day and you're making casts to beds - I find actually on small fisheries - bedding fish are near impossible to sight fish - like many here are pointing out.

 

Another scenario : how about a deep ledge on a clear water fishery?  Well in clear water the sun penetrates a lot deeper than we think - that hard spot just to the left of the deep grass edge isn't a hard spot they prefer because they're odd creatures it's optimum nesting substrate near cover where their fry can eat and grow.  It ain't rocket science.

 

We think of bluegill as nest raiders and egg eaters when it's actually way more often tiny golden shiners and gizzard shad that are at a stage where consuming eggs makes sense.  Shaking a minnow on deep structure?

 

Why do you think the bass on structure activate when bait is nearby and stay tight to the structure?  They are on alert and protecting their nests.

 

If we wanted to catch feeding bass the areas and techniques we'd have to utilize routinely would feel like the abyss and realistically the chances of fooling a feeding bass that has been caught a few times goes down to zero.

 

We think of the spawn as a thing that happens shallow once or something to that effect but many fish spawn many times at many different depth ranges throughout a year and basically - it's not realistic to separate things into pre spawn and spawn and post spawn as static periods bass pass through annually but more as fluid states that bass are ALWAYS passing through sometimes biweekly.

If I see a big fish spawning or on a bed, I may make a cast at it, or a I may not. I never specifically target bedding fish. Just not interested. Something in my brain/gut usually tells me “let em do their thing”, and I usually do.
 

But like mentioned above, bass spawn everywhere and I’m not foolish enough to not believe that if I’m fishing during the spawn, I am going to catch bedders or guarders. Just comes with the territory.

 

And I certainly don’t judge people who do bed fish. At the end of the day even if I’m not bed fishing, I’m still ramming a hook through the face of a living creature, so I have no room to judge anyone. As long as the fish is treated humanely after the catch, I don’t judge how/when/where people do the catching. 
 

So if you bed fish, good luck and get after those big girls that’ll be movin up! 

the same reason that I don't like it when someone comes in my bedroom without knocking.....

I did it a handful of times, targeted bedding bass and I just didnt have fun. I'll still fish and if I catch em trying to find active non spawning bass so be it. 

 

I agree though that tournaments that drag them miles away from their beds should be avoided. If I catch im dropping them right back into the water and the next day I've seen them back on beds. 

I hate it because I can never find bass on beds.  The one time I did, I enjoyed fishing for them.  I even would get out of my kayak, and sneak along shale rock slides in order to see and catch the bass.  If it is a big bass, and I can see it, I'm willing to give almost anything a try to catch it.  Most of the the lakes I fish I never see a bass, and I don't even know what time of year they spawn.

I love putting around the lakes during the spawn, just to see how many beds there are, as an idea of how the fish population was doing.

 As far as bed fishing, I have done it on occasion in the past , but I don't make a habit of it. Personally ( and this is just me) I find it a bit like FFS, in my mind a little too unsporting. I relate it to when I hunted birds. Shouting a pheasant on the ground was considered unsporting. You waited to shoot him in the air, on the wing, thus giving him a sporting chance.

1 hour ago, RocYak said:

I think @Pat Brown has an important point - If you are catching fish shallow during the spring time, you are very likely catching some bed fish whether you like it or not.

 

I will definitely cast to bed fish a couple times if I see them, but I'm not a fan of working over a single bed for 20-30 minutes to force a bite.  I'm fine with others doing it, but its not my thing and just doesn't feel right to me.

 

Where I have stronger feelings is tournaments that take place during the spawn, and the bed fish are stuck in a live well for a day, then released miles from their bed.  I haven't looked for data, but I have to believe that has some impact on the overall reproduction rates on some lakes.

I personally have seen plenty of bass that I caught return to their beds as soon as I released them back into the water; bed fishing isn't the main issue, you hit the nail on the head when it comes to tournament fishing during the spawn. 

I'm surprised by the number of responses for it just being too difficult. That's what makes it so fun to me. You KNOW there's a fish there, now how do you convince it to eat your bait? Last tournament I found some bed fish. The biggest pair did not want to eat anything we had tied on. We threw T-Rigged craws, T-Rigged senkos, wacky senkos, dice baits, glide baits, drop shots, and jerk baits at them. Nothing. Finally pulled a rod with a T-Rigged Bronco Bug out of the locker. First couple casts just dragging or shaking had no reaction. The first flip where I hopped it in her face, she ate and I missed the bite. Repeated that hop on the next cast and caught her. Figuring that out was so rewarding to me. I never would've gone through that many baits on a blind fish to figure it out. A couple hours later I had a similar face off with a fry guarder. After 5 or 6 baits, I pulled out the jerkbait and told my co I would have that fish in 2 casts. It took 3 because I put the second in a limb, but I caught him on the 3rd. We both thought it was so cool to find the bait and be able to watch the eat. 

 

@Pat Brown I'm with you on most of that, especially about fish spawning deeper and for longer than most give them credit for. Just talk to some of the OH Ivie guides who are catching bed fish in 18-20 feet. But I don't agree that most of the fish we catch shallow in the summer are on beds- I think there's a sizable portion of the population that just lives shallow year round. I can remember plenty of examples where I caught fish from a wolfpack chasing bluegill in 2 feet of water or pulling 10 fish of one small piece of cover that absolutely could not hold that many beds or balls of fry. 

 

1 hour ago, TnRiver46 said:

Cuz they don’t bite and I think I’ve seen 2-3 of them in my lifetime. I’d probably love it if it ever worked 

Is that a TN River deal? I've never fished a TN River fishery, but always assumed you'd find plenty of bed fish at the right time of year.

 

I think what "gets me" the most is people who think that taking some fish off their beds is going to mess up the bass population. There's enough science out there now to show that a handful of bass can repopulate an entire lake. If anything, most lakes are overcrowded and stunted so having some decreased recruitment in a portion of the population should help combat that without actually harvesting any fish. 

They will cluster spawn exactly the same way that Sunfish do in my experience. And large groups of females will guard general areas and not individual specific beds and pairs. But that's just been what I've seen over the years. I agree that they still live up there all year round, but I think that basically unless there's some sort of very special thing happening like Sunfish spawning or Shad spawning or bugs hatching, the aggressive shallow fish are around their nests and around can even mean like 50 ft from them. Just depends on the fish and their personality. 

 

I have absolutely seen five or six big females. Spawning on a single tree that is like smaller than all of the fish. 

 

I'm not saying that's what you were experiencing. I'm just saying that it absolutely happens.

@JHoss, beats me. Never really heard of anyone catching bed fish either. Maybe chickamauga but I don’t go down there. I’ve seen a few smallies spawning in clear tributaries I suppose 

I've never seen a single spawning bed here in Maine. I think this is because I'm sitting. It could be my old eyes.

 

However, if I saw a bass guarding a bed, I wouldn't cast to it because that bass is protecting the future's fishing.

 

Yes, I'm sure I've yanked some guardians off beds, but not intentionally.

 

45 minutes ago, AverageAngler said:

Where I have stronger feelings is tournaments that take place during the spawn, and the bed fish are stuck in a live well for a day, then released miles from their bed.  I haven't looked for data, but I have to believe that has some impact on the overall reproduction rates on some lakes.

 

Oh, yeah, that's wrong. They should rebrand themselves as The Feed the Bluegills Tour.

We could see them on the beds in Florida. Whether it was a pond or a lake. You could always see the distinct sand bottom circle cleaned out in the vegetation. A lot of times near structure. We may toss a black trick worm in there at them. But after a few casts if they didn’t wana play just moved on. Canals were always easy to spot beds because you were up higher. I never found it to be unsporting really. Everyone I caught the second back in the water. Swam straight back to the bed. 
 

im in the Midwest now. The ponds I fish are basically ground level I don’t have an elevated look down. So I’m blind casting to any vegetation or edge of it I can see. Visibility to about 4 feet? I’m probably casting on beds or where potential beds are. Our water temps are rising and weather has stabilized warm. But I can see the beds so who knows. Maybe I am? Besides that some fish live shallow they’re whole lives some stay deep not every single fish makes the transitions. Maybe they’ve always there and that’s there home they are guarding 

I rarely ever catch bass that I can see, bedding or no. 

The reality is that you can't effectively sight/bed fish on many bodies of water, and I'd say places that you can easily sight fish are in the minority.

 

Between the heavy spring rains and wind, combined with pollen, it's a true crap shoot on my waters if you're going to be able to see them.

 

I don't really get the whole I don't bed fish because it's unethical side of the argument because at the end of the day if you fish in the Spring, you're catching spawning fish 100%.  

 

To me sight fishing is the hardest technique in Bass fishing.   Drew Cook and John Cox have shown it's far more black magic than science.    

 

I managed to catch 22 fish over 5lbs during our recent spawning 6 week period, I spent significant time sight fishing during that period........one single 5lb fish out of 22 came from sight fishing.     

 

Your odds of catching big fish in the Spring casting in the blind are exponentially better than trying to look at them imho.

 

That said, there's just something incredibly addicting about trying to catch one with your eyes.  

34 minutes ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

That said, there's just something incredibly addicting about trying to catch one with your eyes.  

 

Oh, I know it's exciting, as I was casting to bass chasing shad this morning...and caught a couple.

 

When smallies in northwestern Ontario were plucking bugs off the surface, if you could land your popper within three feet of them within three seconds or so, it was fish on. Knowing this probability made it some of the most exciting fishing of my life. 

Sight fishing is nearly impossible most of the time here.  I have caught them on beds in 41° water at the end of December. 

 

I just don't think that you can target largemouth bass without catching bedding fish is all I'm trying to say and I think that actively targeting ones that you can see is not that bad. Most of the time they either bite and you catch them and then release them and then it's okay and they probably won't bite again all spring or they've been caught and they don't bite and you waste a lot of time fishing a bed. 

 

I just don't think it's really threatening the future of the species or anything like that. 

 

If anything, I think that putting pressure on a species that essentially runs rampant and eats everything in sight is probably good for that particular species even though it's hard to view it that way when we humanize the fish.

1 hour ago, Swamp Girl said:

I've never seen a single spawning bed here in Maine. I think this is because I'm sitting. It could be my old eyes.

Here's and old pic of ours from some years ago in our old boat taken in southern Maine. I assume the Smallie I had hooked was from a bed, although it wasn't intentional ( as I remember),  but all the light colored areas in the background were beds. Big clean circular areas in the rocks.

 

Maybe it's different for me because I'm mostly tournament fishing. I'll gladly dedicate an hour (or 1/8th of my day) on one fish if I believe they'll be the on the team at weigh in. I think it's that old saying, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. A good fish I know is there and believe is catchable is far more valuable than the other fish I MIGHT find and catch blind fishing in that hour. 

 

Being able to quickly assess whether a bedded fish is catchable may be harder and more important than knowing how to catch them on beds. Cook and Cox can certainly read a fish better than 99.9% of anglers which makes bed fishing reasonably efficient for them.