I just saw this post from KVD. Your thoughts? Seems like you are already limited to a short season, why take away two months? 
 

Menderchuck isn't on that list so he's good.

@TnRiver46 charge your phone buddy 😂

Those are ALL Lake Menderchucks ~

Hope they at least leave it open to C & R in April.

Sadly if this comes to fruition, it will place more early season pressure

on some of the lesser know, but still wicked good Lake Menderchucks.

Finally, what I've seen here regarding 'public opinion',

It means nothing or even less.

These folks are going to do what they want and those meetings are just for show.

Time will tell.

A-Jay

23 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

Those are ALL Lake Menderchucks ~

Hope they at least leave it open to C & R in April.

Sadly if this comes to fruition, it will place more early season pressure

on some of the lesser know, but still wicked good Lake Menderchucks.

Finally, what I've seen here regarding 'public opinion',

It means nothing or even less.

These folks are going to do what they want and those meetings are just for show.

Time will tell.

A-Jay

There is more than on Menderchuck?  I have spent years trying to find, one, with zero success.  If I can't find one, I don't have any chance of finding multiple Menderchucks.

I can't understand a "season" on bass. In Ky, you buy a license to fish, and you can fish for whatever species you want year round.

1 hour ago, Bazoo said:

I can't understand a "season" on bass. In Ky, you buy a license to fish, and you can fish for whatever species you want year round.

Pretty sure hunting licenses work like that in Kentucky as well.

Just pick one up and start shooting . . . . . . .

A-Jay

3 hours ago, Bazoo said:

I can't understand a "season" on bass. In Ky, you buy a license to fish, and you can fish for whatever species you want year round.

Pretty much every fish species where I live has some sort of season.

18 minutes ago, Rockhopper said:

Pretty much every fish species where I live has some sort of season.

Same. And most of them revolve around the sacred walleye.

5 hours ago, A-Jay said:

Hope they at least leave it open to C & R in April.

When I first read this I wondered if you read it wrong. Then it hit me, before the change a few years back, C&R was allowed in what third Saturday in April correct? 
 

Something else hit me, March is really no sweat off your back up there. 
 

So really, what is their point in this, for most years this is really going to impact what, three weeks?

The purpose is to protect fish during their spawning season.

There's more in play on this than what's at the surface.

There always is.

Someone has an agenda.

Derbies are held in May & June; the participants target fish on beds.

It's ruthless.

You've never seen a report of SMB catches from me in June.

Early May on late ice-out years, but not beds.

My choice.

I read that a key player in this has a place on one of the listed lakes.

He's trying to manipulate the season because he thinks he knows what's best for 'his' lake.

I'm just going fishing, and he can do whatever it is he does.

I'm done.

A-Jay

I get that @gim but a few years back they opened up C&R to all year and I haven’t heard anything about numbers dwindling so again, what’s the point?

@A-Jay answered that one. So they aren’t targeted while they’re spawning.

A little internet sleuthing pulled this up:

 

https://www.greatlakesbass.com/news/conservation/fisheries-management/burt-mullett-lakes-spring-bass-fishing-closure-proposed/

 

The whole link is well worth reading. They say this is coming not from the DNR or any scientific source, but from lake association members who are in a panic about gobies raiding nests on their lakes during the spawn when adult smallmouth are removed upon being caught.  DNR scentists are saying there's no evidence of reduced spawning success in these lakes, and they oppose the amendment.  

 

The link says so far its just one commissioner (out of 7) who wants the change, but the groups pushing it are loud and persistent and could get their way if there isn't more public pushback. 

 

 

Ok, after reading @A-Jay post and @MIbassyaker post and link I’m up to speed. 
 

I don’t see how this could even be a possibility since these are public lakes that are controlled by the DNR. 

^ Because the DNR answers to the state, so if the state says "This will happen." the DNR has to implement it.

 

Same thing here and why it took so long to get a year-round C&R season here. DNR said it wouldn't hurt anything, but the idiots above them thought different.

 It this isn’t the state pushing this, it’s one person on a lake association and the sheep are following. Now I get the representatives are supposed to listen to their constituents. Hopefully in this case listen to science as well.

 

So theoretically a group of homeowners could say they want their section of a state highway changed from 55mph to 25mph  even though science and safety say it’s a terrible idea and the state is going to rollover? Not a chance! 

So if they decided to "completely close smallmouth fishing" on my local lake, how does the Game Warden know if I'm targeting smallmouth?

^unenforceable 

Walleye love jerkbaits! 😎

18 hours ago, Rockhopper said:

Pretty much every fish species where I live has some sort of season.

 

Interesting. I wonder if it's a growing season thing. North Carolina has few seasons on recreational fish, just take home catch and size limits. Exceptions are badly damaged fisheries like Flounder and acute management calls like on spotted sea trout that had their spawn this year greatly reduced due to a freak cold snap.

 

I do find it specifically curious on bass, because bass seem prolific and able to just outright dominate spaces. Just finished a podcast listen with some of our top state fish biologists and they talked about how even after massive fish kills (hurricanes, etc) bass quickly bounce back here without needing to stock. If anything our issue in NC are bass are so prolific they stunt themselves out due to overpopulation.

 

But maybe small mouths are more fragile or shorter seasons make the population more precarious. Maybe it's those darn pike.

California has seasons for specific species and closures. The Trout Opening Day is still celebrated the first Saturday in April although the season doesn’t close anymore! Very little Fresh water Black Bass management besides 12” minimum length and 5 legal size bass limit, no stocking program for bass, only Rainbow Trout*. A few lakes have specific slot limits that come and go, don’t know of any currently.

Tom

* Rainbow Trout are hatchery raised and Sterile. The Holy Grail fish are native Steelhead Trout.  

11 hours ago, Tennessee Boy said:

So if they decided to "completely close smallmouth fishing" on my local lake, how does the Game Warden know if I'm targeting smallmouth?

That scenario often occurs here when certain seasons are closed and others are open. Yes, there’s some crossover when targeting certain species.

 

There is a specific lake here with walleyes and smallmouth, and at times they close the walleye fishing in midsummer to reduce mortality when the water is very warm. People try to skirt it by claiming to target bass instead.

 

LEOs are not stupid. They know when someone is lying to them. I can assure you that attempting to skirt regs like that are not going to end well.

I have spoken with some members of the NRC, I am of the opinion they want this looked into more before any action would be taken based on their comments, that being said, everyone should be writing them as this would most certainly fluctuate a LOT of additional pressure onto surrounding lakes, it would basically be the NRC picking winners & losers in the tourism department as well which is not what our Government should be doing.

 

Another issue is this, historically, when it comes down to enforcing the law, to make anything really stick, you have to close it to all species, not just one as lets face, good luck proving you are Bass fishing, a LEO will know your lying, but that doesn't correlate to being able to prosecute, what it really does is do away with the possibility of tournaments...

 

They attempted to close a small portion of flowage between some lakes in Northern Michigan a few years back to Muskie fishing for a few weeks during the spawn, when it came time to write the law, the powers that be stated plain as day, we cannot shut it down to just Muskies, we have to shut it all down or we will never be able to prosecute, so they closed it to everything, people went off the rails over it and now, it's wide open to fishing, no protection for Muskies, because the courts and lawyers... Nobody had an issue with it being closed for Muskie fishing either, that's the ridiculous part...