Do the big females need a break from being caught in the spring? Do they generally survive the Spawn and getting hooked and released around that time?

I see females in ponds I fish every day 365 days a year for 6 + years show up on the same beds every year - get caught and swim off and show up for 2-3 days around each full or new moon generally from about April til November in NC. Literally every single one. Do people catch them?? Not much! 😆 those big girls didn’t get big being dumb.

They’re super tough fish.

That being said - they don’t survive being tossed in a bucket and taken home and cleaned and eaten and they don’t survive being badly gill or gut hooked so I try really hard to swing hard and fast and take my licks knowing I’m fishing more safely - do NOT wait to set the hook on bed fish or use treble hooks on bed fish you’re sight fishing - and you’re gonna probably be just fine and so will she.

Female bass are the healthiest and most likely to survive being caught during the spring while they’re spawning. Not during the winter or summer or fall when water quality is poor and they’ve been hammered for months - in the spring they have good water quality and good temps and lots of food and are the most likely to survive being caught.

Don’t keep fish out of the water for more than 30 seconds without reviving them.

Quick photo and back on the bed and for the most part - you’re not gonna hurt the bass population.

Another small comfort that’s worthy of consideration: most professionally managed ponds that are focused on curating giant bass fishing experiences require very intentional and deliberate harvesting of bass annually and to some degree the fish that die from bed fishing help the overall size in a small pond - contrary to popular belief.

People loading buckets from the bank can seem to fish a spot out but the fact is bass spawn in places you can’t see more than places you can in every body of water on earth and they’re gonna be fine - but you might be left with only smart hard to catch fish that live deep after a few years of people over harvesting on the banks etc.

The key is always being intentional and respectful and you can learn a lot about bass from sight fishing.

You’re really learning all the stuff that people with forward facing sonar are learning but you learn it with your eyes and a real fish instead of a screen.

Just now, LokiDawg said:

Do the big females need a break from being caught in the spring? Do they generally survive the Spawn and getting hooked and released around that time?

Ok great thank you

31 minutes ago, Pat Brown said:

I see females in ponds I fish every day 365 days a year for 6 + years show up on the same beds every year - get caught and swim off and show up for 2-3 days around each full or new moon generally from about April til November in NC. Literally every single one. Do people catch them?? Not much! 😆 those big girls didn’t get big being dumb.

They’re super tough fish.

That being said - they don’t survive being tossed in a bucket and taken home and cleaned and eaten and they don’t survive being badly gill or gut hooked so I try really hard to swing hard and fast and take my licks knowing I’m fishing more safely - do NOT wait to set the hook on bed fish or use treble hooks on bed fish you’re sight fishing - and you’re gonna probably be just fine and so will she.

Female bass are the healthiest and most likely to survive being caught during the spring while they’re spawning. Not during the winter or summer or fall when water quality is poor and they’ve been hammered for months - in the spring they have good water quality and good temps and lots of food and are the most likely to survive being caught.

Don’t keep fish out of the water for more than 30 seconds without reviving them.

Quick photo and back on the bed and for the most part - you’re not gonna hurt the bass population.

Another small comfort that’s worthy of consideration: most professionally managed ponds that are focused on curating giant bass fishing experiences require very intentional and deliberate harvesting of bass annually and to some degree the fish that die from bed fishing help the overall size in a small pond - contrary to popular belief.

People loading buckets from the bank can seem to fish a spot out but the fact is bass spawn in places you can’t see more than places you can in every body of water on earth and they’re gonna be fine - but you might be left with only smart hard to catch fish that live deep after a few years of people over harvesting on the banks etc.

The key is always being intentional and respectful and you can learn a lot about bass from sight fishing.

You’re really learning all the stuff that people with forward facing sonar are learning but you learn it with your eyes and a real fish instead of a screen.

Excellent reply!!

Mike

Probably a good time to review this: