On my pitching stick and frog rod I winch them in. I do play the biggest ones a little on the pitching stick once they are clear of cover. On anything with trebles or light wire hooks I play them out. If you don't you'll rip the hooks out or straighten them. I have straightened a standard EWG hook out on a possible PB. On the other hand I have landed a big bass that had one point of a treble on a Chug Bug in its nostril. The proximity to cover plays a part in the decision as well.

2 hours ago, king fisher said:

While I greatly appreciate your concern for the long term survival of the bass, I'm not too worried about lactic acid build up. If a bass can survive being skied on top of the water, boat flipped into a boat, drove around in a live well all day, transferred to a tank, held up high, weighted showed off to a crowd of spectators, transferred back to a tank, then released miles from it's home, and live to be caught another day, I think it can survive an extra couple of minutes getting tired enough to land without making a big show of it at the boat. I do agree very light tackle, making for an extremely long fight resulting in complete exhaustion is not helping the survival odds, but backing off on the pressure, while lessing the chance of pulling a hook and insuring a quieter experience at the boat is not going kill the bass.

I can’t save every fish I catch and obviously some must be sacrificed for the spectacle of the weigh in - but I am just making people aware of the fact that fish caught out of hot water die much faster and fighting the fish objectively does them no favors. No judgement here. Just facts that people can choose to do with that which they please.

1 hour ago, Susky River Rat said:

I try to follow what @Pat Brown stated. I try to get them in as fast as my gear and fish will allow. I won’t skim them across the water but, try to land them quickly.

Fish have a very very hard time getting rid of lactic acid build up. This is why they say to land a musky as quickly as possible. I am very against BFS for bass.

@king fisher there is a higher morality rate than we will ever know. The whole swam away it will be fine is old logic. It has been disproved through science.

I believe there is a big difference between fighting a bass to total exhaustion, and taking a little extra time to make sure I successfully land the bass. If a bass has to use an exceptional amount of effort to escape from a predator, does it then die of lactic acid build up? I have witnessed large trout that were landed on very light tippet that had to be revived in order to swim away. Those same trout were caught dozens of times that summer. I know trout are not bass, I can't recall landing the same bass after a few days, but I never have played a bass to the absolute end of a fight like I have a trout. I believe camera's kill more fish than over playing them does. If the science proves me wrong than I'm wrong. I am not familiar with any studies that prove one way or the other on how much stress a bass can take. I do know when lactic acid builds up in my muscles I become tired and my muscles will become week. I recover with rest and am soon back to normal. I have pressed my body to the absolute limit, and did not suffer any long term effects. I realize a fish may not be able to rest, and still has to hunt something to eat, where as I can go lay down on the couch. I'm not saying to fight a bass to it's absolute limit, I'm only saying there is no need to be in a big hurry to land a bass.

The world of a bass is violent and tough. They have evolved to be able to survive more than just a normal day in the water. Many natural conditions can put a huge amount of stress on them, and they have adapted over time to be able to take stress themselves in the water. They have not adapted to being lifted completely out of the water for photos, or being boat flipped on to the deck of a boat. Fighting hard in the water is something they can handle, abuse out of the water is totally foreign to their normal way of life.

3 hours ago, king fisher said:

While I greatly appreciate your concern for the long term survival of the bass, I'm not too worried about lactic acid build up. If a bass can survive being skied on top of the water, boat flipped into a boat, drove around in a live well all day, transferred to a tank, held up high, weighted showed off to a crowd of spectators, transferred back to a tank, then released miles from it's home, and live to be caught another day, I think it can survive an extra couple of minutes getting tired enough to land without making a big show of it at the boat. I do agree very light tackle, making for an extremely long fight resulting in complete exhaustion is not helping the survival odds, but backing off on the pressure, while lessing the chance of pulling a hook and insuring a quieter experience at the boat is not going kill the bass.

I agree with you in spirit. But the dirty secret about tournies is that many of those fish do not survive, especially in the hot summer. That's one thing I find hypocritical about the tourney anglers who tell you not to eat bass because they want to weigh them in. They're disproportionately, unintentionally killing larger bass.

@king fisher - you have good logic but some of the key details that make lactic acid build up fatal for a bass and not for you and I:

1. Closed vs. Open System Clearance: When you exercise intensely, your body shuttles lactate to the liver to be converted back into energy via the Cori Cycle or oxidizes it. In a bass, the lactic acid is dumped from the muscle directly into the bloodstream, where it drastically drops the blood pH.

2. The "Bohr Effect": As the bass's blood becomes acidic, the oxygen-carrying capacity of its hemoglobin drops significantly. This causes oxygen deprivation in their tissues.

3. Lack of Air Breathing: While your body can keep taking in oxygen from the air during intense physical stress to help your metabolism recover, a bass is severely limited by how much oxygen its gills can extract from the water—especially if it is already exhausted or in warm water.

4. Temperature Sensitivity: Largemouth bass are highly sensitive to warm water temperatures. Higher water temperatures accelerate their metabolic rate and lactic acid production during a struggle, while also lowering oxygen levels in the water, making it virtually impossible for the fish to neutralize its blood chemistry before dying.

To the OP - in hot water especially - it’s best to land largemouth bass as quick as you can! It’s always good for the resource when you are able to hurry them in and land them without injuring you or them and let them go. One should never make a habit of boat flipping bass or long arduous photo shoots. Nobody here is advocating for those practices that I can see in this thread. Nobody is saying hurt one’s self or behave recklessly or rush - just saying it wouldn’t hurt if people added “get them in as quick as you can” to the fish care and stewardship database.

If you enjoy the fight on lighter tackle - that’s fine - it just might kill fish. Something I consider when going into a gunfight with a knife so to speak. If that is something you want to avoid - proceed accordingly. Also agree that we should all do our best to handle and release fish considerately - not trying to exclude other good fish care practices - just addressing what the OP asked.

4 hours ago, king fisher said:

If a bass can survive being skied on top of the water, boat flipped into a boat, drove around in a live well all day, transferred to a tank, held up high, weighted showed off to a crowd of spectators, transferred back to a tank, then released miles from it's home, and live to be caught another day, I think it can survive an extra couple of minutes getting tired enough to land without making a big show of it at the boat.

Don't many bass not survive exactly what you've described? I've read accounts of big bass floating the day after at the release spot of tournaments.

As far as fighting fish, I'm in Al's (@Lottabass) shoes in that I just try to hang on. I hooked a couple bass in this grass two days ago that immediately started bulldozing through the grass. There was two lanes in the grass where they'd ripped through the grass. I lost them both as the hook popped free, but managed to land this small one:

This bass, which I caught this morning, ran behind me, taking drag. I landed her by simply hanging on. No tactic. No skill. Just luck:

I'm assuming I'm the weakest angler at Bass Resource and I catch many bass in the weeds, so hanging on is often the best I can do. @T-Billy, on the other hand, looks like he could winch a tuna out of reeds!

Looking at the two pics above, the reeds, grass, and lily pads can all free a bass. Note that they're everywhere.

Now, give me open water and I can land a high percentage of bass. Some still pop free, but I use the drag, the rod, and my decades of experience to fight the bass with far less drama. Like @Crow Horse, I don't want them too frisky by the boat, but I also don't want them exhausted.

48 minutes ago, Swamp Girl said:

Don't many bass not survive exactly what you've described? I've read accounts of big bass floating the day after at the release spot of tournaments.

As far as fighting fish, I'm in Al's (@Lottabass) shoes in that I just try to hang on. I hooked a couple bass in this grass two days ago that immediately started bulldozing through the grass. There was two lanes in the grass where they'd ripped through the grass. I lost them both as the hook popped free, but managed to land this small one:

This bass, which I caught this morning, ran behind me, taking drag. I landed her by simply hanging on. No tactic. No skill. Just luck:

I'm assuming I'm the weakest angler at Bass Resource and I catch many bass in the weeds, so hanging on is often the best I can do. @T-Billy, on the other hand, looks like he could winch a tuna out of reeds!

Looking at the two pics above, the reeds, grass, and lily pads can all free a bass. Note that they're everywhere.

Now, give me open water and I can land a high percentage of bass. Some still pop free, but I use the drag, the rod, and my decades of experience to fight the bass with far less drama. Like @Crow Horse, I don't want them too frisky by the boat, but I also don't want them exhausted.

T'is better to be lucky that good.

1 hour ago, Pat Brown said:

@king fisher - you have good logic but some of the key details that make lactic acid build up fatal for a bass and not for you and I:

1. Closed vs. Open System Clearance: When you exercise intensely, your body shuttles lactate to the liver to be converted back into energy via the Cori Cycle or oxidizes it. In a bass, the lactic acid is dumped from the muscle directly into the bloodstream, where it drastically drops the blood pH.

2. The "Bohr Effect": As the bass's blood becomes acidic, the oxygen-carrying capacity of its hemoglobin drops significantly. This causes oxygen deprivation in their tissues.

3. Lack of Air Breathing: While your body can keep taking in oxygen from the air during intense physical stress to help your metabolism recover, a bass is severely limited by how much oxygen its gills can extract from the water—especially if it is already exhausted or in warm water.

4. Temperature Sensitivity: Largemouth bass are highly sensitive to warm water temperatures. Higher water temperatures accelerate their metabolic rate and lactic acid production during a struggle, while also lowering oxygen levels in the water, making it virtually impossible for the fish to neutralize its blood chemistry before dying.

To the OP - in hot water especially - it’s best to land largemouth bass as quick as you can! It’s always good for the resource when you are able to hurry them in and land them without injuring you or them and let them go. One should never make a habit of boat flipping bass or long arduous photo shoots. Nobody here is advocating for those practices that I can see in this thread. Nobody is saying hurt one’s self or behave recklessly or rush - just saying it wouldn’t hurt if people added “get them in as quick as you can” to the fish care and stewardship database.

If you enjoy the fight on lighter tackle - that’s fine - it just might kill fish. Something I consider when going into a gunfight with a knife so to speak. If that is something you want to avoid - proceed accordingly. Also agree that we should all do our best to handle and release fish considerately - not trying to exclude other good fish care practices - just addressing what the OP asked.

That is good information that I was not aware of. I was never saying a person should play them excessively. I was only trying to explain my way of having the most success landing a bass in a kayak. I would have to assume the bass has a built in system for helping deal with lactic acid build up. They may simply get tired faster and give up quicker in order to keep from building up too much lactic acid. I have never noticed any difference in how hard a bass fights when the water gets hot so maybe that is not the case. I know the reason I don't get heat stroke when it is hot, is because I get tired more quickly when I'm hot and tend to slow down. I do this automatically without ever consciously thinking about heat stroke.

Bass may automatically slow down and leave themselves some reserve. I know they don't have the stamina of other fish I have caught that battle for hours and come in way more exhausted. Even when I fight a bass for a longer than normal time, they always seem to have lots of energy when I release them. The only time I have woried about their survival is when I spend to much time trying to get a picture and weight.

I acknowledge that no one has said anything about other types of abuse bass go through such as live wells, boat flipping, and weigh ins. I only brought those practices up because I know they have studied bass that are released after tournaments and the survival rate is surprisingly high. I was only assuming that if they can survive all of that an extra minuet or two of fighting them would not make much difference in their survival rate.

I can only say I horse my bass far less than the average bass angler, and do believe I land more of my larger bass from my kayak than if I tried to bring them in quickly. I also try and handle the bass once landed respectfully and unless I see a pier reviewed study from a reputable source that clearly states lactic acid as a larger cause of release mortality, I am going to be skeptical of the bring them in quickly for the health of the bass theory. I may be way off base, and there might be a considerable amount of scientific data out there that proves it. Please link me some information if that is the case. I have been wrong before, and will not try and dispute well researched scientific studies. I know there is lots of scientific data that explains the problems with excess lactic acid in muscle tissue, I would be more interested in studies that go the next step and address the problem of increased mortality in bass that are hooked and landed by anglers.

A few years ago it was all the rage in the salmon trout fishing world, that lactic acid was killing the fish from extended fights. Every magazine had an article, and everyone was trying to horse the trout to the net as fast as possible in order to help mitigate the damage. I believed the hype, but also noticed how many very large trout were landed in strong current on 2 pound test line multiple times in a season. The trout were heavily fished for and many had recognizable scars. The trout that were still hot when landed and were far more likely to wiggle out of the anglers hands causing the anglers to squeeze or drop the trout while taking a picture never even made it across the river after released. I started worrying less about lactic acid and more about proper handling after the trout was landed.

If I was fighting for my life I would still leave enough reserve in me to live if I survived the fight. A bass may be different and give it everything they have but I think that most of the time they still have some life left, even if an angler takes a little extra time landing them. I have also seen bass hooked on lines left on stringers, and stuck in nets that lived for hours, after getting caught. Is the lactic acid build up more of a problem for a bass on an anglers line than it is for one caught in a net or struggling on a stringer?

Like I said before, I don't recommend fighting a bass to complete exhaustion, it only makes sense that this isn't good for the health of a bass, I only feel that many bass anglers could take a little more time when landing bass especially larger ones, vastly improving their landing rates, and still not increasing release mortalities.

If the water is so hot the bass become overly fragil, than it might be wise to fish for them in cooler water. When trout streams get a certain temperature, some wildlife managers will shut those streams down to fishing in order to not put any undue stress on the trout. Bass like warm water, so I doubt they would become that fragile in most of their natural range.

I'm not saying I'm am right and others are wrong. I have less experience than many on this forum. I also lack any education in biology, or fisheries management. I can only say with certainty, that when asked if I drag them in, or play them till they are tired. If at all possible, I play them until they are tired. From my experience more fish are lost from horsing them in to much, than letting them play to long. Simple as that.

In the areas I fish in south Florida, I usually get there head up as soon as possible and get them in quickly. When in the boat, I begin by using no less then 15 pound floro for some plastics, or 20 pound mono for top water, and 55 pound braid for pad fields and thick weeds. Playing with fish will leads to loses, and always a chance of losing big fish. The Everglades has such a large number of gators that playing a fish could lead to catching a Gator, and even a 3 foot Gator will attack a fish flashing on the surface.

When bank fishing I will have to pull a fish through 20 yards of pads surrounding the lake. Head up and surfing is the only way to not get wrapped in stems. Playing fish for enjoyment is not recommended unless you get them in deep open water, and that doesn’t happen often.

8 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

Depends on what lure/line/rod I’m holding

^^^this is it^^^

3 hours ago, Swamp Girl said:

I'm assuming I'm the weakest angler at Bass Resource and I catch many bass in the weeds, so hanging on is often the best I can do. @T-Billy, on the other hand, looks like he could winch a tuna out of reeds

More strength is always a plus, but just like with striking power, good mechanics is more important. A good vertical hookset is similar to an uppercut, and a good horizontal hookset is similar to a hook. The power is generated with the legs and core muscles more than the arms. Your biggest power limitation is being seated in a canoe vs standing on a boat deck like most of us.

Same goes for winching them out of the jungle.

9 hours ago, Crow Horse said:

Sharp teeth and treble hooks have no business being anywhere near my lower chassis.

Small pike and treble hooked lures are the worst combination out there.

There's nothing to grab except a slimy, slippery, wriggling handle covered in teeth and treble hooks. It's like trying to dismantle a bomb. And if you fail, it goes off in your hand. BOOM

catch bigger pike j/k

I often get pulled into the river by bass like Jeremy Wade on river monsters; "I gotta go for a swim!". After I'm drug across and down, I finally grab a log and pray I can hold on and survive. Once they tire, I tell them "don't tase me bro" and hold the line until they come off. Then I collapse on the ground in grand relief I "survived another encounter". That's just for largemouth; I don't speak of the smallmouth hookups. I have "survive" tattooed on my arm to keep me inspired when bass angling.

"If a bass can survive being skied on top of the water, boat flipped into a boat, drove around in a live well all day, transferred to a tank, held up high, weighted showed off to a crowd of spectators, transferred back to a tank, then released miles from it's home, and live to be caught another day,"

IMO, many of them don't live to be caught another day, it's called delayed mortality. The above description is a poor way to treat an animal. Yes, I know I stick sharp hooks in them and fight them to the boat where they don't want to go so I have no room to lecture anyone. Just stating my opinion, not lecturing.

To reply to the OP. I get them to the boat right NOW. Do I lose big, hot bass next to the boat? Yes. So what? Like @A-Jay says, wipe the water off your face and make another cast!

If the bass decides to start running and jumping, then I'll try to get it in as quick as possible. Other than that, it depends on where I am fishing and what rig I am using.