the Tournament director in my club is against bed fishing.  He makes the annual schedule and avoids the spawn based on lake temp.

So we fish shallow lakes after spawn and deep lakes before spawn.

I do agree with his thought process but heres the problem:

If we don't fish that lake on that weekend another club gets that spot.

We register all events with the state so 2 clubs won't be fishing the same small lake.

Either way the beds get disturbed.

Anyone have any thoughts on this for next year

If your points system is off of weight, it would concern me because you can catch some really big fish at this time and your club as a whole could start off a little behind.

No, the points are only within the club.  Its just that bed fishing up north here is so easy to bring in a big bag.  Guess I'm just mad that other clubs get to do it and we don't.

Join another club.

I read an article that bed fishing is not that damaging to the bass population.

My club fishes when the bass are on their beds and so do I when I go by myself or with others.

I practice catch and release so the males get to go back to their bed with a sore mouth and they probably will not be caught again until the hatchlings start hatching out.

As for the females, we put them back, too, and I know they can find another place to spawn in the lake or river.

You may want to Google this topic and see what you can find.

the problem is when we put them in the live well.

It takes only 5 min to empty a bed

otherwise I'm ok with it catch and release

Studies have shown that heavily fished lakes still maintain a good population based on the sheer number of eggs a bass produces.

Plus some bass spawn deep

Plus some bass spawn deep

wrong

the eggs need sunlight in order to mature so bass dont spawn deep.

Plus some bass spawn deep

wrong

the eggs need sunlight in order to mature so bass dont spawn deep.

WRONG

By deep I mean 8-15'

So some beds can't be seen and are never fished

Go get a snorkel and then tell me they dont spawn deep. I see bass spawning in 20+ft. Of corse the water is clear.

female bass also keep numerous beds at once. so taking a buck off one isnt so bad

The thing everyone in your club fishes the same lake and on the same weekend, so the potential of bed fishing for a big bag is irrelevant.  You could always bed fish or fish the other lakes on non-tounament weekends.  The other thing is we all bed fish during the spawn.  We just don't all sight fish.