First of all, it was likely a male, not a female, if there was only one fish
present. Females deposit eggs the male has built, the male then fertilizes
the eggs, and takes up watch. The female leaves. Absolutely no parental
care invested by female bass (neither smallmouth or largemouth). The male
stands guard over the eggs as well as the fry once they hatch, keeping
sunfish, minnows, and an assortment of other critters at bay until the fry
get to the size where they being to leave the nest on their own.

So - the second question to ask ...... just how many eggs or fry got gobbled
up in the 5 to 7 minutes it took for you to play the fish, land it,
photograph it, put it back, and have it return to the nest. Most scientific
studies show even a short period of time removed from the nest can result in
drastic fry predation.

Whether legal in your area or not, dedicated, concerned, and
conservation-minded anglers should seriously question whether it's ethical
to fish bedded bass, whether they should participate in such activities
themselves, and just what we want for the future of our bass fisheries.

See the following for more info :

http://www.basscanada.com/articles_p...mallmouth.html

http://afs.allenpress.com/afsonline/?request=get-abstract&doi=10.1577%2F1548-8675(1997)017%3C0557:TIOCAR%3E2.3.CO%3B2

http://afs.allenpress.com/afsonline/?request=get-abstract&doi=10.1577%2F1548-8675(1997)017%3C0568:PTEOAF%3E2.3.CO%3B2

http://www.biosci.ohio-state.edu/~ael/ael_smb.html

http://aquanic.org/publicat/usda_rac/efs/srac/200fs.pdf






"go-bassn" wrote in message
...
Went prefishin today as Thundercat's coming down Sunday for some
bed-fishing
lessons. I was scanning a shoreline when I saw a huge bed in about 8 feet
of water. It was clearly a smallmouth bed as the LM beds in this lake
look
entirely different & are generally shallower. There was an ominous dark
shape on the bed, but at first I thought it too big to be a bass. A carp
maybe?

I flipped my 3" Zoom Tube on the bed & was thrilled to see the fish rush
it
immediately. No carp baby! I felt a solid thump on my line & set the
hook,
nothing. I reeled in & fixed the tube, dipped in in Smelly Jelly &
pitched
it back to the center of the bed. This time I just held my rod still with
a
semi-tight line & it slowly moved off to the right. I set hard & the big
gal launched about a foot out of the water. She was huge, easily the
biggest smallie I've ever hooked.

After a breif battle I landed her. Sadly I had no scales but she may have
gone 7 pounds, 6 at least. Made my day, ok my week. What a gorgeous
fish.
Hopefully she'll still be there when Harry comes down Sunday.

Warren 8-)
--
http://www.warrenwolk.com/
http://www.tri-statebassmasters.com