What is a bass season?

"go-bassn" wrote in message
news
While I'd say bass fishing is more my passion than my profession Sim, I'll
throw my thoughts on this at you.

A lake is either "healthy" or not. "Unhealthy" lakes can indeed be fished
out, but this is more the result of a weak ecosystem than overfishing.

In the case of healthy lakes, the ecosystem is self-sustaining. This
means
that the water body is capable of supporting X number of adult bass. The
number of successful spawns can vary from year to year, but the resulting
population will be similar.

There are lots of factors, both natural & man-influenced, that can effect
the bass population in a given water. The fact remains that 95% of bass
caught just about anywhere are now released. Selective harvest is not a
problem, and it's been scientifically proven that harvesting a small
percentage of bass, even during the spawn (when most states' closed season
occurs), will not even put a dent in the resulting population of adults a
few years down the road.

Funny how states will prohibit us from fishing during the spawning months,
yet they'll allow water levels to fluctuate during the same months,
oftentimes wiping out entire year classes of bass.

Politics...

Warren
--
http://www.warrenwolk.com/



Thanks for the input W. It's just that I live near one of the most liberal
towns in the South (Chapel Hill, NC) and given that the two main bassin
lakes around here are within a stone's throw of the place, and the PETA
blurbs about hunting and fishing coming out last year (an ANTI stance IIRC),
well you can see, I am just connecting the dots. We deal with size and slot
limits, no problem, it only helps the trophy possibilities later on, but
down the road I can see people picketing our boat ramps around here and I am
trying to learn all I can about the subject matter so I can do my civic duty
as an outdoorsman when and if this thing comes to a head. I am not one to
keep fish anyway, I've only kept one in the past 10 years and that was
because of her size and the injuries she sustained in getting caught and
boated. But to some loons, catching a fish means it's dead. It's almost like
they haven't heard of C&R or CPR (catch, photograph, release). I admit I am
primarily a weekend warrior, but if I had to guess, I'd say that all of the
30-40 fish I caught all of last year lived except for the big one (to me) I
mentioned above.

Just LAST night on the local news there was a story on a big storm brewing
over a "controverisal" proposed housing site located a MILE from one of
these lakes. So you can see, probably, that I am not simply paranoid about
the situation, its creeping in. Just need to get the facts in order on the
survival rate of C&R fish, and population numbers on hunted animals to arm
our argument that fishing doesn't hurt, and selective harvestation of
feet-dry animals doesn't either. Of course then the topic of poaching will
come up and we can deal with it as best we can. It's illegal, and all we can
do is try to enforce the current laws to the best of our abilities. The best
pressure that can be exerted to quell poaching, IMHO, is peer pressure.

And y'all thought Jimmy Houston bustin' on BASS over a beer decal was big.
:-) I just hope that certain anglers' opinions on sponsorship is all the
tournament guys have to worry about the next few years, but I doubt it will
be.

lol Sim, tight lines to you every weekend for years to come. Chapell
Hill...is that Lake Murray?

Warren

"SimRacer" wrote in message
. com...


"go-bassn" wrote in message
news
While I'd say bass fishing is more my passion than my profession Sim,
I'll
throw my thoughts on this at you.

A lake is either "healthy" or not. "Unhealthy" lakes can indeed be
fished
out, but this is more the result of a weak ecosystem than overfishing.

In the case of healthy lakes, the ecosystem is self-sustaining. This
means
that the water body is capable of supporting X number of adult bass.
The
number of successful spawns can vary from year to year, but the
resulting
population will be similar.

There are lots of factors, both natural & man-influenced, that can
effect
the bass population in a given water. The fact remains that 95% of bass
caught just about anywhere are now released. Selective harvest is not a
problem, and it's been scientifically proven that harvesting a small
percentage of bass, even during the spawn (when most states' closed
season
occurs), will not even put a dent in the resulting population of adults
a
few years down the road.

Funny how states will prohibit us from fishing during the spawning
months,
yet they'll allow water levels to fluctuate during the same months,
oftentimes wiping out entire year classes of bass.

Politics...

Warren
--
http://www.warrenwolk.com/



Thanks for the input W. It's just that I live near one of the most liberal
towns in the South (Chapel Hill, NC) and given that the two main bassin
lakes around here are within a stone's throw of the place, and the PETA
blurbs about hunting and fishing coming out last year (an ANTI stance
IIRC),
well you can see, I am just connecting the dots. We deal with size and
slot
limits, no problem, it only helps the trophy possibilities later on, but
down the road I can see people picketing our boat ramps around here and I
am
trying to learn all I can about the subject matter so I can do my civic
duty
as an outdoorsman when and if this thing comes to a head. I am not one to
keep fish anyway, I've only kept one in the past 10 years and that was
because of her size and the injuries she sustained in getting caught and
boated. But to some loons, catching a fish means it's dead. It's almost
like
they haven't heard of C&R or CPR (catch, photograph, release). I admit I
am
primarily a weekend warrior, but if I had to guess, I'd say that all of
the
30-40 fish I caught all of last year lived except for the big one (to me)
I
mentioned above.

Just LAST night on the local news there was a story on a big storm brewing
over a "controverisal" proposed housing site located a MILE from one of
these lakes. So you can see, probably, that I am not simply paranoid about
the situation, its creeping in. Just need to get the facts in order on the
survival rate of C&R fish, and population numbers on hunted animals to arm
our argument that fishing doesn't hurt, and selective harvestation of
feet-dry animals doesn't either. Of course then the topic of poaching will
come up and we can deal with it as best we can. It's illegal, and all we
can
do is try to enforce the current laws to the best of our abilities. The
best
pressure that can be exerted to quell poaching, IMHO, is peer pressure.

And y'all thought Jimmy Houston bustin' on BASS over a beer decal was big.
:-) I just hope that certain anglers' opinions on sponsorship is all the
tournament guys have to worry about the next few years, but I doubt it
will
be.