What would you guys say to closing the season on bass from say November 1st-March 1st? I would really like to see it, as I think with the way bass congregate in the winter it would really help put a control on harvest. My questions are:
1) Would this ever have a chance on passing?
2) How could we get the ball rolling on it?
One difficult part of your plan is getting both states(MN & WI) to agree on a season. It wouldn’t make any sense for WI to close the season on a boundary water when someone from MN could go over and jerk the same fish WI residents can’t. I’m all in favor of a season, but getting the DNR from both states to agree on something like that could prove very difficult.
One way to get the ball rolling is to get these large tournaments(BLF & Team Supreme to name a few) involved and start lobbying with petitions and phone calls.
all is fine with me, exept maybe wait until nov. 15, I have had great fall fishing in early November 
I think it’s a bad idea. I haven’t seen any study that has shown that winter fishing for bass has hurt the fishery. I hate rules based on emotion. If I release all the bass I catch is it reasonable to demand that others do the same? Although I seldom tip-up fish I respect the right of others to do so even if they keep some of those “green carp”. Again, as long as it is not proven that they are harming the fishery.
I wonder which of these would have a greater chance of passing a public referendum, Eliminating winter fishing for bass or banning tournament fishing for bass. Neither one appeals to me but I’m sure either one would appeal to different groups of fisherman.
Birdman,
OUCH!! 
That hit a chord on this thread!
I don’t like to spread hate and discontent 
, but this one was brought up this spring;
which is worse taking bass from the wintering holes or pulling them off the spawning beds in the spring when tourneys are popular and moving them so many miles from the beds to the weigh in and then releasing? 
Both?????
Well, actually, after giving it some thought, I guess probably taking them from the wintering holes is worse because they are then dead and will produce zero offspring. At least in the 2nd scenario the fish may not spawn but at least the fish itself has some chance at survival. Neither is ideal though for making more bass!!
I really have no idea MossBoss. But I’m sure most of the tourney fishermen out there have the utmost concern for the future of the species as should the DNR biologists who issue the tourney permits. If either or both were hurting the future of the species I suspect something would have been done about it by now.
You may be right Herb, and I hope you are. Some of the stories I heard about the catches off Lake Onalaska seemed to be to be very scary for the fishery. It was on odd winter tough, with cold but little snow. Who knows, maybe conditions were just right for the slaughter!
Neither are good but I’m going to go out on a limb here: In my experience as a bass angler, the fish you catch off of the beds 95% of the time are males. Tis is because the females only spend a very short amount of time on the bed (to drop the eggs), and therefore are only vulnerable for a “blink of an eye”. The males on the other hand, make the bed, protect the bed and then the off-spring. They spend 10 times the amount of time up there that the females do and are much more aggressive compared to the females. Am I saying Females don’t get caught off the beds, no, Just not near as much as the males. It seemes to me that nature is protecting its self, and a 4 lb female has a better chance of surviving out in deep water after spawning than it does flopping around on the ice in 10 degree weather. Just my thoughts.
JT Did you have some surgery recently? 
Just thought you guys might enjoy looking at my ex-girlfriend, it was either her or bass fishing. 
Bet your going to miss her too aren’t ya JHall.
You should have hollered, I would have traded you straight up for my Triton. Whew, Daddy has a new toy!
lol
jc
EX?????????????
My gosh, what happened to make her an ex??????????????
Oops!!!!!!!!! hello wifey—smack smash ouch ooooh!!!!!!!1 
All this talk and it still takes a 3#er to take last place monies last night on the lake? I think the lake is doin just fine
I would support this, although ultimately, I think it’s again a habitat issue. The wintering spots are diminishing. It’s hard telling how much better the fishery could be if there were more backwaters that could support bass in the winter. If we can figure out how to get more dredging and related habitat improvement i think people could probably keep 5 bass through the ice without making a dent.
You’re right! A lot of people don’t realize just how much habitat has been lost over the years. When most folks look out over the river all they see is water and vegetation and they think there is plenty of habitat. But they are way wrong. So many of the backwaters have filled in over the years and the same with the wintering holes. And bass aren’t the only fish to use these places. I remember going with my grandad to raise hoopnets back in the early 60’s where there would be 15-20ft of water and today you can hardly get aboat trough the area because it has filled in so bad. Dredging these areas back to original depths would be nice but it’s just too expensive I’m afraid. The government agencies are doing some commendable habit reclamation work the past few years though and this should help.
I’m not sure that there has been enough evidence collected at this point to show that the bass fisherie is on the decline. However I would support a closed bass fishing season during the winter months. We certainly could at least start talking about it. The first thing to get the ball rolling, would be to introduce a resolution at the DNR spring hearing. There is a meeting in every county in the state on the second Monday of April. If you can get your county to vote yes on your resolution, it will move on to the Mississippi River study commitee for debate. If the commitee agrees with your resolution, from there it will go on to the spring hearing questionaire to be voted up or down. Usually, if a resolution passes the thru the DNR spring hearings, it will become law. I hope this helps you out. Bait Caster.
Like I always post:
#1 Regulations of prohibition are wrong when funds are not mandated and the mechanics are not in place to monitor and remove the regulation when it is no longer needed.
#2 I’m not a fisheries biologist and I prefer to leave these
types of decisions up to the experts and nature. I really see no point in a regulation fueled by a desire for trophy fish and an feeling that a legally caught bass should not be dinner. I try to catch and release all my bass unless they appear to be mortally wounded, but from my eyes at least there is no reason for folks who feel it is there right to not eat their legal limit.
Yes wintering areas can concentrate many easily harvested fish, but I still feel very strongly about 1 & 2 above.
Having again repeated #1 & 2 I have to repeat what one of my fellow contestants said at the Ace Wednesday night tourney. “Never since the 50s have I ever seen such huge schools of bass frey”, (those 1.5-2 inch critters you see in the water by the thousands right now), “or more smallmouth bass on the wing dams”. Those are my feelings exactly. Add to that the addition of tons of Largemouth everywhere and good easy catches and I see no reason for any type of new restriction on bass fishing. I have never seen the Mississippi so abundant in my memory.
As always I respect other’s opinions and these are mine 
These are the same kinds of thoughts echo’ed by many in the 20’s….. What was that that followed shortly?????
hhhmmmm, Maybe Rosevelt can shed some light on this for us…
? 
I don’t like the analogy – it’s fundamentally flawed.
The impact of federal monetary policy is direct and in the case you’ve cited overrode any and all other factors. People looked ahead and saw trouble brewing, and in an attempt to head it off ended up amplifying the effects and spiraling the country into ten years of hell. I’m not sure FDR would be much help; he received a great deal of credit, but his ‘make work’ programs had less of an impact than did the war.
While the DNR & COE have been empowered with God-like authority over us peons, their ability to affect the fishery is miniscule in comparison with other factors over which nobody (at least no human) has control; thus the analogy fails in their lack of control.
Now as far as a closed season, I personally like to tip-up fish for pike in the winter, and the occasional bass adds some add’l flavor to the mix. I haven’t eaten a bass in ten years or more, and only ate that bugger because he was on his way to LM heaven whether he went back in or not.
What I’m seeing on this thread is distrubing to say the least. I see a lot of guys saying, “Well, I’d be happy to do away with your entertainment if it meant any improvement in mine regardless of how slight.” Maybe all the tip-uppers will spend all that extra time they have during the closed season working to get tourneys banned. I think bass fisherman are better off with ambivalent ice-anglers than they would be with a whole crew of people sitting at their desks with newfound spare time and a list of ‘enemies’ in need of correction.
There’s a laundry list of things that both types of anlgers could be doing to improve the bass fishing, rather than starting a big peeing contest and ruining it for everyone.
“I don’t like the analogy – it’s fundamentally flawed.”
I think you missed the biggest part of the analogy… A bunch of people panicking all taking a simple minded approach at resolution based on self interest. The rock started rolling and all the while people were too wrapped up in their self interest that they chose to do nothing. Once they did, the result was knee jerk stupidity. Just to clarify, Roosevelt was in my opinion an idiot with socialistic tendencies but that is probably for some government chat board. Gianni, I was wondering if anyone would make the correlation.
Jc
Man !!! 
There are a lot of big words and accusations in this forum..
I’m out of here 
yeah…………there is! I figured understanding them wasn’t so important though. If they kept it up I should learn at least one new term, word, or expression…………….and get a little history lesson to boot!
NEEeeeewww……………from FOX………the people that brought you entertainment from the Simpsons to Cops, Jerry Springer to Melrose Place, are now daring to enter a forum of new extremes…………This Saturday night you’d better make plans or you’ll be left in someone else’s dust at the copy machine Monday morning. This Saturday night, we dare to bring you a production that no one else has been bold enough to bring you before…………..This Saturday night, we bring you……………………VOCABULARY WARS!!!!
State by state we’ll match them up until we have a champion in each, ready to vye for the national championship!
In the example of our great politicians, we’ll start in Iowa, where people have opinions………….they have things to say……………and they want to be heard! (no joke………..saw some lady from Iowa say that on TV yesterday!)
See television where it’s never gone before……………..It’ll never be the same again!!! 
So………….how much trouble did I just get myself in??? 
I’ve reread the thread and I don’t see where anyone has crossed the line in their posts. The original post wanted opinions on closing the season in winter and pro or con I think everyone for the most part has respected each others opinion.
I agree with Birdman. I was just posting the same thing. Isn’t the idea behind a message board for discussion and generating constructive discussion?
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
