I agree with Chris, and the one thing I TRY to follow up on is NEVER to take both fish off a bed at one time. On the very few occasions I have found bedding fish in pairs, I tend to try for one.... if I get the smaller one I will perhaps keep it in the livewell for a few minutes until I can hopefully catch the "momma" and then release the  "buck" to go guard the nest while Mum takes a ride. To this end I always use clips and mark my fish when they go into the livewell. Since this has only happened to me two three times, I am currently able to do this 100% of the time.

Hey Dudes,

This has always been a tricky issue to me. I am not the expert, but since I am in fisheries and I like to bass fish, I have read some good studies on this type of thing. I apologize if I go on too long, but you are probably used to it by now  

If you catch a female off a bed and put her right back, there is a good chance that she will spawn successfully. On a lake like Sawyer where you can count the hook marks in each spawning fish's mouth, there may be less spawning success merely based on the fact that there is a lot of stress involved in being caught so many times. Sometimes a lack of spawning success can be a good thing... Sawyer sure does have a lot of big fish in it, and maybe the young bass have less competition to grow large?  

Tournament fishing is a different story. If you take a bass off a bed, tow it around all day, and release it 10 miles from where you caught it, I believe that fish is probably not going to do well spawning that year. BUT - I also think timing is critical. If this fish was just getting up to a bed and hadn't laid any eggs yet, she will most likely find the nearest bed and go to town. If she has laid eggs, she will most likely head back toward her home range and sulk. Hopefully the male will guard the nest ok. Of course, that is if you left the male there  

Tracking studies have shown that smallmouth tend to have a home range they return to, no matter where they are released. Largemouth have been documented doing the same thing, but often if they are taken away from the place they are caught, they will take up residence in the nearest "bassy" water from where they are released. I like to think of Banks Lake as a good example of this... You can often catch largemouth near Coulee Playland on Sundays after a tournament in what is very smallmouth-looking water. I tend to believe that these fish have stayed in those areas after release.

We should remember that bass lay a lot of eggs. Like Larry said, I have not seen a study that illustrates fishing going downhill because of fishing during the spawn. In fact, a couple of states, I think Minnesota and Maine, are two state where spawn fishing was outlawed. As far as I have heard, they have not seen an increase in recruitment of young fish. One successful nest can repopulate a decent-sized bay.

Bottom line: Anytime we catch a bass, we are stressing it beyond its normal limits. If we caught it BEFORE the spawn, maybe we stressed it out enough that it doesn't produce as many successful eggs as usual. Are we going to stop fishing during the pre-spawn period, too? It is doubtful we will ever see a spawning moratorium in this state. For one, when the heck do these fish spawn? It could be any time from May to Early July in this state. And two, right or wrong, there is not a lot of pressure in this state from most biologists to protect a non-native fish to that extent. That is a whole other issue, and I think I know our point of view on that!  

To me, it is an ethical question. If you fish for bedding fish, excellent. If you don't, I respect that, too. There is still a lot of research that could be done to better answer these questions. If I ever run across some new stuff, I'll give y'all an update.

Best fishes,
Chris

P.S. Virgil - I don't know the answer for sure, but I will try to look into it. My guess is that fish know about weather changes almost instantly, right when the barometric pressure starts to change. Think of them as a big exposed nerve swimming around in the water that is aware of everything going on around them.

While I love sight fishing and it is a gas to see a fish inhale your bait ...I would support a moretorium on fishing during the spawning months........OUCH!! DID I JUST SAY THAT? It would hurt but it would take away the guilt since I have not the will power to not bed fish!
On the other hand.....as Chris has said before there have been no measurable impacts caused by fishing at least as far as I remember. And we do have pretty good populations of fish!

Sarge let me throw one more at you while your answering that one,

How far in advance can fish "predict"  the weather? Or , When does a fish start reacting to the weather?

I am a little torn on the fishing for female bass on beds.  Certainly it will get you a toad, but has anyone have documented facts or studies of the harm or lack of it, to spawning fish.  If there is any supportive evidence that suggests that there is the possibility of harm to the fish, isn't our catch & release policy somewhat hypocritical.  I've not taken a stance on this yet and I'm sure this has probably already been address numerous times but I wanted some club feedback, maybe a 2 cents from the resident fish expert Sarge.