interesting info about fishing during the spawn

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Wow. Most of the discussion I have seen has been about the females. Looks like catching the males may be more detrimental than catching the females.
 
Excellent into thanks for posting the link. I would like to see a similar study done on the Tennessee River as opposed to clear, round, shallow lakes in Canada
 
With a lake chickamauga's size, i have seen estimates that the bass population is between 2.5 and 4 million bass. I dont think anywhere near 60% of the males are being caught during the spawn. And if only 50% of each years brood survived...well we would have millions of malnourished 12 inchers.
 
So if catch and immediate release significantly hindered recruitment, what does a flw, bass, and high school open back to back do?
 
The females usually just lay eggs and they're done. It's not a surprise to me that there's such a high percentage of males caught. After all, guarding the bed and fry is their job.
 
There is something else going on with those numbers in that study. 150 acres and only 81 beds? How did they determine the actual numbers of beds?
 
The study was conducted in very clear Canadian lakes - all of which have large populations of predators. Every bed is surrounded by gobies and aggressive predator panfish. Therefore, when the guardian male is removed from the bed for even a very short time the predators rush in and decimate the fry.
In our area the practice of catch and immediate release probably has little effect on the fry. However, when the guardian male is caught and removed from the area, the fry are left exposed to predators and have little chance of survival. There is a valid argument for catch and immediate release of males during the spawn but the abundance of testosterone in the boat will win that battle.
 
slimjim - 7/3/2017 12:42 PM

There is a valid argument for catch and immediate release of males during the spawn but the abundance of testosterone in the boat will win that battle.

Don't you mean the possibility of getting a check will win the battle?
 
So here is one for you and it is hard to argue since it comes straight from the mouth of KVD during the classic on Conroe this year. He said that fish lay eggs multiple times during the spawn b/c when the water goes down they move off and when it comes back up that female will come back up and start laying eggs again. Thought that was pretty cool
 
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