Let's Talk...To fish in bed or not?

[senkosam]

Bed fishing is not an easy topic to post about. Considerations are many and may come down to personal preference. Here are a few:

Size and depth of water fished
A pond may need more protection than a large body of water.

Average numbers of anglers fishing a body of water in spring or keeping fish during season
Fish caught are stressed and may not spawn, some females absorbing eggs. Plus, unless a fish population is tested, no one can know the health of a fishery or regulations needed. General fish regulations are useless for many water.

Egg eater fish population
My local lake has an overpopulation of white perch that invade nests worse than gills. Add angler spawn interruptions and you may see a decline in year class fish. Best to target panfish and reduce populations so that all specie spawns are more successful.

Weeds or lack of
Except for pads, some lakes are overpopulated with hybrid weed eating carp that constantly feed on other weeds that protect the spawn and yearlings. My local lake had far too many approved by the DEC and now few weeds protect fingerlings from predation. Fishing during the spawn won't make much difference if fingerlings disappear during their first month of life.

Casting lures long distance does not mean one is targeting spawners or fish on beds
Fish fall into three categories: pre-spawn, spawn and post spawn - all of which are present at the same time in spring. Nest guarding males usually don't go after lures moving too fast through the area (spinnerbaits, crankbaits, grubs) and most nests are shallow. Fishing for pre or post spawn fish in deeper water shouldn't hurt the general spawn.

Non-spawning fish are also hyped up and easier to catch during spring and therefor immediate C&R should always be followed in spring for species that aren't as prolific as many pan fish species.

I fish whenever the weather permits and use lures that get strikes from a majority of fish species - even in one outing. I don't work the bottom and generally swim my lures parallel to it - too fast for nesting males - or near the surface. This posed a question from a club member:
why are you fishing illegally for bass during closed season?
Answer: the law cannot outlaw the use of any lure because no one can predict which fish species will bite it. Intent is out the window.
In fact, someone in my fishing club accused me of fishing for bass out of season and I used the above reply (after which I exposed the hypocrisy of the angler. I pointed out that he uses live bait ice fishing and catches most species - including the fourout of season bass which he posted on FaceBook lying dead on the ice!)
As all live bait anglers know, live bait catches everything.

Good thing NYS changed the law to C&R for non-panfish species vs trying to enforce a law targeting fish illegally - something almost impossible to prove especially on private lakes. Where I live, keeping fish out of season and over the creel any time are the biggest violations. Whether they do harm to the fishery depends on the health of the lake and overall annual fishing pressure/ creels.

I would think that a lake that has little fishing pressure and an abundance of fish would not need any protection especially if most anglers always practice C&R like I do. A photo is enough for of a trophy.