Knapp: Why I choose not to fish bedding smallmouth bass during spawning season
My guest for the day cast a soft plastic jerkbait toward the sandy, gravelly spot tucked alongside a mid river island.
A subsurface swirl followed, at which point Joe Pearson set the hook into an 18-inch smallmouth bass. It had been a remarkable morning, one where the fish counter revealed the number 42 by the time we set down our rods and motored back to the ramp.
As we shared our departing remarks, I mentioned to Joe I would not return to the Allegheny River to target smallmouth bass until mid June, more than three weeks away. The reason being, while we had a great morning, it was apparent to me that many of the fish were now fully engaged in spawning activity.
Targeting bass during spawning activity, which typically takes place anywhere from early May until early June, is not illegal, nor do I suggest it’s unethical. It’s been decades since the Fish and Boat Commission modified its regulations to allow bass to be fished for during the mid-April to mid-June closed period, with the caveat that you may not repeatedly cast to a visible bass bed.
In the case of the Allegheny, it’s rare to see beds from a casting distance. The water generally has too much color to see what’s on the bottom from 30 or 40 feet away. But from years of fishing this section of the river, I know why they are there, and for this relatively short period of time they don’t have any choice.
The whole notion of fishing spawning bass takes on a wide variety of attitudes, depending mostly on geography.
In the south, where bass spawn in waves over an extended period of time, targeting bedding fish is a tradition, one where site fishing is common.
Compare that to Minnesota, where aiming for bass during the closed season is expressly prohibited, so much so that sections of lakes featuring shallow spawning habitat are closed to fishing of any kind. But Minnesota bass don’t have the luxury of months of favorable spawning conditions.
So, what is the potential harm of fishing for nesting bass, anyway?
Basically, the male bass protects the newly hatched bass fry from predators. When you catch a bass off a bed, most likely it will be this male bass. While the bass is gone, the nest is vulnerable to predation from species like bluegills. And its guarding abilities might be reduced once it returns due to the loss of energy from being caught.
Geographically, Pennsylvania falls in between the extremes of the north and the south, so how much effect taking bass from beds plays into bass populations is debatable. I will say: in the decades since the approval of catch and release bass fishing during the spawn, I’ve not noticed any decline.
My personal choice to give river bass a short reprieve is based more on the environment they live in.
Lakes tend to be more stable in the spring, upping the chances for a successful spawn. Rivers are more volatile, subject to rapid and dramatic fluctuations in level that can wipe out a year’s spawn. As an example, the Allegheny is likely to rise at least 2 feet from the past weekend’s rain in comparison to the level it was during Joe’s outing. Maybe not enough to destroy newly hatched bass, but not helpful either.
Another factor that comes into play is bass’s response to being repetitively caught and released. Some studies suggest the fish may abandon the bed if that happens.
In the grand scheme of things, I realize a personal decision not to target river bass during the spawn might provide a feel-good moment but likely has little to do with bass production during a given year. That’s more a matter of what conditions nature provides.
But it’s something I have control over. I’ll take that moment, a small allowance for a species that’s given me so much.
Jeff Knapp is an outdoors columnist for the Butler Eagle.
