Friday, May 28, 2010

Fatty Bass on the morning shorebang

As the weather improves it opens a window for grabbing a few casts before going to work. This is pretty much my only chance to get in some of that tasty morning shoreline on a weekday without seven-layer PTO approval. This morning I decided to dress down in jeans and hit some water before the Memorial Day Weekend madness begins.




In some Colorado lakes, the bass are still in spawn\prespawn mode so I want to express my great appreciation to everyone that is releasing those big buckets that are so susceptible to pillage at this time. I won’t go so far as to say that fishing for nesting fish is ethical or much of a sport and tread this discussion\debate lightly for many reasons. What I do stress is minimal handling and the release of those ultra aggressive bass around the nesting zones.

I will spare the two or three readers my 9-page tirade that covers the pros and cons of fishing for spawning fish of all species. Yes, I know this type of material makes my blogilicious come off as some fish hugging after school special. But I do love to catch big fatty bass and these fish do not become big over night. The big fish help balance out the system from overcrowding as well and just one more reason to toss the big fish back.

Oops, I am going on my tirade. Better get back to the shameless bragging. “Hey! Look at this fatty bass that I caught this morning!”

My name is Matt and I’m a fishaholic.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a fat Bass. Great job and agree with you about fishing on spawning beds.

Bigerrfish said...

nice bass Matt... about fishing those beds.... ofcourse it not "nice" to do... this time of year, All the largemouth are spawning... so, to fish for them in the spring early summer, and say that your trying not to catch nesting ones is a crock!!! Pretty sure the only way to catch the same one twice is to pull it from the same bed twice. I did it yesteday in front of my son.. is fishing for spawning bass legit?. Hell yea!! you're proving it!!

Coloradocasters said...

I spend quite a bit of time fishing for bass year round. The smaller males are territorial and "too easy" to catch. The female bass are less territorial and much fatter in pre-spawn condition. When you see the nesting male, look for the fatter, larger female possibly cruising in the area.

Catching the same fish twice is actually a common occurrence for me. With luck I can run across Clyde in the fall and make it a hat trick. Go back and look at the look at the dates of the Clyde-alicious posts and you will see that fish was caught twice well before spawn.

The point I am trying to make is: Fishing for nesting fish is not much sport. Releasing those at this time is crucial to bass populations