Bed-fishing & Spawning Sunfishes What the Science Says

Is bed-fishing having negative effects on fish populations? Fishing for largemouth bass and other sunfishes during the spawn is one of the most heated topics in sportfishing. Koaw tackles this debate with science, elucidating what is known on the topic and why there is still so much to learn.
Also covered: How do bass reproduce? Do females or males guard nests? Spawning and mating rituals. Are female bass bigger?
STUDY REFERENCES FOR THIS VIDEO ► www.koaw.org/bed-fishing
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🐟 KNFS Webpage ► www.koaw.org/fishingsmarts
Sister Channel - Koaw Nature ► / koawnature
Koaw Nature Webpage ► www.koaw.org
#fishing #bassfishing #fish
CHAPTERS
0:00 Koaw’s Intro
1:05 Biology of a Fish on a Nest
6:14 Female Largemouth Laying Eggs
8:43 Bed-Fishing Argument: Legal
9:29 Bed-Fishing Argument: Moral
10:12 Bed-Fishing Argument: Practical
10:54 Fitness
12:20 Science on Individual Fish Caught
16:01 Tournament Anglers Get It…
18:02 What’s Recruitment? Vs. Population Hatch
21:40 Why Southern Bass are Probs Okay
25:52 Talking STUNTING: Blugeill & Crappies
33:05 Kinder Bed-Fishing
35:46 Mr. Aggro’s Time to Shine

[@slimmdogg420]

I have seen a large female Bass attack a full grown duck for getting too close to her bed.

[@KNFishingSmarts]

Nice! Good parent D.

[@slimmdogg420]

@KNFishingSmarts I was telling someone else at the pond about it thinking they would be skeptical. He actually said he saw it happen, too!

[@paulgiannetto5317]

Your panfishing series is currently up to 3 of 5 with 2 more to come?. Just found your videos and love your down to earth informative content. Well done

[@KNFishingSmarts]

Yup, just released another one today. Appreciate your comment on the videos!

[@sarahlarson8226]

Another winner! Though I do think you left out a question: Since it seems to be one step up from shooting fish in a barrel, should bed-fishing be considered a legitimate tournament catch? My vote would be to ban tournaments during spawning.

[@KNFishingSmarts]

It's a fair question--but as I mentioned, it can be a gamble to spend time fishing a bed when the male might not even bite and the big female may have already left the area.

[@Woefman911]

This gives rise to what i always thought. And i dont bed fish as result. I follow tournaments for bass but hate when they bed fish.

[@CatfishWeekly]

Some outstanding information here!!!!!!!!!!!

[@KNFishingSmarts]

Thanks! (I'll get back to your other message! I've been swamped.)

[@clawson709]

Awesome video!

[@KNFishingSmarts]

Great! Always glad when a person enjoys this video. Thanks!

[@PanFishWeekly]

Another outstanding vide Koaw

[@KNFishingSmarts]

Appreciate that! Glad you got to catch this one.

[@ratfish1000]

Let’s see good conservation would mean better fishing who would of thought

[@KNFishingSmarts]

Yeah, this one is a conundrum. Great to read another comment from you ratfish! Hope your summer fishing is going well.

[@dustybacon91]

Man this video hits on so many good points on centrarchid reproduction and population dynamics. It's hard to comment without basically writing a full on report! 😂 I was lucky enough to work a couple years at a research lab and did some work on Smallmouth Bass spawning work under Mark Ridgway (and learned a lot from him). There were a couple males I was afraid of, they didn't just bite, they full on charged you and it was hard to tell if they'd stop or not 🤣. One of those males at one point actually evicted a neighbouring male (that had nested later) because the larger male's fry had swam under the tree bordering the territories of their nests, and he ended up guarding the other nest's fry even when his own had swam off 😂.
A really neat paper that was written by Ryan Franckowiak that I indirectly helped with dived into the population structure/genetics of the smallmouth within the lake, it's a really good read regarding monogamy or the lack thereof within Smallmouth Bass, as well as the genetic structure of the fish within the spawning areas. Highly reccommended if you haven't read it already!

[@KNFishingSmarts]

Glad you appreciated this one! Pretty cool that the other male ended up guarding the other brood. I just downloaded the paper you suggested; I'll be sure to read it! Thanks for the kind words and reading suggestion!

[@kevinharrigan2727]

I feel like if we banned fishing and tournaments for 4-6 weeks every year at the spawn we would have a lot less problems. I certainly would make the sacrifice if that meant my future kids could catch fatass fish. I certainly don’t see an argument against it if it means our ecosystems and our fishing would be better in the long term, which is a win-win. It sucks because we can’t even get people to agree that climate change is fucking real so I doubt that would happen but it’s probably the most reasonable solution I could think of to the bed fishing issue and would guarantee high quality fish for generations to come.

[@KNFishingSmarts]

Yeah, that's one of the big problems in fisheries management--getting agreement not just between the managers but also the anglers. I wish there was a quick fix too...

[@Woefman911]

FFS sucks

[@forestcityfishing4749]

All that science and then the comment about global warming... you should probably stick to the subject you know

[@Sfkp4]

U got that pressed over a passing comment? U weird asf

[@noljawn]

How do you figure that cowboy?

[@KNFishingSmarts]

Ouch Forest...I actually do know a fair amount on climate change. =)