The Day Has Come

 

A totally closed bass season is now a thing of the past in the State of MN. Here at Bass Pundit, I have been advocating for this change since my very first year of blogging. Here is my very first post on the subject from April 2005.

Pundit Activism

"Opening Bass To Year Round Fishing," Amen!

 

It certainly seems like 2026 is going to be the year that MN will finally go to catch and release fishing allowed for bass during the closed season.

News On Minnesocold Bass Seasons

 

It looks like we have one more year of a closed bass season in MN before the state does away with a completely closed season for bass in favor of allowing catch and release fishing for bass year round.

Has A Tipping Point Been Reached On Mn Closed Bass Season

 

Click here to take the survey

At long last, the MN DNR is considering doing away with a closed bass season and going to catch and release outside of the open season for bass. Michigan did it, then Wisconsin did it. Minnesocold will hopefully do the right thing. 

Florida Study Shows Bed Fishing Zero Impact On Largemouth

Facebook Video Here

The Study Here

It has been my opinion for a very long time that having a completely closed season on largemouth bass is nonsense from a scientific perspective.  Angling pressure during the spawn does next to nothing in effecting how successful a body of water is at producing largemouth bass.  This is doubly true in weedy natural lakes.  A lake's fertility, carrying capacity, and spawning habitat are what impact largemouth populations, not fishing pressure.

Get with the program state of Minnesota.  Open up largemouth bass to catch and release fishing when not in season.

WI Goes to Year Round Bass Fishing

Wisconsin is now the latest state to do away with a totally closed season for bass.  Congratulations WI bassheads for getting it done.  Hopefully, MN gets with the program and follows suit in the next couple of years.

Update: This change isn't official yet. 

#WhatTheStateofMNRobsFromIt'sBassFishermen,THIS!

(This video is must watch)

KVD & Zona went out an absolutely smoked the pre-spawn giants last week, because the state of Michigan came to it's senses two years ago and did away with a totally closed season for largemouth and smallmouth bass.  Now Michigan anglers are free to immediately catch and release fish to their hearts content during the whole pre-spawn period.  The state of MN gave us two extra weeks of catch and release fishing.  I really hope that within the next couple of years this state revisits it's closed season for bass and once and for all goes catch and release just like Michigan did.

Calling Out the MN DNR On Pike Fishing B.S.

The MN DNR sent out a press release yesterday encouraging people to get out and fish.  In it they got onto the topic of closed seasons and why we have them.  Here is the line of BS I take issue with:

They are telling us a major reason why we are not allowed to catch and keep pike right now is because some people might target walleye under the guise of fishing for pike.

As our DNR has told us, pike populations in the central portion of this state are having a detrimental impact on walleye populations.  The pike are out of control eating up as many of those precious little walleye's as they can and the DNR finds that acceptable because they can't have a few people targeting walleye's out of season that would be released.

C'mon DNR, get your head out of your ass!!!

If anything pike being closed makes keeping the bass fishing season closed enforceable.   It is the position of this blog that there should not be a closed season for pike in the central portion of this state, period!  Lets get the hammer handle issue under control because that is a real problem.  People catching and releasing some incidentally caught bass and walleye while targeting pike would be a rather small problem by comparison.  

A Lotta Stuff (Ice Progress, GOMH Report, Closed Bass Season)

"GET ME TO THE LAKE"- The MNDNR has recorded 9 more lakes ice-free today and yesterday. I was hoping the ice would be out in my area lakes by today, but that was not to be. I checked Bulldog, Rock, Long, and Platte/Sullivan.

Bulldog-The public access had an acre and a half of open water.

Rock-Had some places where the ice had pulled away from shore, and it looked like there was a huge (15 feet wide) open crack just out from the Public Access running SE for at least 100 yards.

Long- The ice seemed to pull away from shore about 10 yards on the North and West sides.

Platte/Sullivan- Ice was pulling away from shore on the North Side of Platte. At the Grumpy Old Man Hole (GOMH), there was an astonishing amount of open water on the Platte Side. It was open to the small island and half of Channel Inn Bay. On the Sullivan side, it looked like the entire widened area of the Platte River Outlet (PRO) was wide open.

It will be at least 2 days before ice is off any of the area lakes.

Fishing Report- I brought a couple of rods and gave the GOMH a shot. When I first started fishing, a strong S wind blew 15-25mph straight in, and the water was flowing at a steady clip back into Platte Lake. I don't think I have ever caught fish when that is happening. The current of water moving from Platte into Sullivan is the big draw of fish at the GOMH. I fished both sides of the GOMH and got nothing but drifting weeds. No Grumpy Old Men sightings. With all that open water, fish could move into the GOMH anytime.

Cyberfish and Bake hit Pool 4&5 on Saturday and Pool 2 on Sunday for a little multi-species action.

Josh Douglas is prefishing the St. Jude Bass Classic on Pools 4&5...

Rite of Spring: It happens annually right about the time the ice goes out; The self-righteous self-appointed guardians of sportsmanship ethics, law, and largemouth bass go ballistic at FishingMinnesota.com about others they perceive as intentionally fishing for bass in the closed season. There was a new wrinkle this year in that the closed-season cops complained about people fishing for walleye in a river. Apparently, the "violation" occurred on a river containing nice crappies. So that makes yet another case where the violators would be indistinguishable from people that are fishing legally. A jig and a minnow or twister tail grub will catch just as many walleyes as crappies.

The FishingMinnesota.com bass forum got in on the action last Sunday with the thread: Does Turn In Poachers Work?. The BP (as in Bowfin Pro) is referenced in the 13th post in a not-so-unusual plot twist. Much to my delight, a well-reasoned defense of the BP is given in post #25 by Ricqik. Yes, I do intentionally fish for Dogfish, and tomorrow I plan to blog about fishing for Dogfish. We learn in one post that the BP should be labeled a "sociopath." (Does that make me a Bonafide Path?)

One person comes up with a bright idea for enforcing the most ludicrous fish regulation in the book:

If they (DNR) would let some of us volunteer to ticket these people, they would not have to cover so much of the area. Plus i think it would keep more people honest, seeings how no one would know if you have a ticket book in your pocket.

That's just what we need, more citations for an infraction that does absolutely no harm to the resource and for which enforcement is merely a notion in the eye of the beholder. Meanwhile, as usual, the closed-season cops are silent about admonishing people who are actually doing some harm to the resource. You know, the people fishing for panfish just can't resist the temptation to keep the bass they catch because they think they will never get caught. Or what about the people that catch a dogfish in the spring while fishing for panfish from shore and throw the doggy up on the bank to die? I witnessed an infraction of wanton waste twice last spring, in the case linked, I got the Dogfish back into the water while it was still alive.

Good Evening at the GOMH (GOM Willard "Bacon" Night)

Fishing Report: Headed to the GOMH at 6:20PM. There were three anglers fishing the SW side. Also at the GOMH was grumpy old man Willard. If he said bacon once, he said it a hundred times over the evening.

Since the SW side was covered with anglers I took the not nearly as nice to fish from SE side. In the first hour I fought two big bullheads but they both jumped me off by slightly bending the cubby hook out. The first hook up was at least a 4lber that jumped numerous times. A lady fishing the SW side said if I gave her the bass to keep, she would give me a couple of brewski's. I think she was half kidding, but then again maybe not.

I landed my first fish, which was a 2lb jumpin bullhead after I had been there about an hour. I was fishing a busted Cubby body with a minnow. I landed two more jumpin bullheads, a 2 and then a 3lber. About 8PM the people on the SW side started getting some action with orange bullheads then by 8:20 some silvers started showing up. I caught an unlucky break when a slimmer broke my line sending my Wing-It bobber into Sullivan Lake. However soon after that my luck changed because the guy and the girl fishing the SW side caught enough fish and packed it up. I immediately took their place.

For the next 20 minutes or so I proceeded to whack and stack silver bullheads on Dad's set up from last night (Chart flu flu and a minnow). Another guy showed up while the action was hot and he immediately started catching them too. As it was starting to get pretty dark the 1st guy left and the action slowed. I put on my lighted bobber and got about 4 more fish. The action slowed the darker it got. I got my last couple of fish on another set up with a Glow Demon. All in all I kept 9 (see pic) and released 3-5.

Word on the street is that Santa Claus Don woke up early and smacked em good in the morning around 6am. He said he also got a 5lb jumpin bullhead.


Classic Bass Pundit: Goings on at GOMH

April 2006 Fishing Log Blog archives...

April 2005 Fishing Log Blog archives...

More Closed Season Vigilanteism at FM.com: Targeting Bass before they are open (Duffman takes a shot at the BP in his post) and Lawbreakers

Hey Duffman, in case you aren't paying attention, I actually do fish for Dogfish. I am the 2004 and 2006 Minnesota Bowfin Club Grand Champion. I will try and repeat again this year. I think I may have missed a my first doggy of the season the other night. FYI I was fishing for Crappies at the time.