What I Really Want To Know Is...

Dennis Anderson wrote a column for today's Star Tribune on the early catch and release bass season.  You can tell Dennis is not a dedicated bass fishermen by his closing question;  "If bass won’t be hurt by an early two-week catch-and-release season, could they also sustain a two-week harvest season at that time, which would mean opening bass fishing each year in Minnesota with the northern pike and walleye seasons?"

I know of very few bass fishermen that would have asked that as a closing question.  We don't want bass season opened up to catch and keep with the walleye and pike.  The thought of limit's of bass going home with meat fishermen out for panfish, walleye, and pike is enough to make some of us want to toss our cookies (and maybe a few bricks) in Dennis Anderson's general direction.    

What I really want to know is why it is ever illegal in MN to fish for bass with catch and immediate release?  If your unfamiliar with MN fishing regulations than you might not know that bass have three season; closed to all fishing, immediate catch and release, and open to be kept.  That is right, in MN there is a season in which we are forbidden by law from intentionally attempting to catch bass so we can immediately release them.  Michigan was once like MN is now, with the three seasons.  They experimented with an immediate catch and release season and just this year passed a law making the closed season always open to catch and immediate release fishing (CIR).   My hope is that in a year or two we will follow Michigan's lead and no longer make catch and release fishing for bass illegal for part of the year. Immediate catch and release fishing for bass should always be legal, except in waters with a smallmouth bass population that needs protection.