bed cleared in a bad way

[Sonny Edmonds]

While I am more of a trout and LM Bass fisherman myself, I don't like hearing about people like those in that boat.
I'd likely pay a late night visit and scuttle their boat. They are the mentality that is the cause of the decline of all fisheries.
I guess you don't have any limits or Game Wardens there?
I stopped going to a couple of forums local to me after I fished with a few of the participants. Suffices to say they didn't have the respect for nature that I was raised with.
Enjoy the times you do have...
Just remember that they are out there....
And they reproduce.
(The morons, I mean...)

[MOturkE]

Depending on the size of the water those gills may recover faster than you would think. I know it's not a good thing to clear the bed, but it's likely other gills that are in that water will use the bed next year and they'll do just fine.

Trouble will be whether the neighbor has a better memory than concience and comes back to clear the bed again next year. If it becomes a real problem check with the authorities and see if it might help to reduce creel or length limits.

Hope this helps...

***Though, I'd rather snorkle up under them and poke a good hole in their boat***

Did I type that out loud?!?


Tim

[briney dave]

That bed was hit in a similar fashion three years ago. A family made three or four trips to it that I saw. Again kept just about every fish that came to the boat. It took three years to get back. There were a few good fish the first and second year but none that would have broken tippet.

The weather does play a part in this too. Those years were odd heat and cooling patterns that kept driving the fish back into deeper water and it spread out the breeding season. There were never more than a dozen beds active in the very shallow water at any one time.

This year you could see something close to 40 disks active and a large number of big satalite males that were not tough enough to earn one of the spots and had to orbit around and run in at that last minute to try to breed with females while the bigger male was driving another off.

Typically those satalites are not keeper sized but they were this year.

I know that there are still some good fish there but its a bunch harder keeping a very young caster such as my five year old on task and still tough with Ian at 8 when there are very long gaps between takes and the cast have to be better to earn one.

Again not all of that is bad if you are starting to make an ok cast. But when the line comes down in massive loops and the rod tip smacks the surface less aggressive fish move out of range for a little while

We pull the loops all back in and talk a bit and make another cast, which all is forgiven in a massive bed where the fish have to be aggressive to keep their spot

Both Ian and likely Olivia will keep fishing because the whole family does but I really would like to help them become pationate about fishing and about ecology. Nothing fuels a love for something like feeling like you are good at it.

A lot of my studnets will talk about their latest bass trip or trip to Erie but rarely talk about fishery health or their role in keeping and improving. I slyly slip those ideas into their minds as we talk, but would like my kids to have it right, from the start.

[Fishin' Jimmy]

Hey I like the idea of bed springs and hog wire pannels! How about putting the two together? Make some Blue Gill Wire Pup Tent Cribs. Put a few together and you got some Blue Gill Condo's!!!

Fish'in Jimmy

Brown shoes don't make it! Eating TV dinners by the pool,when the Wife is attending an Orchaid Show. Frank Zappa

[mnbandy]

Yep, 20 sunnies and 10 crappies in Minn. I suppose it's too much to hope for a "slot limit" on some lakes, but it would be nice if people started throwing back the real big sunfish. Far better to keep a couple smaller ones than one huge one.

[briney dave]

I am comitted to live and teach by example. there is no way I would put a boating and swimming hazzard below the surface where no obstruction existed before

No, I will fish with people who fish and carry on with a sense of what will be here tomorrow not just today,


I am still sad about how those guys acted, I pitty them for their lack of understanding or lack of ethics (which ever is the case)

My hope is that there will be enough guys like so many I have been lucky enough to meet on the board here to reach out to new generations of fishermen. To pass on not only the traditions of fly fishing but of the ethics that have allowed our sport to grow into what it is today.