Is it time for GA to cut the limit on certain black bass

I think it'd be nice to see some more clear communication between the DNR and fisherman on certain bodies of water. If a place is threatened by certain species, actively encourage folks to keep those fish. Same for lakes that are getting stunted. Let folks know, "Hey you're helping this lake by putting a few in the cooler."

Same for lakes that need to more protection. A little basic information can go a long way. Not sure how feasible that is, or if it would really have an effect, but it might be worth a shot.

I would like to see a 3 fish limit on tournaments and 3 fish limit on bass for the live bait guys . Probably should be artificial only for bass .

LTZ25 said:

I would like to see a 3 fish limit on tournaments and 3 fish limit on bass for the live bait guys . Probably should be artificial only for bass .

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Live bait on a circle hook or khale hook does a whole lot less damage to a bass than a lure covered with treble hooks. I used to bait fish for large bass with big gold shiners back in the day, we used khale hooks, never gut hooked with those, they act like a circle hook....seen many a bass gut hooked or deep hooked with treble hooks that there was no way that bass was gonna live...no matter what. They need to take all limits off of spotted bass. I would be for them shocking and scooping them and giving the fish to food banks.

I'm for all regulations taken off spotted bass. Except on the Carters and lake Lanier impoundments. It won't help, though. At all. Nobody is keeping that many spots.

Only thing that rubs me wrong is that about 1/3 of the spots in Blue ridge I catch I can tell have been caught before. I know it's a lost cause but no spot I've ever caught in blue ridge lived to tell about it. Not one.

The black stick of death said:

If anybody hurts the fish populations it's the people who sit there with crickets and clean the place out and keep everything 2 fingers or bigger bass or bream

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Na.. I say the worm chunkers do more damage than the cricket crowd

I agree a spotted bass become an issue in our highland reservoir lakes, and it should not be a limit in many of them.
However, please explain couple things.

1. Why tournament anglers blamed for releasing spotted bass in most GA lakes? I don't see how they can benefit from that, because the total weight of your catch always is going be lower vs LM only lake.

2. Once in a while I watch videos on youtube, and it seems to be many parts of the country don't have that specific issue with spotted bass when spots are overcrowd and replace other bass species. Look at famous Table Rock Lake, all three species coexist just fine, Cherokee Lake doing just great, pros been catching plenty of big smallmouths there, most of Tennessee lakes - same story. Cali has a great fishery of all three species in own lakes, and nobody complains there.

bvi said:

1. Why tournament anglers blamed for releasing spotted bass in most GA lakes? I don't see how they can benefit from that, because the total weight of your catch always is going be lower vs LM only lake.

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Coming in with a full 5 fish string will always be better than only coming in with a couple of fish. Spots are more aggressive and easier to catch in numbers. If I was a tournament guy, and I could catch a couple of largies before, my hope in introducing spots would be to catch those same couple of largemouth, and then pad my stringer with spots.

2. Once in a while I watch videos on youtube, and it seems to be many parts of the country don't have that specific issue with spotted bass when spots are overcrowd and replace other bass species. Look at famous Table Rock Lake, all three species coexist just fine, Cherokee Lake doing just great, pros been catching plenty of big smallmouths there, most of Tennessee lakes - same story. Cali has a great fishery of all three species in own lakes, and nobody complains there.

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Bigger lakes, or lakes that have prime habitat for both don't seem to have the same issues. A lot of Georgia's highland reservoirs aren't really prime largemouth territory. The spots are better adapted to those lakes, and end up displacing the largemouths.

Just my opinion, of course.

Not really true on spots being easier to catch I guess it depends on the lake. And its true lakes like carters and blue ridge aren't the best lm habitats. Go look at Guntersville and Chickamauga those are dominate lm lakes. The habitat is shallow to mid depth and both have lots of grass. Deep at the chick is 30ft..thats regular fishing depth at carters lol.

bvi said:

I agree a spotted bass become an issue in our highland reservoir lakes, and it should not be a limit in many of them.
However, please explain couple things.

1. Why tournament anglers blamed for releasing spotted bass in most GA lakes? I don't see how they can benefit from that, because the total weight of your catch always is going be lower vs LM only lake.

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A bass master elite o FLW angler may fish all day knowing he will only get a handful of bites, but will continue to fish the area, because he knows the bite will be from larger fish that will give him an opportunity to win. You average weekend angler doesn't have the patience. They had rather catch a bunch of fish all day and weigh in five 2 or 3 ponders. That is why you see 15lb bags win in club tournaments for weeks, and then a pro event will fish the same event and they turn in 20lb plus bags for the top third of the field. Spots typically give you the opportunity to catch more numbers, and are generally more aggressive and easier to catch.

bvi said:

2. Once in a while I watch videos on youtube, and it seems to be many parts of the country don't have that specific issue with spotted bass when spots are overcrowd and replace other bass species. Look at famous Table Rock Lake, all three species coexist just fine, Cherokee Lake doing just great, pros been catching plenty of big smallmouths there, most of Tennessee lakes - same story. Cali has a great fishery of all three species in own lakes, and nobody complains there.

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It depends on the body of water. In lakes, spots can bed in and typically inhabitant deeper water than largemouth. If you have a lake where the water level can fluctuate a lot like we do corp's lakes here, then a bass bed can be in the water one day and out or too deep the next. A spot bedding at 12 or 15 feet doesn't get affected. They are also a smaller species and like most smaller species tend to breed more prolifically than they larger cousins. Since there are more of them and they are in some cases more adaptable than largemouth and small mouth, they can out compete them for food and ultimately dramatically decrease the population of other species. In lakes where the habitat is better for largemouth, then the largemouth seems to do fine.

jeremyledford said:

I'm for all regulations taken off spotted bass. Except on the Carters and lake Lanier impoundments. It won't help, though. At all. Nobody is keeping that many spots.

Only thing that rubs me wrong is that about 1/3 of the spots in Blue ridge I catch I can tell have been caught before. I know it's a lost cause but no spot I've ever caught in blue ridge lived to tell about it. Not one.

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Every spot I catch I keep, usually limits, but the DNR says removing the limit will do nothing because nobody keeps them. With that being said removing the limit will let those who keep them fish longer and keep more.

Quackmasterofgeorgia said:

Every spot I catch I keep, usually limits, but the DNR says removing the limit will do nothing because nobody keeps them. With that being said removing the limit will let those who keep them fish longer and keep more.

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To my point from earlier, no one keeps them because there is negative external pressure to doing so, mostly from other anglers. I think the DNR might help management efforts on certain waters by taking steps to encourage anglers to keep fish more often. Just my opinion.

Maybe something like a slot? Keep as many as you want between 12-16" or something like that? I dunno.

Coenen said:

To my point from earlier, no one keeps them because there is negative external pressure to doing so, mostly from other anglers. I think the DNR might help management efforts on certain waters by taking steps to encourage anglers to keep fish more often. Just my opinion.

Maybe something like a slot? Keep as many as you want between 12-16" or something like that? I dunno.

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The DNR should encourage people more to keep spots especially from blue ridge, but they need to protect native species more than non-native.