It’s
March, and the signs of spring are popping up everywhere in Florida. Days
are longer, temperatures are warmer, and trees are beginning to bud. Birds,
flowers, and bees are becoming more active, and with the warming temperatures,
underwater activities are heating up too. More specifically, Florida Largemouth
Bass (Micropterus floridanus) are
beginning to move into the shallows as they seek to begin their spawning season.
If
you’re an angler this time of year means the potential to target bass that are
both highly vulnerable and readily accessible, with a legitimate shot at
landing a big one. This is in large part due to the reproductive biology of Largemouth Bass; they excavate nests in shallow water commonly visible from afar, display
parental care (i.e. they protect the young in their nests), and will attack predators (or lures) that enter their
nests. The process of specifically fishing for bass as they defend their brood
(eggs and young) is known as bed fishing, and a simple internet search will
return hundreds of websites that detail specific baits, techniques, and
strategies to target bedding bass (Figure 1). Indeed, bed fishing is a
practiced by many and staunchly opposed by many others. At the center of the
debate is whether the removal of guarding parents is bad for the overall bass
population. Numerous studies have shown that bed fishing can cause individual
nests to fail, but does this scale up to the entire population?
Figure 1. One of many websites
that provide detailed information on how to catch bedding bass
