By Bob McNitt
Oudoors Columnist
With bass and musky seasons opening this Saturday, it completes the open seasons for all game fish species in the state. So whatever ends up on the angler's line, as long as it's of legal length, is fair game if, indeed, the fisher opts to keep it for table fare. However, increasingly more anglers are practicing catch and release when bass fishing, and the DEC recently opted to go along with that tactic.

A catch and release bass season that requires artificial lures only was enacted that will run from December 1 thru the day preceding the third Saturday in June (bass season has historically run from then until Nov. 30) each year. The existing third Saturday in June through November 30 season (with a 12 inch minimum length and daily limit of five fish) will remain the same and allow anglers who so choose to keep the.bass they catch.

Since the catch-and-release season was announced, there have been both opponents and supporters of it. Opponents worry that too many male bass that guard nests during the spring spawning period will be targeted and removed long enough to allow increased depredation on the eggs and fry by other species. Supporters argue that bass are being inadvertently caught every spring spawning season while fishing for legal species such as pike, pickerel and walleye, and there's no indication that it has hurt the bass resource.

The DEC, in trying to evaluate the impacts of angling during the spawning and nest-guarding period for bass, studied research from several areas in the United States and Canada. These studies indicated that male bass removed from the nest quickly return to the nest and resume guarding it. However, the length of time male bass are held and kept away from the nest has a direct impact on the length of time it takes it to return to nest-guarding. Under the current catch-and-release regulation, bass must be "immediately released," so, hopefully, any negative impact will be minimal.
Another factor that probably influenced DEC's decision to try a catch-and-release season was enforcement. Environmental Conservation Officers (ECOs) found it increasingly difficult to prove anglers were actually "targeting" bass during the closed season. On the more popular angling waters that harbor a variety of species, anglers fishing for pike or pickerel in bays often can't avoid catching aggressive male bass. I can attest to this, having tried to avoid catching bass while fishing for May pike in lakes such as Black Lake, where both species are abundant. I often caught as many or more bass than pike, but obviously quickly released them. Theoretically, an ECO observing me or other pike anglers could have "assumed" we were "targeting bass out of season."

The catch-and-release change should prove to be a boon to bass clubs that previously had to wait until the regular open season to hold competitions. The only question I have is how this increased pressure may affect smaller waters, where the same bass may be caught several times by competitors during the day's event. Will the sum total time of these bass being absent from the nests result in more depredation? Time will tell.

I believe one of the misconceptions some have of bass is how long it takes to produce what some one classify as a "trophy fish." The bass we often see displayed on TV by pro bass anglers competing in major competitions are fish from waters primarily south of the Mason-Dixon Line, where the growing season is much longer, and bass grow faster. In the northern waters, growing seasons are much shorter, so it takes longer for bass to reach the same size as their southern cousins.

For example, when the water temperature falls below about 40-42 degrees, the metabolism of largemouth bass becomes sluggish and growth decreases. So in northern lakes, it takes 5-6 years to grow a 14-inch largemouth, while south of the Mason-Dixon, the same length might be attained in just three years. Smallmouth bass, which prefer cooler water temps than largemouths, grow even slower. A 12-incher is probably about six, a 17-incher is around 10, and those monster smallmouths of over 20 inches can be 18 years or older! So keep in mind that those 8- pound-plus bass you see caught from southern waters are maybe half as old as those of the same size in our northern waters.

Personally, I rarely keep any bass I catch, for two reasons. First is that they're too much fun to catch just once in their lifetimes, and I like to let them keep growing even if they're legal length. Second, I don't particularly like the flavor of cooked bass, which tastes a bit like cucumbers unless you camouflage the flavor with various seasonings. For table fare, I prefer sunfish, perch or walleye - all of which have a sweet, truly fish - like flavor that needs little seasoning beyond a touch of salt.

Since largemouths are primarily found in our shallow, warm water lakes and ponds, they are more popular with boat anglers. And because smallmouths prefer deeper cool water lakes and especially rivers, they tend to be the target of the wading or shoreline anglers. Both provide exciting fishing opportunities and fight hard, especially the smallmouth.

Just about all of our local lakes and larger ponds harbor largemouths, with Chenango and Guilford Lakes, Long Pond, Balsam Pond, Millbrook Reservoir, and the nearby Madison County cluster of lakes/reservoirs being just a few. For smallmouths, it's hard to beat our Susquehanna river tributaries - the Chenango, Unadilla, Tioughnioga, and Upper Susquehanna.

I'm not a purist, so I don't expect everyone will release every bass they catch to allow it to grow and be enjoyed by other anglers. But for those who are so inclined to fish more for fun than meat, today's compact digital cameras are a tool no angler should be without. Enjoy the battle, snap a couple pictures of your catch, then release it to grow some more. Who knows, the biggest bass you'll ever catch may just be the one you or someone else has caught and released years ago.