a little afternoon trip today

[big c]

Thank you for the reports and info.

[merc1997 Bo]

13 hours ago, Ham said:

I choose to NOT fish >35 foot down. Too tough on the fish. I've caught fish with the boat sitting in >100 foot of water, but I was fishing for schoolers on top. I catch more fish > 20 foot deep than I would have ever dreamed possible before I moved up 8 years ago.

ham, the only time it hurts the bass to catch them out of deep water is if you do not immediately release them.  i had a salt water fisherman prove the point to me years ago.  i had taken him fishing in the winter and we were catching bass 70 ft. deep.  i mentioned that i wondered if we were killing these bass.  he said not and then proceeded to prove his point by pinning a hook with 100' ft. of line and a bobber to the bass and let it go.  he then said now, when we come back in the evening to work these bass again, all we have to do is look for the bobber and you will find that when you pull the bass on the boober up, it will fight just as well bringing it up again.  he was right.  you do need to take your time bringing them up and not just winch them as fast as you can crank.

i know bill catches bass out of deep water all the time.  perhaps he can chime in about whether it is killing the bass by doing so.  i know that if these bass were not going to make it, it would be from an over inflated air bladder, and if so, they would be floating all over the top.  but, that is not the case.

what is tough on bass, caught from deep water, is when they are kept in a livewell in a tournament.  this is where icing the livewell water will shrink the air bladder back to normal and those bass will be swimming upright in the livewell and will swim off when released.  most bassers will not ice their livewell and will haul those bass around all day with over inflated air bladders.  even if they are fizzed at the end of the day, i am not for sure how many of them actually survive.

bo

[littlejasper]

Are you trying to imply Bo should take pictures of his fish to satisfy your doubting rhetoric?  This is not the first time you have made suttle suggestions of doubt. Keep whackin me , Bo!!!

[Ham]

I've had fish struggle that were released immediately when caught from > 35 foot. Maybe I brought them up too quickly. I think I could drag a jig out to 60 foot if I can drag it in 30 foot of water. I just choose not to do so. Others are free to do as they please.

I'm sure there are large numbers of fish DEEP. They are safe from me.