Commentary: It’s time to make catch-and-release bass fishing statewide in New York

I recently came across an old YouTube video posted July 12, 2009, that records my interview of Dean Meckes, of Clayton, describing how he won the New York State Bass Federation tournament out of Ogdensburg by bed fishing for smallmouth bass with a drop-shot rig.

That’s right, 16 years ago anglers were bed fishing for smallmouth bass well after the June 15 annual season opener.

Resolute bass anglers have been begging for implementation of the statewide catch-and-release bass season in Jefferson and St. Lawrence counties (as well as Franklin and Hamilton counties) in northern New York since the program began. Yet, it is still denied.

This group of bass fishing aficionados have known, and repeatedly stated, based on their on-the-water observations, there is no reason to deny a statewide catch-and-release bass season.

For the past 16 years DEC fisheries managers have championed the dialogue that catch-and-release bass fishing would harm the bass fishery.

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However, last spring our Lake Ontario Unit Leader, Region 6 fisheries chief and the state fisheries manager held a briefing, announcing that 92% of smallmouth bass were still on their beds after our annual season opener, which is now June 15. This is when it’s legal to catch and keep any bass you catch, if you do so in accordance with the freshwater fishing regulations.

This year, from opening day until around July 4 weekend, every boat ramp from Cape Vincent to Massena was filled with out-of-state bass anglers, all bed-fishing for smallmouth bass, and I estimate about 50% of them were using a flogger. A flogger looks like a traffic cone with a translucent plastic covering the bottom allowing anglers to look through the cone into the water to better see and target bass on their beds.

Keep in mind that bed fishing with a flogger has been standard practice for the past 10 to 12 years. Some folks frown on it, while others embrace it wholeheartedly. Regardless of your opinion about flogging, the fact remains this has been happening for years in these two counties and across the rest of the state. Yet, the bass fishery shows no ill effects from it.

Our Region 6 bass fishery in Jefferson and St. Lawrence Counties has endured at a minimum, 16 years of hard bed-fishing, on what DEC reports as 92% of the spawning population; again with no ill effects on the bass population.

So, it is time to reassess our black bass management strategies for these two counties.

Allow bass anglers to enjoy a catch-and-release season, especially when DEC reports that such a large population of bass are spawning/bedding well after the annual season opens on June 15.

Denying Jefferson and St. Lawrence Counties (and others) access to the statewide catch-and- release bass season is not based on science, and it never was.

Haney pens the 1000 Islands region Fishing Report, and is a frequent contributor to NYON.