You spot a big bass circling in the shallows, obviously protecting its nest. Your heart skips a beat. But do you pick up a rod and cast to the bedding bass? It all depends on where you live, what your local state or provincial regulations allow, and even your own conservation philosophy.

In many jurisdictions, bass fishing is a year-round sport. Big cast-for-cash competitions often are timed to coincide with the major waves of bass moving shallow to spawn. Indeed, last January at the Florida BASSMASTER Top 150 event on Lake Tohopekaliga, Dean Rojas shattered the all-time BASSMASTER weight record. Rojas sight-fished his way into the record book by targeting bedding bass. His four-day catch of 20 bass weighed 108 pounds, 12 ounces, anchored by his first day five-fish limit of 45 pounds, 2 ounces.

In many parts of North America, Rojas’ feat would have been forbidden. The bass season is closed and intentionally fishing for them is illegal. Additionally, key bass spawning areas are sometimes declared out-of-bounds sanctuaries, where it’s against the law even to angle for other species for which the season is open.

Who is right? Who is wrong? Does fishing for spawning bass have an effect?

The Illusion Of Abundance

Interestingly, the answer depends on where you live. And geography may play a key biological role. In the southern half of the United States and Mexico, for example, areas with year-round fishing seasons, bass grow quickly and mature early. Take, for example, a three-pound smallmouth bass in Alabama or Tennessee. A fish that size may be five or six years old and has spawned several times.

The same age smallmouth in northern Minnesota, Michigan, or Ontario likely measures 12 inches in length, weighs 15 ounces, and has never spawned. Let’s look at it another way. If you caught 15 or 20 of these foot-long sausages in a day, you wouldn’t consider it much of a feat. Yet that would be comparable to catching 15 or 20 three-pound-plus smallmouth bass in southern waters—a great feat.

Other points to consider: Generally speaking, most southern lakes, rivers, pits, ponds, and reservoirs offer bass-friendly living conditions. The water’s warm year-round with plenty of food. Sometimes, so much so that species like striped bass are stocked to control the forage base.

By comparison, northern bass waters are like the Amazon rain forest. They give the illusion of abundance, but it’s a false impression. Typical northern bass lakes, like Minnesota and Ontario’s famed Rainy Lake and Lake of the Woods, grow about three or four pounds of fish flesh per acre annually on a sustainable basis. And that meager productivity is spread among 30 or more species of fish. The amount of annual production apportioned to the bass population is measured as ounces per acre per year.

And unlike many southern rivers and reservoirs, bass in northern waters are not the top predator. More often, they’re relegated to occupying environmental niches within a lake, river, or reservoir.

Protect Adults Or Increase Reproduction?

In consideration of some or all of these factors, fishery management agencies in several northern states and Canadian provinces close the bass season during the spring spawn. Sometimes the strategy is designed to protect potentially vulnerable adults. Other times, it’s to ensure the survival of as many bass eggs and fry as possible. But usually it’s intended to achieve both objectives.