offduty:
I have been bass fishing for over 25 years. A good part of that was spent every spring sight fishing. There is just something about going down the bank and finding a fish and getting him or her to bite and being able to watch the whole thing happen. When my oldest daughter was 6 she fished her first tournament, a local team. At 6 she was already a pretty good fisherman. We were sight fishing when she spots a good fish and casts to it. She caught that fish, 6.11 lbs. We won that tournament and she had big fish of the tournament. She released her fish and used her " Big Fish " money to buy a reprodution mount. That was 10 years ago and I'm still proud as hell of her.

I think that there is many things that are damaging to the fish population. I'm not sure what the impact is of "bed fishing" but I will agree there is one.

I think tournaments themselves have a huge impact on the fish.I hate when I see guys rough handle thier fish "Iaconelli Style" at weigh-ins. I cannot tell you how many times I have been out on the Delta after one of the major tournaments has rolled through town to find a bunch of dead floaters. I'm talking a lot of fish. Last year I found 4 fish over 8 lbs. dead within a twenty yard stretch. A little ways down the bank I see one that looks to be over 11 lbs.

Bouncing fish into the boat I feel is really hard on the fish. I love the "Big Bait Posse" video but you see fish after fish being bounced into the boat and flop around on the carpet. Having a net in the boat can be a pain sometimes but I do not think anything good can come from bouncing a big fish onto the carpet.

Recently I read an article that one of our western pro's had wrote. He went on about how he hates the "bed fisherman" and thinks it's immoral. A few paragraphs later he goes into one of his favorite times of the year to fish. Post-spawn. "Fish guarding fry are the easiest to catch" he states. In my opinion this is just as bad as bed fishing. You pull the male off the fry he is guarding what happens to the fry? Other fish move in and eat them!

As far as Casitas declining as a trophy bass fishery it's my opinion that this is do more to the ever increasing fishing presure for trophy fish, not just the bed fisherman. You have so many fisherman just targeting big fish these days, myself included

I totally respect your opinion and what you are trying to do, insure the future generations of these fish we all love to chase. I hardly ever bed fish these days but if I do see a really big girl sittin up shallow, I just might try to catch her.