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Posts: 125
| So the WI northwoods is seeing a large population increase in LMB for many lakes. Lakes where it was uncommon to get one in a full day, now its more of a nuisance when targeting panfish. I know some lakes the DNR is considering upping the bag or lowering the size. What sort of impact do you think this has on the musky population in northwoods? Are musky fry becoming bass food? Will more bass just mean more food for adult musky? What do you think caused the influx?
Thoughts? |
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Location: minocqua, wi. | they are taking the place of walleyes that have succumbed to harvest pressure. |
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Location: Sawyer County, WI |
If as many 12 inch largemouth bass were kept for the table as 12 inch walleye, this would be far less a problem. Thankfully, the new slots being put in place will help the walleye recovery. |
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Posts: 859
Location: MN | jonnysled - 4/12/2015 7:25 PM
they are taking the place of walleyes that have succumbed to harvest pressure.
X2 walleye fishing is dying a slow but certain death. That's why I'm making the change to Muskie a fish with a future and folks working hard to improve the fishery and expand it. |
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Posts: 1000
| Honestly I doubt this is going to have any sort of impact on the muskie or walleye population. Panfish make up a significant part of the bass diet, so maybe you'll see some improvement in size structure over time.
One thing I've observed is that largemouth seem to average a pound or more heavier in lakes with significant rock bass populations. Maybe that's just coincidence though. |
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Posts: 125
| Since the spike the population in LMB here are my observations of the lake i fish:
- rock bass has drastically been depleted
- walleye are bigger, but there are less
- musky we had our best year in catch rate since 2007. Over the last 7 years the lake averages ~60 muskies over 32 inches. Last year we had 111 caught |
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Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | tolle141 - 4/12/2015 7:59 PM
Honestly I doubt this is going to have any sort of impact on the muskie or walleye population. Panfish make up a significant part of the bass diet, so maybe you'll see some improvement in size structure over time.
One thing I've observed is that largemouth seem to average a pound or more heavier in lakes with significant rock bass populations. Maybe that's just coincidence though.
The fisheries folks are clear that the increase in LMB in the Northwoods is directly proportional with a decrease in Walleye, and the bass are hard on the 'eyes. There is some damage done on YOY muskies too. All in all unless the lake is zero NR and 100% stocked, the LMB need to be knocked back.
Tomahawk/Minocqua chain is 5 bag no size limit. I think the Chip is, too. Anyone know? |
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Posts: 115
| Honest question. How are the LMB to eat. Never have tried them. |
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Location: Sawyer County, WI | Headlock - 4/12/2015 8:39 PM
Honest question. How are the LMB to eat. Never have tried them.
10-12 inchers taste like fish. I never kept anything larger.
I believe the Chippewa Flowage has a limit of 5 largemouth of any size. |
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Posts: 143
Location: Palatine, IL | LMB are surprisingly good. I kept a few last year when they were hammering my musky lures. |
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Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | We like them fried really well. Not over 15" though. |
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Location: Wakefield, MI | sworrall - 4/12/2015 8:53 PM
We like them fried really well. Not over 15" though.
I eat em up to 18" all the time. On bigger fish I cut each fillet into 3 pieces, belly, tail and backstrap, I butterfly the backstrap so it doesn't have to cook as long.
Let me know what lakes need some bass removed and I'll gladly come help. |
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Location: MN | I too agree with the above good eating 15 inches and under. I taken to cut down the population. |
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Posts: 397
Location: Wisconsin | I too enjoy eating LMB, I have never had a problem with their taste. But in terms of their impact on the fishery, I would suspect that if the lake being stocked is introduced to fry and not fingerlings, then the bass would have a much higher impact |
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Posts: 8722
| It's just been the last 5-6 years from what I've seen. We're catching a LOT of them in places where you never even saw one 10 years ago. And yes, the walleye populations are suffering. I'm not sure if the LMB are filling the hole left due to over harvest of walleyes, of if the walleye populations are suffering due to to the explosion in LMB. I trust the experts that some harvest is needed, and we'll be doing that this year. I haven't eaten one in a long time, but the smaller bass in the 12" - 15" range are good. Nice texture to the fish, decent taste, but they are more "fishy" than a lot of other freshwater species. They taste like they smell...
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Posts: 4266
| Personally, I like seeing the bass take over some lakes. More bass = less stunted panfish, and almost every lake in northern WI is full of stunted bluegills. They can change all of the regs that they want, but I will still release all of the bass that I catch. I hate the way that they taste. so I'm not going to keep them just because some people consider them a problem. You mean all of the geniuses that run things didn't know that when they removed the walleyes from the lakes that other fish would take over? I enjoy going "up north" and catching lots of quality smallies every day. I am a multi-species fisherman, and it's not going to break my heart if I don't catch any walleyes. I knew that they couldn't last forever after they started jamming steel into the heads of the walleyes that were trying to spawn. What will those poor natives do if they kill off all of the walleyes? It serves them right if they do. I can still go elsewhere if I want to catch walleyes. Maybe the pike up there might actually grow past 36" and we'll have a pike and bass and panfish fishery that we don't have now. A couple of years ago they sqwaked about the Smallmouths taking over. Now it's the Largemouths. Get used to it, because this is the world that we live in where the sacred walleye is hunted to oblivion to feed the poor and starving natives.
Edited by Beaver 4/13/2015 6:30 AM
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Posts: 410
Location: With my son on the water | Just my opinion but bass fishing is a great transition for kids to go from gills, to bass, to muskie. There is no way my son would be the muskie fisherman he is today with the release ethics he has without bass fishing when he was 7-10 years old.
Plus they are a bunch of fun to catch each season before the muskie fishing heats up. I hope we don't go crazy and wipe them out.
And oh by the way, it is not just lakes that get speared, (because we fish several that don't get speared) so?
Have a good day.  |
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Posts: 13688
Location: minocqua, wi. | newsflash ... anglers are as big if not a bigger problem than natives on walleyes. sorry, but just tired of hearing the same old crap from a 2 week a year vantage point. case in point ... the restoration of walleyes on Kentuck. they disappeared in 1 year by angler harvest.
bass cleaning ... bleed them and cool the meat right away and when filleting pull out the mud line. they are in the same family as bluegills and taste great.
milje ... jump in with me this year, we could use the help and i'll show you some fantastic LMB fishing.
Edited by jonnysled 4/13/2015 7:18 AM
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| jonnysled - 4/13/2015 7:05 AM
newsflash ... anglers are as big if not a bigger problem than natives on walleyes. sorry, but just tired of hearing the same old crap from a 2 week a year vantage point. case in point ... the restoration of walleyes on Kentuck. they disappeared in 1 year by angler harvest.
bass cleaning ... bleed them and cool the meat right away and when filleting pull out the mud line. they are in the same family as bluegills and taste great.
milje ... jump in with me this year, we could use the help and i'll show you some fantastic LMB fishing.
I know I'm not much of a threat to the fish populations.  |
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Location: oswego, il | White people are the problem? C'mon we blame others! |
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Posts: 611
Location: Seymour, WI | I'm with Beaver on this one. If LMB are doing well in a lake I'm OK with that. Don't make them a scapegoat for a walleye fishery that is in decline.
About 10 yrs ago the DNR removed the size limit on LMB on the lake that I fish most often to try to increase harvest of LMB. But instead of keeping small bass to eat, it just increased the harvest of all bass, particularily the biggest fish in the lake. What was once a trophy LMB fishery, is now a lake that is full of small bass and the walleye fishery is unchanged.
The other thing that bothers me about this is that alot of people don't know the difference between LMB and SMB. They just hear that the bass are eating all of the walleyes and they keep every bass they catch whether it's SMB or LMB. |
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Posts: 132
| Soak them in milk for an hour or so before cooking them. That really gets rid of any "bad" flavor that they have. Been doing this for many, many years. Even fool my grandmother who won't eat bass but loves walleye. Soak the bass in milk before cooking and tell her it's walleye. About every time, "this is some of the best walleye I've ever had." |
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Location: minocqua, wi. | ^good advice ... i bet most of the "taste" is coming from the mud line that is simple to remove. it will be a stronger bond to the skin near the tail of the fillet and runs right down the middle. you can grab it and comes right out in one piece. cut out any meat along the lateral line that is darker red in color. it's an easy cut to do and all your "fishy' taste goes away completely. i'll try the milk soak too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utwHVRQ8Kpg
video is a striper, but same concept. red meat = bad ...
Edited by jonnysled 4/13/2015 1:50 PM
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Posts: 8722
| This is a must-do for many species of saltwater fish as well. A lot of the fish that people won't eat is actually pretty tasty if you follow the method Sled posted above. May try the milk thing myself... |
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Location: Wakefield, MI | jonnysled - 4/13/2015 7:05 AM
newsflash ... anglers are as big if not a bigger problem than natives on walleyes. sorry, but just tired of hearing the same old crap from a 2 week a year vantage point. case in point ... the restoration of walleyes on Kentuck. they disappeared in 1 year by angler harvest.
bass cleaning ... bleed them and cool the meat right away and when filleting pull out the mud line. they are in the same family as bluegills and taste great.
milje ... jump in with me this year, we could use the help and i'll show you some fantastic LMB fishing.
Let me know when. My parents are moving their house (literally moving the whole thing across town), so my old man will be busy all summer so besides taking the neighbor kid out in my row troller it'll be just me almost all year. |
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Location: Sawyer County, WI | I'm going to try sled's fillet technique and hunterjoe's "fool grandma" milk trick too. I catch a ton of the 12"ers off the dock. I used to throw them back, now I'll just throw them into the hot oil. |
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Location: The desert | Grass - 4/13/2015 12:39 PM
I'm with Beaver on this one. If LMB are doing well in a lake I'm OK with that. Don't make them a scapegoat for a walleye fishery that is in decline.
About 10 yrs ago the DNR removed the size limit on LMB on the lake that I fish most often to try to increase harvest of LMB. But instead of keeping small bass to eat, it just increased the harvest of all bass, particularily the biggest fish in the lake. What was once a trophy LMB fishery, is now a lake that is full of small bass and the walleye fishery is unchanged.
The other thing that bothers me about this is that alot of people don't know the difference between LMB and SMB. They just hear that the bass are eating all of the walleyes and they keep every bass they catch whether it's SMB or LMB.
You can't see why the walleye fishery remains unchanged? |
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Posts: 1000
| sworrall - 4/12/2015 8:24 PM
tolle141 - 4/12/2015 7:59 PM
Honestly I doubt this is going to have any sort of impact on the muskie or walleye population. Panfish make up a significant part of the bass diet, so maybe you'll see some improvement in size structure over time.
One thing I've observed is that largemouth seem to average a pound or more heavier in lakes with significant rock bass populations. Maybe that's just coincidence though.
The fisheries folks are clear that the increase in LMB in the Northwoods is directly proportional with a decrease in Walleye, and the bass are hard on the 'eyes. There is some damage done on YOY muskies too. All in all unless the lake is zero NR and 100% stocked, the LMB need to be knocked back.
Tomahawk/Minocqua chain is 5 bag no size limit. I think the Chip is, too. Anyone know?
Interesting, that's the first time I've heard of that. Are these lakes that have historically had largemouth? Seems weird that they'd suddenly have a population.
Personally I think they taste fine. Mix em in with the walleyes, crappies, and northerns and you'll have a hard time picking them out. |
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Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | These waters have always had some LMB. Now they are literally teeming with them.
Another trick is soaking the fillets in lemon lime soda for a half hour. |
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Location: Already Gone | hunterjoe - 4/13/2015 1:26 PM
Soak them in milk for an hour or so before cooking them. That really gets rid of any "bad" flavor that they have. Been doing this for many, many years. Even fool my grandmother who won't eat bass but loves walleye. Soak the bass in milk before cooking and tell her it's walleye. About every time, "this is some of the best walleye I've ever had."
Same goes for diver ducks by the way...soak the breasts in milk overnight.
Except Cans, they are fine without it. |
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Location: minocqua, wi. | ^tie the diver-duck breast to a rock, put in a large cast iron kettle and slow simmer ... when the rock gets soft, throw the breast and eat the rock. |
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Posts: 125
| but why? the harvesting of walleye is not the reason because i fish on a private lake where the LMB are out of control. |
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Posts: 13688
Location: minocqua, wi. | must be a good recruitment or good forage then, get out and have a blast with them! the subject slides easily to the walleye discussion because of what is being done on the Minocqua/Lake Tom chain when the term "WI Northwoods" is used. There are many lakes that have boomed with bass as the walleye population has dropped to the point where some emergency planning has been developed for a remedy. |
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Location: Sawyer County, WI | Maybe the Tourism Bureaus can start promoting a trolling for bass campaign. The fibs and cityots will clean them out in no time.  |
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Posts: 125
| purpose of the chain was to see if there would be an impact with the muskies as it has impacted walleye.. |
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Posts: 13688
Location: minocqua, wi. | on the Minocqua Chain i don't think it hurts the muskies much at all ... i see it as just food for them. the reason numbers are down is more due to stocking quotas vs. what the system can hold (you can't stock over the quota). if you catch a musky or a walleye your chances are better for a big fish than action from a bunch of small to mid-sized fish. the other lake that has been talked about relative to the same condition is Presque Isle ... i don't fish it so can't comment. maybe some others can chime in on other lakes with muskies where LMB's have exploded ... |
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Posts: 8722
| Does anyone else think there's a direct correlation between the LMB population and the unusually warm weather we've seen over the last decade or so? Early ice-out, hot summers, late ice up in the fall... |
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Location: minocqua, wi. | last two years we had ice for opener ... it's been a cold muthaphucka up here. you must be listening to Rahm and his chronies ... |
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Posts: 285
Location: NE Wisconsin | There is a study going on right now in northern WI where they are pumping LMB stomachs. After,a,couple of years and hundreds and hundreds of going through the contents of LMB stomachs they have found a total of "one" walleye! I have personnally asked for any research in WI that shows LMB eat walleyes here in WI. There is none.
There is no worse preditor on walleye the the hook and line angler. Like it or not, there are very few near legal size walleyes released in northrh Wi. |
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| The chain we live on has a mercury advisory where you can only keep one walleye over 15 inches. After the severe drought from 2004 to 2010 in the northern highlands, where ground water dropped 47 inches, the walleye population declined. My guess I is that the fish, which evolved as river fish before it was dammed, had unsuccessful year crops because the marshes up in the creeks dried up. The largest walleye fishery in WI, the Winnebago system sees this from time to time. Dry year, and the walleyes who travel 50 to 70 miles up the Wolf to spawn in the marshes have poor reproduction.
Guys that fish our chain for walleyes complained because they were not catching enough keepers. The DNR still allowed up to 5 fish, and pretty soon there were very few fish left. While in the ceded territory, our chain sees very little spearing, with 40 some fish being the largest total taken in the last ten years. But, you cannot tell these guys that they have an impact on the fishery. Nope, going out every night and keeping 4 or 5 fish doesn't hurt. |
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Location: oswego, il | Johnnie - 4/15/2015 3:34 AM
in northern WI where they are pumping LMB stomachs. .
They know how to party! |
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Location: Tomahawk, WI | I'm a little confused about why people think larger bass taste bad. We've been keeping and eating bass of all legal sizes for years and they taste just fine. Any fish that comes out of warm muddy water is going to taste different than a fish that comes out of cool clear water. No question about that. In reality, I'll eat a bass or a northern before a walleye any day. |
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Location: Sawyer County, WI | banditman - 4/15/2015 8:33 AM
I'm a little confused about why people think larger bass taste bad. We've been keeping and eating bass of all legal sizes for years and they taste just fine. Any fish that comes out of warm muddy water is going to taste different than a fish that comes out of cool clear water. No question about that. In reality, I'll eat a bass or a northern before a walleye any day.
Some people enjoy Milwaukee's Best too. |
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Location: Already Gone | jonnysled - 4/14/2015 8:49 AM
^tie the diver-duck breast to a rock, put in a large cast iron kettle and slow simmer ... when the rock gets soft, throw the breast and eat the rock.
lol....I have a few great bar stories from my early waterfowling days regarding divers.
This isn't the place though. Back to the Bass talk. |
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Location: MN | I have never had an issue with Divers tasting bad. Bluebill, Redhead, ect. Little balsamic olive oil and a few spices on the grill is one of my favorite meals to eat. |
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Location: Already Gone | NathanH - 4/15/2015 12:33 PM
I have never had an issue with Divers tasting bad. Bluebill, Redhead, ect. Little balsamic olive oil and a few spices on the grill is one of my favorite meals to eat.
Me either...marinate them in Amaretto & butter.
But mergansers....I gave those away as gifts. One time I gave a few away to some Polish guys in the bar. Took them home and tried to oven bake them for Thanksgiving dinner. They wanted to kill me.
Edited by Mark Hoerich 4/15/2015 12:47 PM
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Location: Seymour, WI |
I'm with Beaver on this one. If LMB are doing well in a lake I'm OK with that. Don't make them a scapegoat for a walleye fishery that is in decline.
About 10 yrs ago the DNR removed the size limit on LMB on the lake that I fish most often to try to increase harvest of LMB. But instead of keeping small bass to eat, it just increased the harvest of all bass, particularily the biggest fish in the lake. What was once a trophy LMB fishery, is now a lake that is full of small bass and the walleye fishery is unchanged.
The other thing that bothers me about this is that alot of people don't know the difference between LMB and SMB. They just hear that the bass are eating all of the walleyes and they keep every bass they catch whether it's SMB or LMB.
You can't see why the walleye fishery remains unchanged?
-----
Mike Bolinski
My point is, the rule change didn't do anything to improve the walleye fishery and now lots of big bass are being kept. So intead of having a trophy bass fishery and bad walleye fishery, you have a bad walleye fishery and lake full of small bass.
If they had changed the rule to encourage the harvest of small LMB only, while protecting the larger fish it could have had a different outcome. |
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Location: varies | dfkiii - 4/15/2015 9:22 AM
banditman - 4/15/2015 8:33 AM
I'm a little confused about why people think larger bass taste bad. We've been keeping and eating bass of all legal sizes for years and they taste just fine. Any fish that comes out of warm muddy water is going to taste different than a fish that comes out of cool clear water. No question about that. In reality, I'll eat a bass or a northern before a walleye any day.
Some people enjoy Milwaukee's Best too.
Who. who enjoys Milwaukee's best? I thought only people like me buy it to hand to the annoying neighbor when he pops over to talk my ear off.
Chilean sea bass =good. freshwater bass= yucky. |
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Location: Smith Creek | Mark Hoerich - 4/15/2015 12:43 PM
NathanH - 4/15/2015 12:33 PM
I have never had an issue with Divers tasting bad. Bluebill, Redhead, ect. Little balsamic olive oil and a few spices on the grill is one of my favorite meals to eat.
Me either...marinate them in Amaretto & butter.
But mergansers....I gave those away as gifts. One time I gave a few away to some Polish guys in the bar. Took them home and tried to oven bake them for Thanksgiving dinner. They wanted to kill me. ;- )
A real Polack would've diced em up and tossed them in Bigos. You could drop a deuce in a pot of Bigos and not taste it. |
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Location: minocqua, wi. | the word from the DNR on the Minocqua Chain is that the LMB's simply took over the space when Walleyes reduced and once reintroduced, the Walleyes will re-take the position naturally. there is no argument to the demise of the walleyes at least in this case ... the cause is harvest by spear and hook and line, so the anglers and spearers are joining together to remove that pressure and let the fish do their thing.
i don't see bass harvest as something to worry much about ... they grow like a lazy fat kid and there are plenty of them. |
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| It's just another fun fish to catch as far as I am concerned. I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts and eat a few in the process.
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Location: one foot over the line | If handled/prepared properly there is no need to soak any fish in anything. It can also soften the meat and i prefer my fish to be firm. I have cleaned/cooked a ton of sheephead and have served them up as panfish and had guests begging for more. |
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| Sled, you mentioned bleeding them, which is something I've only done with the gamiest saltwater fish. Can you elaborate on that a bit? |
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Location: The desert | Grass - 4/15/2015 12:46 PM
I'm with Beaver on this one. If LMB are doing well in a lake I'm OK with that. Don't make them a scapegoat for a walleye fishery that is in decline.
About 10 yrs ago the DNR removed the size limit on LMB on the lake that I fish most often to try to increase harvest of LMB. But instead of keeping small bass to eat, it just increased the harvest of all bass, particularily the biggest fish in the lake. What was once a trophy LMB fishery, is now a lake that is full of small bass and the walleye fishery is unchanged.
The other thing that bothers me about this is that alot of people don't know the difference between LMB and SMB. They just hear that the bass are eating all of the walleyes and they keep every bass they catch whether it's SMB or LMB.
You can't see why the walleye fishery remains unchanged?
-----
Mike Bolinski
My point is, the rule change didn't do anything to improve the walleye fishery and now lots of big bass are being kept. So intead of having a trophy bass fishery and bad walleye fishery, you have a bad walleye fishery and lake full of small bass.
If they had changed the rule to encourage the harvest of small LMB only, while protecting the larger fish it could have had a different outcome.
I think your last statement is kind of the goal. Much of what you say is correct, encouraging harvest of the little guys is important.
I have zero problem keeping little bass. |
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Location: minocqua, wi. | cut their gils and put em on ice before you clean em ... |
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Location: Hayward, WI | Have certainly seen an increase in largemouth on many waters in WI. I haven't done extensive research on the topic, but some. Bass like to eat and can be hard on certain aspects of a lake. One thing they are excellent at for sure is keeping panfish numbers in check. A lake that has a pretty high population of largemouth bass usually has a "good" (not overpopulated) or lower population of bigger than average panfish. This is something I started looking for when searching out new panfish lakes to ice fish.
I do think they can be hard on walleyes. Walleyes also do a great job of keeping panfish populations in check, and I think the bass just out compete walleyes when it comes to feeding. Perhaps they are eating walleye fry too - not sure but it would seem likely. Again, bass like to eat.
Here's my take on it. Some guys really like to bass fish, and I can see why. They are usually pretty agreeable, hit a wide variety of baits, fight well, jump, can get big enough to be fun. So, manage the bass/panfish lakes to have good bass populations, and manage the lakes that have historically been walleye/musky lakes for that. I think it's hard to have good populations of all of them in a lake (especially bass and walleyes). We don't need to go over the top and clean them out of WI entirely, but SOME lakes should go on a mission to get as many bass out as possible.
Historically, we had good lakes for bass, and good lakes for walleye. We should try to manage it to keep it that way. As it is, many lakes are just turning into bass lakes and it's tough to find a very solid walleye lake anymore.
P.S. I haven't kept many bass lately but I used to, especially in the winter. I think on the lakes I can, I'll start going back to keeping some of the smaller ones.
Tucker |
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Largemouth Bass Population in WI Northwoods