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[Blood_Orange]

I kept a couple last year from Albert Dyck Park in Abbotsford. Fried them up... they tasted fine. Generic fish, would eat again. Not sure that I'm in a rush to eat them again though. Have slight concerns about pollution in the water bodies that bass around here inhabit. Albert Dyck is very clear but surrounded by farms; maybe pesticide residues in there but I have no idea, really 

[RalphH]

Reports of Large Mouth Bass from various river and stream systems sporadically appear but there is no evidence of established wide spread populations. Mostly there appear to be populations in a small # of low elevation lakes and sloughs. Last I hear smallmouths are not present anyway east of the Okanagon on the mainland & the one bass reported to have come from Kawkawa was eventually identified to be a hoax & no other specimens were found.

I have eaten both - smallmouths on the Island and back east, largemouth from Duck Lake near Creston. They are quite palatable and lean fish though I thought largemouth tasted a bit 'fishy'.

It surprises me how long it took to repeal the 4 fish limit considering they are invasive species and were illegally introduced.

[DanL]

I'm curious as to why there was originally a limit at all for LMB in region 2, but glad to see it increasing significantly. Anything to limit their spread in local waters.

Back in the day I used to do an annual trip to Saltspring for smallmouth or Washington to Oregon for LMB, so I like bass fishing as much as anyone but we dont need them here in the LML any worse than we already have.

Somewhat skeptical increased limits will have much impact on populations. Honest question, do people tend to retain the bass the catch? Unless people start keeping a whole lot more or the new limits encourages people to suddenly go bass fishing for the purpose of retention, it may not have much effect.

[RalphH]

Story was the local bass anglers lobbied for it and it went through as bass are officially classified as a sportfish.

There doesn't seem to be much evidence that bass are have a major negative impact on local sportfish such as salmon or steelhead. They do apparently impact amphibians in some waters and some of those species are at risk. Bullfrogs probably cause more damage and there are active attempts to cull them.

Largemouth are ok but I do very much like smallmouth bass. Some bass fisheries, such as St Mary's Lake on Saltspring have been impacted by the introduction of other aliens species specifically perch.

Crappie and carp have been around for decades and while not desirable don't seem to have a major negative impact.

[redtide]

ive fished sumas last summer for bass but just caught a couple of small carp and a few pikeminnow. tried the fraser a few times with bait and did not catch any bass. Maybe there are a few concentrated areas where they are in good numbers or im terrible at catching bass but it seems the fraser river system is not choking with them. However.....the fraser is choking with northern pikeminnow....a bigger threat to salmon than bass i think. 

[Damien]

Largemouth don't like current, period.  Draw your conclusions on when and where they are available from there.

[greyghost]

Largemouth don't like current, period.  Draw your conclusions on when and where they are available from there.

This is a good one! Show me that they don't like current and I will plug this board up with pics that they have no problem living in fast current rivers!

[sbc hris]

As I understand it, a particular waterbody has a specific carrying capacity, in regards to how many fish it can "carry". Most of this is based on feed, and other variables to a lesser extent. In a waterbody like the Fraser, it is already at capacity with its varying species that have evolved to co-exist with each other. As such, the introduction of Bass wont suddenly create a massive population of Bass on top of the fish populations that already exist there. Instead, they will compete with, and possibly displace some fish that fill a similar niche in the ecosystem ( My guess here would be primarily pike minnows). I think the overall number of juvenille salmonids getting slurped up by predator fish will remain much the same, but less wil be going into the mouths of pike minnow and other coarse fish, and more going into the mouths of bass. Now this is assuming that the bass will compete well against the long established pike minnows etc. but I have my doubts. In certain locations yes, but not the mainstream Fraser or Chilli/Ved.

[Noahs Arc]

This is a good one! Show me that they don't like current and I will plug this board up with pics that they have no problem problem living in fast current rivers!

I'd like to see pics. Not because I disagree with you, just interested in seeing the pictures. Are you talking about back east?

[RalphH]

This is a good one! Show me that they don't like current and I will plug this board up with pics that they have no problem problem living in fast current rivers!

bring it on! I'm no where near an expert on largemouth but most I've read is they tend more towards back water and old oxbows in large river systems - like the Mississippi.

FWIW there is no evidence of numbers of large mouths in the Fraser or the V-C, just occasional encounters. Silver Lake, Mill Lake, Hatzic Slough, Katzi Slough - Pitt Polder etc quite a different story.

[Rieber]

ive fished sumas last summer for bass but just caught a couple of small carp and a few pikeminnow. tried the fraser a few times with bait and did not catch any bass. Maybe there are a few concentrated areas where they are in good numbers or im terrible at catching bass but it seems the fraser river system is not choking with them. However.....the fraser is choking with northern pikeminnow....a bigger threat to salmon than bass i think. 

I would believe this to be true. NPM thrive in large, in all of BC's cold, fast flowing rivers and they love minnows. Look at how the big NPM stack up at the outflow of Cultas Lk into Sweltzer Creek just waiting to gobble up the Sockeye fry on their way downstream.

Bass tend to get more active as the water warms up so maybe the fry make is past the Bass early enough in the season before the Bass really get active. As with you, I have not personally caught bass related species in the Fraser water system, nor have I personally seen any caught.

[wildmanyeah]

As Ralph pointed out seems there was a limit in place from bass lobbyists. Not sure who the local advocates are lol

"McPhail (2007) states that largemouth bass dispersal into
Lower Mainland Region occurred via the trans-boundary Sumas River system
while local advocates for promotion and conservation of bass angling
opportunities have advised government biologists of their belief that largemouth
bass are naturally recruiting into waterbodies in the lower Fraser River watershed
from long-established upstream sources on the Fraser River floodplain
(Anonymous, West Coast Bass Anglers, pers. comm., cited in Hatfield and
Pollard 2006)."

[psd1179]

I would believe this to be true. NPM thrive in large, in all of BC's cold, fast flowing rivers and they love minnows. Look at how the big NPM stack up at the outflow of Cultas Lk into Sweltzer Creek just waiting to gobble up the Sockeye fry on their way downstream.

Bass tend to get more active as the water warms up so maybe the fry make is past the Bass early enough in the season before the Bass really get active. As with you, I have not personally caught bass related species in the Fraser water system, nor have I personally seen any caught.

The way you fish in fraser river is less likely to catch a bass'

[Rieber]

The way you fish in fraser river is less likely to catch a bass'

Really? Why wouldn't Bass take a fly or a spoon - because that's the only way I've fished the Fraser for the past few years.

Sorry - I was wrong to say that. I did try rattling a big plug out of an anchored boat once. Didn't have patience to try that long enough to verify if that would work. Also tried bar fishing a few times with big SpinGlo's - it doesn't excite me too much but I'll give it another shot of there is a good year for Spring run.

What was your comment focused on? And how would you know how I fish in the Fraser - we've never met let alone fished together?

[Damien]

I'm all eyes on ears on how/when/where largemouth are caught in an area with substantial current.  Not hiding in the sloughs, big slow bends, oxbows, behind rock piles or log piles etc.

I'm not saying they aren't found in rivers, just that they will seak out and be in parts of the river where there is as little current as possible.

I've only bassfished for 25 years though.  Still lots to learn.