@@TylersReelFishing How much does a family of otters affect a pond? I fish a 54 acre pond where I’ve spotted 4 otters. I talked to the biologist that manages the pond and she said they’re not a problem considering the osprey and gators that inhabit the pond the bass adapt. That seems like weak logic. I feel the otters will eat it clean and leave.
I live right near lake hartwell and every time they have a tournament there’s several dozen dead fish washed up on the shores near the ramps that hosted the tournament. I know it wouldn’t be sustainable if we kept all the fish that we catch, but it sure would be nice to see some put to use rather than catch and released over and over until they die. All environments have a carrying capacity and the reservoirs are far from natural environments so it’s our responsibility to manage them. Plus bass is delicious!
@aneedmorehead9006 Dude, there have been a bunch of studies on tournament associated fish mortality, feel free to help yourself to them. He is not wrong, it's not uncommon for many fish caught in tournaments to die following release
Wow, one of the best and most informative bass fishing videos I have ever watched. It has greatly changed the way I look at fishing and bass in general.
I love watching them to see how the ecosystems have adapted or failed due to us as humans. Especially in fishing, it’s not just about the hunt it’s about conservation for future fishermen as well.
We had a 1/2 acre pond with just big crappie that I stocked originally and small bass. After doing a heavy cull every 2 years on thanksgiving day,our size went up way more and much healthier fish. Usually keep every bass under 2 pounds. We then had 4-8lb bass. And the fish that used to have the 6lb heads on 2 pound bodies went away. And cost us nothing.
I'm a 52 year old man who greatly enjoys your content and all your videos that help with bass fishing - you've made my bass fishing experiences significantly more enjoyable. That being said, this is by far and away your best video. Excellent format!!!! Excellent interview (loved the conversation style)!!!! From handling fish to being more aware of my local fisheries, this video will change my behavior. Please more of this - thank you Tyler Paul from Buffalo
But take into consideration of possible consequences of non native Florida strain out competing the native bass. Just cause you want a larger strain of bass doesn't necessarily mean it's the right thing to do. Find out what's wrong with the native fish and help them. And actually if I'm not mistaken I think those Florida and sharelunker fish can't survive the cold of northern winters anyway
He's absolutely right about diversity. We as anglers tend to focus only on the fish (bass, bluegill) but we forget that we have to look further down the food chain into aquatic invertebrate diversity (stonefly, mayfly, chironomids) and even into types of primary producers like phytoplankton vs vascular plants, because each has its own ecological niche and contribution towards production vs decomposition.
Tyler, thank you for having Steven come on and help include fisherman into the world of fisheries management. Growing up as a tournament bass fisherman all I ever wanted to be when I grew up was somebody that worked for a game and fish agency. I didn’t realize until I got into this field that fisherman and fisheries biologist did not always agree with each other, and sometimes there was quite a bit of animosity. Great to see your content and you getting everybody involved. Hopefully, one day I can impact some people quite like Steven has. I’m new in my career with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.
I usually do the garage thing (today it’s new outboard for my jon) while I listen to someone talk. I got nothing done, just watched and listened. Great interview and thank you Steven for sharing your knowledge. I learned a lot today.
Phenomenal interview! What a gem to share with the angling world. Thanks for taking time to produce this and thanks a to Steven for sharing his time with us. I truly hope there are more videos with him to come.
Good for you. I am not a typica viewer of yours but was interested in the topic. I respect someone of your age willing to take the time to look at this. A lot of adults don't care. It blows me away that more people don't care when it benefits us all.
As a fisheries biologist we definitely all fish. There is very very few who don't. Most of us got into the job because we are obsessed with fish well beyond the normal angler. I sleep on my boat in a tent so I can continually fish lol. We want people to ask questions. Don't assume we just decided it would be so and snapped our fingers. There is a lot of bureaucracy between agency's and even within our own agencies. My advice often falls on deaf ears. I wanted to clear one thing up though. When stated, removing fish is beneficial vs. Catch and release, it depends on the species. He is referring to bass. Removing small bass is almost always universally positive. They are not targeted heavily for consumptive use. Walleye, for instance, in some bodies of water are heavily pressured for consumptive use. They are a species where taking every fish instead of catch and release could be more problematic. However, that is only in some locations. I just wanted to state this so people don't assume that rule applies to all species.
I got a chance to speak with the lead Bass biologist in Arkansas recently. It was an absolute amazing conversation. And I’m so excited to see what’s in the future for Arkansas. He was a younger fellow. But seemed extremely sharp. And really fired up about bettering our fisheries. Thank you for this video. Great job!!!!
Tyler this was the truly the best and real interview regarding bass fishing and perspective especially regarding some very touchy subjects we are dealing today! Well done with the interaction and question you were getting expert advice and not public opinion! Tight lines take care and God bless!
Great video, Tyler! This is exactly the information we need to help manage our 100-acre lake in northeast Texas. Also, thank you for taking the time to add all of the extra content in the description.
This by far had to be one of the DOPEST interviews in the fishing community! You asked and hit every question right on the head! If you really fish this is a MOST WATCH! Thanks bro!
This is one of the best videos I’ve ever watched. So informative and eye opening on the who, what, when, where, why and how. Hopefully this video spreads like wildfire and every angler takes the time to watch and learn.
Just wow... What a fantastic interview with pertinent questions and great answers. I especially liked the information on harvesting bass and the growth rate of those fish. Very informative and well done Tyler!
Great video, every fisherman should watch this. Steven is the kind of guy I'd watch on History/Animal/Discovery Channel back when they were still good.
Man…..phenomenal video. You asked the biologist some excellent questions that sparked very interesting conversation. I couldn’t agree more about the importance of HARVEST……a topic that is so horribly misunderstood by thousands of people. Thanks for making this video. I hope it encourages/inspires many fishermen to think differently about the topics discussed in that conversation. In my opinion, this type of video is what sets your channel apart from the rest…….a sincere desire to not only improve our fisheries but also educate people about fishing so that we can continue to enjoy the sport of bass fishing as long as possible. TRF = 🐐
Fantastic information packed video. Thanks to you both. BTW Steven mentioned that dock/landowners play a role in grass carp decisions and I’m convinced the extremely wealthy dock/land owners on lake Austin had a major role in the decision to eradicate the grass in that lake. JMO
Yep, I caught an 8 lb bass the first time I fished there and my best day had 30+ lbs with 5 bass. The last time I fished there the carp were eating leaves off low hanging branches since all other vegetation was gone. That’s been a while so hopefully some Hydrilla is back?
As a fisherman I like to be able to catch a few fish here and there and usually catch and release unless I plan on eating fish for dinner that day I more like to go fishing for the calm peaceful relaxation and solitude but I learn a lot from this video as well this is by far one of the most educational videos on fishing I have ever watched i absolutely loved every minute of it thank you Tyler
Great video I was excited to learn more yet seems I’m well versed. Awesome! Looked for anything to criticize and well it’s not there. Amazing, great job done Tyler. Great video absolute true and genuine information.
Amazing how much information was packed in here, I'm going to have to listen to this at work a couple times to soak in the info... I'm an avid fisherman but also an avid cannabis user 😂
I constantly learn more and more about bass and fishing all the time by watching your videos 🎉Amazing job!!! I would be honored to have the chance to get a line wet with you!!!
Tyler: This is one of the best videos you've ever produced because of the wealth of information contained in it. I now know WHY the ponds I fish are so bad! I also know what to look for as I continue to seek new places to fish. Thank you for this video! Blessings
Can this get turned into a series, whether with other biologists, professional anglers, or just others in the fishing industry, we NEED more sitdown content like this.
Quite a few lakes in the Midwest now have changed their limits due to the lakes getting stunted because of C&R . One lake near me has a keep slot of 8-12” because of all the stunted bass. They are also delicious 😋
our rivers here have a slot limit, too. but its anything under 12-15 is fair game, and only 1 fish over 16 is allowed to be taken. every fish between 12-15 has to be released. its helping the size of our smallies, but more people need to be taking small 8-10 inch bass for it to really have a meaningful effect, and alot of people just dont like eating bass.
I have always caught my limit. Sometimes my limit was rather low, like zero. Other times my limit was kind of high, like 1. Rarely it is Really high, like 2.
Best video ever. I enjoyed this video. There Yao much talked about that I never knew. What an educational video. Thank you so much for sharing the knowledge!
I grew up self managing several ponds we fished and noticed positive returns, but I'm guilty of not keeping my limit in the lake I fish. Will definitely consider this info.
I very rarely watch hour long videos but this one held my attention. The amount of information you covered with the questions asked was exceptional. I learned so much from this and realize that maybe my thoughts about C&R was completely wrong. I usually don’t keep fish since I’m the only one in my house that eats it but I believe I will start now.
This is the most informative fishing video I’ve ever seen. Steven Barton is a walking fish encyclopedia. The video refutes a lot of the myths we now accept as true. Often, they are perpetuated by proffesional fisherman based on opinion rather than fact.
Charger boats had a pro-air live well system that used copper tubing that wound coils through the ice chest and cooled the live well water way down and never lost a fish best system ever. But in the winter, you had to add glyco to tubing and purge it and close off system, and people didn't, and the copper tubing busted, and people complained, so they did away with it.
This was an awesome interview. my wife was just asking me yesterday why we may keep other species to eat but bass fish just for sport. i realized that i didnt have an answer for her, because i really had never given it any thought. for whatever reason, i grew up and just continued not keeping bass as an adult. I was just fishing with my father the other day for the first time in years and while the bass we caught were legal, we never even considered keeping them. In contrast, we would never consider NOT keeping a good fluke or trout, for example. Now i am curious to trace the pattern back and find out when - and more importantly why- it started (misguided conservation?). either way, sounds like ill be bringing home some bass from now on
Thanks for making this video! More fisherman need to listen to biologists on fisheries management. Treat nature and fish with care unless you are harvesting and you should harvest
Much appreciation to you for putting together a video like this. Besides the best lures to use to catch bass during whichever season, I feel most people (including myself) ask themselves a lot of questions on the science of bass fishing. Yet we never find unambiguous answers lol. Thanks for sharing this content!
This was great. As someone who ran a fisheries conservation nonprofit for 10 years, I really appreciate you having Stephen on and for giving these topics attention.
This was a phenomenal video! I really enjoyed the conversation and questions asked. I would love to see more additional videos like this, but I still gotta have Tyler on the water 😂
the first fish that we caught that we ate was a largemouth bass & a bluegill. My Dad had no idea how to clean a fish. 1974. He used a steak knife. The bluegill was awful. Summertime & no ice did it in, but the bass was still good. Fried in butter, I still remember how good it tasted.
Somewhere around the 20:00 mark, he hits on a VERY important fact. I've fished in Ontario since the late 90s. The Conservation License allows you to keep two fish per species per day for seven days. I've been in lakes that had zero fishing pressure because they were off the beaten path. We caught a LOT of bass. They were very long and VERY skinny. The next year, there weren't any long bass, skinny or otherwise. There were still Pike, though.
@@TylersReelFishing I eat bluegill, crappie, and catfish but throw back bass. I thought I was conserving the population. I’ll keep stunted bass from an overpopulated pond but never thought I’m hurting size by throwing everything back.
