The fish aren't on beds yet. I fish "Legit" for Pike in the early season, and if I run in to staging Smallmouth I'm not running away from them. I only throw Jerkbaits and spinner baits and if I'm in a Bass bedding situation, I leave. I personally feel it's not that sporting, but when in a tournament, it's not always that easy to catch off of the bed. I fished canals yesterday, and in four hours we caught 2 pike, 92 largemouth and snagged three carp. Even the large mouth in the north end of St. Clair aren't on beds yet. Most fish set up at the mouths of canals waiting. It'll be soon because these are the first big egg filled females we caught. As for smallies, a group of a hundred or so swam by us in the reeds off of deckers, caught seventeen, all on big Jerkbaits. Lots of 4 and 5 pounders, on their way back into the North channel, it was evening. We all break laws, especially the speed limit . There are people to uphold the laws. I look down only on people who KEEP out of season fish. I've made a set of my own personal and ethical rules that I feel I can live with. I don't fish the mile roads or muscamoot bay until the season opens, but pre spawn fishing is allright in my book. I would like thr DNR to set up sanctuary areas and buoy them off like Selfridge, but I doubt anything ever gets resolved. The seasons at least two weeks behind and those mile road fish will be on beds during the opener anyway. And people are gonna cook a lot of those fish. That really sucks.