Why is bass season closed?, why in winter

I caught a couple of fair sized bass in the Muskoka area yesterday---released them, of course. But it got me wondering---why close the season all winter? they don't spawn until late spring or early summer.

Some zones have them open year around i believe.

My understanding is the theory around it is, Bass seem to school very tightly, it’s common for hundreds to be in the same spot for the whole winter, find that spot and you can limit out every day, I would think, Harold, if you hit that same spot you would catch bass again, This is especially true for smallmouth

Helps minimize pressure to avoid stocking them I assume? I imagine they'd be consumed by the tens or hundreds of thousands by people legally harvesting them while ice fishing. If they can avoid stocking them to keep a healthy population by shortening their season and save money great.

Personally I'd like to see them open all year and stocked by the millions, but couldn't care less if I ever caught a fish that wasn't a bass.

No, no, no, you got it all wrong, can you imagine the chaos at the boat launches with all those skeeter and ranger bass boats being dragged out onto the ice.

x2 just put them on the smitty GOOD to GO

I think oogie is right. There are a couple of spots I know on Chemong where catching bass is quite easy during the winter (I was actually lucky enough to have been able to fish a couple of times first ice before bass season closed this winter (Dec. 15) and kept a few nice bass - not too big and not too small) and it really doesn't matter what size lure you use, the bass will hit some of the tiniest baits I have for bluegills. The tiny baits reduce the number of bass you catch but they still will bite them. And those spots, all winter long, you will catch some bass. Was up on Chemong today for 1.5 hours after a trip to Peterborough - caught 5 bluegills, a crappie (and lost one at the hole) and a largemouth bass (all on the same tiny jig with a power grub) - of course the bass was released after being barely hooked; I'm pretty sure I had a couple of other bass that came unhooked at a sec or two (too large for gills or crappie - maybe). And cold water bass are much better eating (IMO) - much less weedy - than summer bass too so I can see more people keeping them in the winter.

I guess they do congregate but I was fishing a month or so ago and caught 2 or 3 bass in the same hole. I was about to move to avoid the bass when I got another bite that turned out to be a fair sized laker. So I guess both species 'co-habit"?

I expect so, were you fishing aprox 40 fow close to abdrop in the main lake adjacent to a shallow flat, usually a classic spot

Biggest laker I've ever seen was in a grass mat in 4 feet of water a few years back thought it was a beaver swimming under the boat when I first saw the movement, 100's of yards from anything more than 8 feet deep. I've pulled a few lakers out of stumps bass fishing in the dog days of summer mostly on soft plastics over the years, not many but occasionally they work their way into the middle of bass territory.