Catch and release is legal on bass year long. I too used to frown on it but so many guys are out there early fishing em kinda have to join em to stand a chance. I’ve read many articles on bedding bass and it’s split right down the middle between it hurts the fishing or they just go right back to the beds. What I can’t stand is number of bass tournaments starting to pop up before the season even begins . Another problem is the amount of pressure these fish are seeing. Seems everybody and their brother has a bass boat these days