"You may say I am dreamer. But I am not the only one." -“Imagine” by John Lennon
With apologies to John Lennon, he should have included an extra verse in his song, “Imagine.” Imagine what fishing might be like if every lake, river, reservoir, and pond in North America were managed to optimum potential? Where bass anglers and bass managers spoke the same language and shared the same goals. It’s really not so hard to do.
If you attended the American Fisheries Society Black Bass Symposium in St Louis in July 2000, when hundreds of bass biologists, researchers, and managers from across Canada and the United States met to share state-of-the-art science and bass management experiences, you could be forgiven for coming away humming Lennon’s catchy tune. Proceedings of this vast symposium are available from the American Fisheries Society, 301/897-8616, www.fisheries.org. Here are just a few project summaries from the book.
Big Bass Dynamics In Florida
For starters, imagine 10-pound-plus largemouth bass. Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission staffers Steve Crawford, Wes Porak, Dennis Renfro and Richard Cailteux can picture them well, some 822 to be precise. That’s how many trophy largemouths the researchers put under the microscope to find out what specifically makes trophy bass—and trophy bass waters—tick.
They found that big bass, contrary to popular opinion, often are the products of strong year classes. But having plenty of young fish moving up the ranks year after year is only part of the equation. You also need productive bodies of water with plenty of the right forage, low abundance of competitive predators, and regulations that protect the fish so they can live long enough to grow huge.
Other than a few gar, largemouth bass are at the top of the food chain in many Florida lakes, with plenty of bluegill and golden shiners for prey. Yet in some lakes, chubsuckers are the most important forage fish. Because of their ease of capture, ideal cylindrical shape, and large size, largemouth may eat chubsuckers up to half their own body length.
In another study lake, shad and blue tilapia dominated the forage base. Yet largemouths there enjoy one of the fastest mean growth rates. Bass have few competitors in this hypereutrophic, vegetation-free lake, so vast preyfish populations have few places to hide.
Few competitive predators and low fishing pressure allow bass to grow old enough (10 to 16 years) to reach trophy proportions. Some Florida lakes become inadvertent sanctuaries when boat ramps are unusable during periods of low water or when weeds grow so dense that anglers quit fishing. The researchers found that limiting harvest plays such an important role that more regulations like protected slot limits and catch-and-release seasons may be necessary.
Managing Grass
As the Florida research demonstrated, strong bass year classes can play an important role in creating excellent bass fishing. When anglers think about ways of increasing the strength of bass year classes, they rarely consider habitat management. Yet the density of vegetation or other cover can affect the number and size of bass that survive their first year.
Managing habitat to increase bass recruitment is even more important now that the era of reservoir construction has passed. Existing impoundments are aging, and where natural woody habitat diminishes and vegetation hasn’t replaced it, largemouth populations decline. But too much grass can be detrimental as well.
