This column has bridged the gap between science and angling for decades.
May 14, 2025
By In-Fisherman Staff
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The fishing world has changed since the first In-Fisherman magazine hit readers’ hands in 1975. In those earlier days, angler ideas about fishing were one thing and science about fish and fishing were quite another. Rarely did the two connect in any meaningful way to help anglers catch more fish, much less help anglers explain the underwater world. Also, anglers weren’t particularly well informed about fishery management issues, and, for that matter, fishery managers weren’t particularly well informed about the attitudes and the emerging concerns of ardent anglers.
To explain what was happening in fishing, anglers largely guessed, based on their interpretation of their experiences. So they fished for crappies in the shallows when the lilacs bloomed, instead of monitoring water temperature and noting daily photoperiod. They didn’t fish for pike with deadbait, because angling lore suggested that pike were voracious predators, never opportunistic scavengers. And fish like bass and walleyes didn’t swim in open water, because they needed underwater signposts to follow, or they became lost.
Science, though, had answers to many questions that troubled anglers, from fish conservation to lure color to the colors fish can see. Research was being conducted but rarely reported in a way anglers could easily review and understand. This column, which debuted in the second issue of 1978, was the initial bridge between fishery science and anglers, although fishery science certainly also played a role in the initial formulation of some foundation ideas, such as the Calendar Periods and Body of Water Classification.
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The key was an editor and writer who understood the science as well as the technical fishing of the day, and who could cut through some of the complexity on both fronts to relate what was important to anglers in a language they could understand. So it was that future longtime In-Fisherman editor Doug Stange got his start working with In-Fisherman .
The rest is history, as they say, including the addition in 1988, of Certified Fishery Scientist Steve Quinn as an In-Fisherman editor. He was the first fishery scientist to be an editor at a major fishing publication. He, naturally, played a role in writing the column and the magazine, along with another fishery scientist and longtime contributor Ralph Manns, and a university professor who also had a background in fishery research, Dr. Bruce Carlson.
Then, 20 years ago, Dr. Robert Neumann made the transition from teacher and researcher of fishery science at the university level, to become Managing Editor, including manager of the Bits & Pieces column. Contributors Gord Pyzer, Dr. Hal Schramm, and others are also fishery scientists of the highest order.
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The scientific connection to technical fishing, explained in a way that made sense to anglers who cared deeply about the sport, became an integral part of the In-Fisherman experience, as we began to transform the magazine and change fishing by focusing on the results of scientific data such as radio tracking reports.
This connectivity idea over the years became a guiding principle at the core of the magazine. This interaction also slowly helped change the way many fishery professionals interacted with anglers. The Bits & Pieces column was and is more than just a column; it has been our guiding light, in combination with the ongoing intensive practical field research that is our exploratory fishing.
1978, Segment 3, Study Report 2 > How Deep Do Walleyes Go? Would you believe down to at least 120 feet? Walleyes have been taken in experimental gill nets at that depth in Oahe Reservoir, South Dakota . According to Don Warnick, South Dakota reservoir biologist, these walleyes were taken while test netting for lake trout stocked in Oahe in 1972.
Why would walleyes want to be that deep? As usual, because of the predator-prey relationship of the reservoir. Since the reservoir was formed, the waters have been evolving into an environment that
is very suitable for cold-water species—in short, an oligotrophic environment. As the environment changed, the walleyes shifted their prey preference to smelt. Providing that the waters don’t become too infertile, the waters above Oahe Dam provide all the conditions necessary to grow some hawg walleyes. Namely, deep, well-oxygenated water with the presence of a soft-finned, high-protein forage.
January 1989 > Thick Ice—Tall Auger! Eskimo Point, Northwest Territories, March 1988. Water is lightest at about 39°F, freezes at about 32°F, and the resulting ice is about 10 percent lighter than water, therefore the reason ice floats.
Ice thickness is principally a matter of how cold for how long. By late winter, ice will be thicker in northern Michigan than in southern Michigan. Wind chill also counts, however. Small protected lakes get less ice than large windswept lakes. In the Brainerd, Minnesota, area, for example, by late winter a typical protected 400-acre lake will have ice 2½ to 3 feet thick, while a huge lake (Mille Lacs, for example) will have ice at least 4 feet thick.
Bring a tall auger to fish a large windswept lake in northern Canada during late winter.
February 1995 > Crappie Movements Jed Pearson, fishery biologist with the Indiana DNR, captured prespawn black crappies off major pivot points in a 222-acre natural lake. Most crappies initially concentrated at Areas A and B near the mouth of an inlet yet close to deep water, and at Areas C and D along sand and rock points. Within three days, two marked crappies were recaptured off the island at Area X. These crappies had been released at either Area B or D. One week after marking began, a 13-incher was recaptured off the other island at Area Y. This was one of three 13-inch crappies marked at Area B, C, or Z, areas farthest from Area Y.
Most of the catches of recaptured crappies in the study were from Areas X and Y, demonstrating that shallow-water zones around islands probably were primary spawning locations. Crappies were likely moving considerably, yet followed typical spring migration patterns. Crappies usually suspend over deep water at ice-out, then move into shallow bays and channels as water warms. Later, crappies move to main-lake reedbeds and pivot points to seek spawning sites.
April/May 2004 > Color Tests Experienced bass anglers know that lure color sometimes makes a difference in their catch. At times, lure visibility and its contrast against backgrounds, in addition to a lure’s resemblance to natural forage, appear to influence the catch. But we have little scientific data measuring such differences.
Biologists Gene Wilde, Kevin Pope, and Bart Durham of Texas Tech University compared catches with “blue shiner,” “brown trout,” “fathead minnow,” and “firetiger” 3½-inch Rapala minnowbaits . Fishing in a lightly fished 10-acre private pond, they rotated lures among four anglers catching 183 bass from 5 to 17 inches long.
Comparison of catch rates revealed that firetiger lures took fewer large bass than the other three color patterns, but the difference was not statistically significant. In the fairly clear water of this heavily vegetated lake, firetiger lures caught only 3.88 fish per hour. Brown trout colored lures took 5.88 bass per hour, while both the blue-shiner and fathead minnow imitations caught 6.25 bass per hour.
In this environment, matching a specific baitfish didn’t seem necessary. But baits with a more natural appearance were more effective and took slightly larger fish than high-visibility firetiger lures. Had the water been murky, the results might have been reversed.
July 2016 > Super Smellers Dr. Keith Jones, chief fish biologist at Pure Fishing , ranked several fish species according to their olfactory ability. “Some fish, like the northern pike and its close cousin the muskie, are classified as micro-osmatic,” he says. “They’re among the weakest smellers in the fish world, but still have a stronger ability than humans. At the other end of the spectrum, we find the micro-osmatic species, ‘super smellers’ such as catfish and eels. Most other species lie somewhere in between.”
