Trips: 29 Hours: 66.5 Bass: 373 No. > 5#: 0
This is a topic that gets a lot of attention whenever the subject of bass tournaments comes up. There is a general perception in the angling public's eye that tourneys negatively affect overall fishing quality. A 1998 study by Wilde et al. found 51% of Texas anglers held this belief, while Ditton and Hunt (article by Ralph Manns) found around 40% of anglers viewed tourneys negatively. Two of the biggest concerns are the possible issue of fish relocation and concentration around selectively few release sites, and mortality due to accumulated stressors from tourney related activities (livewell confinement, weigh in procedures, etc.).
Several studies have documented limited dispersal from release sites (Lantz and Carver 1976; Gilliland 2001; Stang et al. 1996). Additionally, several studies including WIlde (1998) have documented various levels of tournament level mortality at various times of the year. What largely hasn't been addressed is the actual degree to which mortality directly affects the overall bass population in a given lake. The newest issue of the North American Journal of Fisheries Management has the most recent study to date which tries to answer this question. Entitled "Impact of Tournaments on the Largemouth Bass Population at Sam Rayburn Reservoir, Texas", this study utilized over 6,000 tagged largemouth bass scattered throughout the entire reservoir to document catch rates of legal largemouth bass from both tourney and non-tourney anglers. It then applied known (simulated) mortality rates to the actual numbers documented and accounted for miscellaneous uncertainties such as nonreporting or tag loss.
Their final conclusions:
- "At what we believe is our most realistic simulation (tournament mortality rate of 30% at our estimate of exploitation [6%]), tournament mortality only resulted in a 2% reduction of legal-length fish and contributed just 16% of angling mortality and 4% of total annual mortality."
- "We conclude that the tournament-related impacts on the largemouth bass population at Sam Rayburn Reservoir were low. Despite more than 300 tournaments and approximately 150,000 total tournament angling-hours during our study period (Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, unpublished data), tournament-retained fish and tournament mortality only comprised 5% and 2% of the harvestable population, respectively. Annual tournament mortality was 75% lower than exploitation and 20% lower than catch-and-release mortality."
- "Our results agree with those of other studies finding negligible effects tournament-related mortality. Northern studies with cooler water temperatures found lower tournament-related mortality than we did and even less impact on bass populations (Kwak and Henry 1995; Edwards et al. 2004)."
It is important to note that the authors do caution about the potential greater impact that could occur on significantly smaller bodies of water that receive heavy pressure. Their findings also supported the work of Allen et al. (2004) that a simple ratio of tournament harvest to nontournament harvest (TH/NH) could act as a guideline to fishery managers as to when bass tournaments may pose an issue to certain bodies of water. If this ratio is less than 1.0 (0.80 in this Sam Rayburn study), there is likely negligible impact. If this ratio is 3.0 or greater, then the likelihood of tournies affecting the overall population or size structure of bass is increased.
For all you Indiana guys out there, here is a good article by Jed Pearson, District 3 Indiana Fisheries Biologist (Bass Fishing at Lake Wawasee) that touches on some of these same issues in our state (scroll down to page 4 of link).




The original article detailing this was written by Ralph Mann's and can be found at several websites on the Net. One such occurrence is over at
I can't vouche for how accurate the story is, but that's what I've read in cyberspace. For you 'Old Timers' around here, you'll recognize the lure as the Limberneck Spinnerbait sold by Brothers Bait Co. They also added the cable deal to a jig, I believe, and I'm sure sold quite a few at some point. I know I owned a bunch of them at one time. However, sad ending...the idea never really catches on and at some point they either sell the rights or go out of business, I'm not quite sure which.
A little interactivity is always a good thing for a website. Along those lines, and touching one last time on the sun exposure topic, I came across this quick online and interactive quiz. Ten questions to test your knowledge about the sun, radiation and sun screens. I scored 10 out of 10 (100%), though I have to admit to making one good guess out of the bunch. Have fun!

Roland Martin
Hank Parker


Time on the Water = Success
Ask most people what the key to being more successful at bass fishing is and chances are a good majority of the respondents will mention 'Time on the water'. Simply put, the more time you can spend fishing, the more experiences you'll gain and the more your ability to catch fish should improve. This sort of goes back and ties in with the whole 'pattern' discussion.
A slight variant of that is when studying, your best source of knowledge in many cases will come from those who spend a lot of time on the water. Of course the first thought becomes bass pros who do this for a living. However, another equally good source is guides. I've read a lot of fishing reports from a lot of boards, but I've got several favorites to share and start you in the right direction.
What makes for a good report? A few of my criteria are regular reports through out the year to get you a good overall feel for patterns and changes over an extended period of time; Sufficient detail that you could take the basic information and apply it to your own fishing without much trouble, including tackle details and fishing patterns; and extensive experience on a given body of water, or local knowledge.
So on to the good stuff. Here are a few of my favorites that I regularly track and follow:
Lake Lanier, GA - Matt Springer
Lake Guntersville, AL - Troy Jens (Angling Alabama)
Lake Lanier, GA - Ryan Coleman (Lanier Spots)
Lake Varner, GA - Randall Kirkpatrick (Fish Atlanta)
Lake Guntersville, AL - Alex Davis (The Spinnerbait Kid)
Laka Allatoona, GA - Mike Bucca (Spot Country)
Kentucky Lake - Dave Stewart (Bass Busters)
And since this is an Indiana site, a few of my own reports :)
Indiana Fishing reports
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