It's been a couple years back, but the 65th Annual Midwest Fish and WIldlife Conference (pic from the 67th Conf.) paid a visit to Indianapolis and I was able to attend. I had 3 days worth of seminars, posters and presentation notes. I came across those notes the other day and thought I'd post them...
- Looking for a lure that no one else is throwing that might give you an advantage with green fish? Mimic a bullhead! A poster at the conference showed that there is a definite correlation between bullhead size structure and LMB PSD's, meaning those green fish eat baby bullheads like candy In fact, the poster goes on to suggest that bullheads could even replace bluegills as the "panfish option" in many lakes. Hmmm...maybe a black jig with a black curlytail trailer slowly swum along bottom...
- No surprise here, but a presenter today once again confirmed that the lakes with the best diversity of fish populations also have the best amounts of aquatic vegetation (read weeds).
- Another non-surprise, if you break down streams by the type of land use adjacent to these waters, urban and agricultural uses run 1-2 for the 2 worst affectors of quality streams and habitat.
- Don't trust early spring and late fall electrofishing results. These are the most variable and inconsistent from year to year. Midseason is best from a consistency standpoint.
- Another one we knew, but channelization of streams leads to poor species diversity. The more riffle-pool-run sequences the better. Channelization (straightening out a river) moves water faster away from an area but turns that stream into one continuous "run", and you subsequently lose your riffle and pool species.
- Think you know more than a biologist?? Turns out you just might. A poster today showed that when comparing angler creel records versus traditional biological sampling techniques, the angler supplied info was much better at predicting and reflecting growth models and maximum fish size across waterbodies.
- Everyone always points to the Southern lakes (AL, TN, etc.) when talking about lakes with great fishing and shad populations together. What we tend to hear up hear is how shad will harm and may ultimately ruin a fishery. Where here's more shad info:
- Total length and daily shad growth were negatively correlated to hatch dates, meaning shad hatched earlier grew earlier and attained larger sizes. It is even possible that a late shad hatch could result in the loss of all shad from that year eventually due to winterkill. This is because there seems to be a certain minimum size a yooung fish must reach (not just shad) in order to survive winter conditions up north.
- Higher shad densities = slower growth
- Higher winter mortality leads to lower overall adult population and more consistent production of age-0 shad (young 'uns). More consistent production of baby shad means more consistent food for predators and subsequently more consistent populations of predator fish because of good food availability.
- High shad biomass in the SE US leads to limited reproduction and recruitment, basically saying shad ain't the problem down south that they are here...plus they have threadfins.
- Smallmouth bass spawn earlier than rock bass but there is some overlap. However, there are differences in nesting sites chosen. Over 70% of the smallmouth checked in this survey spawned in 2' of water or less. When available, smallmouth will spawn next to or under available cover. Preferred bottom content is either gravel or sand depending on the predominant substrate for a given lake. Spawning up north tended to get heavy around 59 degrees with a smaller wave of fish going earlier. This usually corresponded to a late May early June time frame.
- The more developed a shoreline (read housing development) the less available woody cover for LMB to spawn around. This is because the homeowners probably remove the cover directly in front of their property. Probability of nest success decreased with increasing shoreline development. However, there was no correlation to angling pressure and nest success in this study! Finally, and probably not surprisingly, despite the closed season in Michigan, bass fishermen still fish for bass (illegally) before the season begins.
- A second study presented once again supported the result of LMB spawning success not being correlated to angling pressure. This study found that weed cover was much more important to nest success and survival.
- Indiana isn't the only state with heavy angling pressure on limited bodies of water. West Virginia last year issued nearly 500 permits for its 35 bodies of water for bass tournaments. They also require mandatory reporting of tournament catch/success rates to the DNR. They are the only state along the Ohio River that does require this. LMB fishing will probably be poor for the next couple years in all pools of the Ohio River. Interestingly, success is highly variable and linked between pools. This mean if fishing stinks in the IN stretch, it probably also stinks along the IL, OH and WV/PA stretch too. Studystatistics bear this out. The reverse is also true, when it's good in one its usually good in all. 1994 was the last really good (above average) year for bass on the OH River.
- Bass in the OH R. are about 10X less abundant than in the inland lakes. The majority don't live much past 3 years but they do exceed 12 inches within that time frame. Growth is good and fish are healthy, just not many older aged bass. Poor recruitment is also a problem they believe tied to poor spawning conditions.
- The majority of the smallmouth produced in Indiana fish hatcheries goes toward restocking fish kill sections of our rivers.
- Landowners and farmers, while tending to side proconservation in questionaires (55%), tend not to actually use conservation practices on their own land. And what's worse, they can find no correlation to explain why this is.
- Minnesota anglers, on a scale of 1-9, where 9 is the most crowding rate their water bodies at 3.8 Additionally, while 99% said they have noticed an increase in pressure over the last 5 years, most just change ramps, lakes or launch times to get away from any perceived overcrowding. The top 2 complaints for on the water confrontation among all anglers both listed jet skiers in one capacity or another.
- If you want to take a trophy bass trip to Lake Fork or any other Texas impoundment, you better watch the weather. A new study out has shown definite correlation between El Ninos and the number of big bass reported from Texas lakes. The last great big bass stretch was 1990-1991.
- LMB catch rates in tournaments on Patoka Lake are at a 20 year high right now. The worst year over that span was 1990. The bass population as a whole hasn't gotten any bigger or smaller (stable at 9%), however the number of keeper fish just keeps getting bigger and bigger giving that impression. There are actually fewer bass in Patoka right now than in the past based on just raw numbers, but they are a much bigger size on average. Gone are the days of 50 and 60 little fish to every keeper.
- The bluegill fishery at Patoka near its peak in the early 1990's was estimated to bring in nearly $1,000,000 in fishing revenues to the area. It now only produces about $50,000.
- Out of 175 bass tournaments on Center Hill Lake, initial bass mortality ranged from 0-16% with an average of 3%. The majority of the bass weighed at Center Hill in tournaments were spotted bass.
- Out of 379 tournaments at Percy Priest, initial bass mortality ranged from 0-23%. The majority of the tournament bass weighed were largemouth.
- Average delayed mortality through the summer tournaments of smallmouth bass on Dale Hollow was 27%. Released smallmouth tend to get the heck away from their release point fairly quickly, with most being many miles away by the 5th day. There seems to be a big issue with the way people still treat fish in their livewells and this might be the reason for the delayed rates, along with summer water temps.
The Things I Think About
Trips: 59 Hours: 152.0 Bass: 716 No. > 5#: 1
I made a post a while back (see "Of Fishing and Computers") that touched a little on the balance between fishing, science and philosophy. It's been one of my favorite things to study when it comes to tournament anglers and performance. This subject recently came to mind again while watching daily results from the Elite Series tourney on L. Champlain. Rick Clunn had made a big move up the standings to 5th with a second huge sack of smallies. At the time he commented that "What I'm doing is so unique for smallmouth that I don't want to let the world know about it yet." Well, you can guess what happened...He had a bad Day 3 and fell out of the Top-12 final cut (Doh!).
Bass fan recently posted this article ("Thoughts On Cranking Smallies") that detailed what that unique pattern was and what happened on Day 3. If you scroll down to 'Tweaking the System', you'll find this line that really stuck out to me: "If you change line, then you let it influence your technique, and you affect your whole style. A system of things makes you successful, and changing any one thing affects that system."
That comment to me was a perfectly science-based comment. It's the basic Scientific Methodology in action, having only a single random variable to test so that you can attribute the resulting outcome to the specific change. But Rick is also supposed to be the Zen Master when it comes to fishing, taking his fishing to a level one step beyond the simple action/reaction level. This article (Bassmaster Q&A with 4-time champion Rick Clunn) touches on some of that. But even here he later comments "My pleasure is so contained to the science of fishing." So that struggle between the physical and the non-physical.
In this same context you have Shinichi Fukae, who has turned into one heck of a stick on the FLW Tour. Multiple wins, an AOY award and runner-up again this year with over $600,000 in winnings already. Comes out of the blue from Japan, can't speak English, had never been on our waters and basically kicked butt. How does he do it? Based on this article, it would again appear to be a purely scientific appoach that drives the results (Shin's Win).
So these are the things I think about often, and that truly fascinate me about our sport of bass fishing.
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