Big Indiana Bass

More from the Technical Meeting

Here's one from the poster session that compared DNR reported tourney catch data among lakes. Registered Black Bass Tournament Monitoring in Indiana: A Comparison of Ten Lakes/Reservoirs. This was presented by Michelle Cain from IDNR, Div. of Fish and Wildlife. There were 10 lakes utilized in the study from across the state and the data came from recent returns, 2006-2007.

Patoka and Monroe are Indiana's 2 largest impoundments at approximately 8800 acres and 10,000 acres respectively. These two bodies of water had:

• the highest number of reporting tournaments
• the highest average number of anglers per event
• the greatest average big bass weights
• the highest maximum big bass weights

Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to speak with Michelle, but a couple things that come to mind include the relationship between water body size and big bass weights and, concerning the first two statistics, did they also compute angler pressure based on a #/acre basis? More boats and anglers means more pressure in an absolute sense, but smaller bodies of water may actually have greater pressure on a per acre basis, which then may ultimately affect growth and/or potential of big bass on a larger population scale.

The two lakes with the highest average weight per bass were Patoka and Raccoon. Not surprisingly, both have minimum size limits (15" and 16") larger than the state standard (14"). The highest catch of bass per angler (CPUE) came from Hardy Res. which I found interesting because from reviewing survey results from years ago, that lake tended to have a large population of stunted bass and very few keeper size bass as a percent of the population. Apparently the size structure of the population looks to be changing for the better at Hardy.

Finally, she compared lakes with 14" size limits as a group to lakes that had higher MLL's in place and found significant differences in CPUE (catch per unit effort) and average bass weight caught.

Pressure and Bass Aggressiveness

I came across this interesting research story in Yahoo news late Tuesday before heading off to a fishery conference yesterday: Scientists say rules may keep timid fish. A quick read of the article brings back the topic we've discussed before about length limits and regulations of fisheries. The researchers in this study propose that it is the aggressive and larger fish that are most prone to capture under normal regulations, and hence their removal leaves a population of slower growing and more timid fish left in the population. You've probably read articles on bass fishing that state that the largest bass get that way by being the best and most efficient predators, actually more aggressive and having to feed either more frequently or on larger prey items in order to maintain that level of growth and body condition.

This also ties in nicely then with why larger bass always seem to be in the minority of the population in a lake, and also falls in line with the theory that John Hope proposed in his giant bass telemetry tracking, that being that their behavior and life-style patterns were such that they largely avoided traditional zones of pressure and angling effort.

One of the pleasant surprises at the conference was a paper presented on a study here in Indiana that documented just such happenings on largemouth bass. "Age and Growth of an Unexploited Largemouth Bass (Micropterus salmoides) Population in a North Central Indiana Natural Lake" was the paper presented. I got a chance to speak with the authors (Mobley, Eilts, Wenger and Sweeten) rather extensively about their study. They sampled a 5-acre kettle lake that has been around for nearly 30 years and has had only the slightest pressure (private and largely unfished) and a strictly enforced catch and release policy for the few who have been able to get access. Using hook and line (the best kind) sampling :) on 8 different dates from Sept.-Nov. 2007, they caught, weighed and tagged 58 largemouth bass. Each fish also had a fin clip sample taken to document age. There was only a single recapture out of the 58 fish sampled, and the total LMB population was estimated to be 1,450 individuals with a PSD of 94.9 (See the archives for an in-depth discussion of PSD).

Further results included a mean length of 16.7" and a mean weight of 2.12 pounds. Mean length at age-4 was 16.0" compared to a state average in public waters of 11.4". The largest bass captured was 23.75". The theory proposed to explain the differences was that in unexploited populations, the most aggressive and subsequently fastest growing fish were the predominant drivers of the population age and size structure, and any fishing pressure that allowed any level of harvest would ultimately crop off these particular fish first from the population, potentially leaving smaller (i.e. slower growing) fish in their place. Any wonder why you catch lots of 13.75" bass when tourney fishing on our 14" MLL waters...

The Return of the Robins

It's time to finish cleaning the tackle and prepping the boat, because the robins made their return to Central Indiana yesterday. I don't know for certain if they truly ever left, or if they just stay in some out of the way place, largely unnoticed. But I do know that every year there is a certain day when seemingly out of nowhere, robins appear everywhere feeding on the grounds around work. Yesterday was that day for 2008. I'm not talking 1 or 2 birds, this is more like a flock of 30-40, all hopping and pecking around any open ground they could find.

It could just be optimism, maybe there is nothing really to it, but I always view this influx of robins as meaning that spring (and the first fish of the year) are just around the corner. They're much more reliable than that groundhog in Pennsylvania, one of natures cues I believe. There are many others you can probably think of, many of which are tied to fishing somehow. You've probably heard the one about when the dogwoods are blooming, the bass are heading to the nest.

I tried to find an article last night (unsuccessfully) on spring bass fishing with Guido Hibdon. Guido mentions that he pays much more attention to natures cues and the overall time of the year when patterning spring bass than he does to the water temperature gauge on his boat. He was catching some big pre-spawn females toward the backs of creeks despite the water temps being cooler than what you'd traditionally expect for that pattern to be "on". I've also seen the scenario play out in reverse many times around here in early spring tourneys, and I love it when it happens. It's late March and you get a sunny spring day that tops out in the 60's or 70's, warming the backs of the coves and pockets into the low 50's. Everybody and their brother heads back there chasing the warmer water and the first spring bass, when the majority of them (the bass) are really just starting to stage out of deeper main lake water, largely unmolested. It's a great thing to keep in mind if you want to do well in those first tourneys around here. 

When the Dam Breaks

Fortunately we haven't had any issues in Indiana with all the rain, snow melt and flooding, even with the scares of a potential dam failure up on Freeman-Shafer (that was later reported to be misinformation). However, there have been instances in Indiana during such weather events, so I thought I'd share one of those.

Lake Salinda is (was) a 126 acre lake built in 1947 in Salem, Indiana. It now serves as a backup water supply to the city, having lost nearly half its surface acreage at one point due to siltation over the years. Back in May 2004 a series of extreme wet weather events led to a partial dam failure. You can read the news report here: Damage to Lake Salinda dam to be assessed

The lake was closed to all recreational boating and has been for the past 3-4 years while they determined what to do and how to pay for it. A firm was hired to inspect the damaged structure and design the new improvements. Ultimately the project was contracted out and work started to reconstruct and improve the structure, bringing it back up to full compliance at a cost of ~$1.3-$1.5 million dollars (I believe that is what I read). That process is still ongoing and you can read an update along with viewing some before and after pictures here: Lake Salinda Dam Improvements

2008 Bassmaster Classic Coverage

The 2008 Bassmaster Classic is underway down on Lake Hartwell. Halfway through the day and the bite is reported to be pretty good. Several sacks that are close to pushing 20 pounds with a few big names and a few surprises atop the leaderboard. This one could be a whackfest. For coverage:

• 2008 Bassmaster Pictures
• 2008 Bassmaster Tourney Blog
• Classic Qualifier Charley Hartley's Blog
• ESPN's Classic Coverage Home Page

World Record Dollar Value

Rich poses the question, "What would the actual dollar value be of catching the world record largemouth bass today" and responds:

"Believe me, it's not just a "Million Dollar Fish". Think about this for a second or two. What would that fish be worth in terms of interviews, and product endorsement  - selling the actual live fish for display - if we were so inclined? Boat used, motor used; Every piece of after market equipment on that boat used; Let's say times 7 of whatever. Rod, reel, line, bait, right on down to the clothes you were wearing and the lunch you were eating.

I'd like to see you itemize it if you can. But, a more direct and unencumbered route might be to take all the money spent on fresh water bassin for two years, and put a percentage on the gross as the final dividend to the knowing person that catches that fish. Just guessing - but here's a recommendation: Don't start with a number less than $200,000,000.00 for the overall money spent in this pursuit over 2 years."

I honestly don't have a clue. My thought is that it would largely depend on the person who caught it as well as the circumstances. Being able to keep the fish alive somehow and lease it out to Bass Pro or a large aquarium would definitely be worth a lot of money. That would be a huge attraction for the right clientele and should be a realistic expectation regardless of who caught it. But beyond that to individual product endorsements, I think it would vary considerably. The right person with a good appearance and some speaking ability (marketable) could probably work out some nice advertising deals. I don't want to stereotype, but for examples sake some holey T-shirt, unshaven, unemployed and overweight minnow dunker catches it on a spincast outfit or a piece of trout playdough from the bank or out of a rented aluminumm boat, all bets are off the table. Both are very realistic possibilities. I also think that if certain individuals out in California were to catch it it might come under a bit of scrutiny and perhaps lead to not as much potential revenue due to past perceptions people might have.

Many years ago (1991) when the new Indiana state record bass was caught by Jennifer Shultz, I remember going to the Boat, Sport & Travel Show where the IDNR had her and the fish at their display booth. Which brings up the potential for someone to not ony capitalize on the national record and related promotions, but certain states might have a big interest in promotion and tourism and the local money that could be made might be potentially great.

So it's all an interesting discussion, and like winning the lottery, a problem I'll never have to worry about (LOL). But if and when it happens, it will be interesting to see what occurs.

Join the Alliance Now!

One of Indiana's newest and hardest working bass focused groups is the Indiana Smallmouth Alliance. Originally formed as an off-shoot of the Indiana Smallmouth message board, it has now grown to the point of being its own stand-alone organization. Its recent adoption as the state sub-chapter of the National Smallmouth Alliance completed this transition.

Largemouth get a lot of the attention in this state, but Indiana has a pretty impressive population of smallmouth in most of our creeks and rivers, as well as an abundance in our northern natural lakes and more recently the burgeoning population in Lake Michigan. This group is focused on working with state agencies and departments to promote the smallmouth and enhance the quality of its habitat in the state. Already it has supported two state Clean Water Indiana grants focusing on the Eel R. and the Wildcat Creek complexes, pledging $3,000 in total contributions. Members have also donated over $1,000 in in-kind contributions toward another Section 319 grant on the Big Walnut Creek.

Some of its other contributions to date have included working with tournament organizations to promote improved handling, rules and regulations, working each summer at the IDNR State Fair Kids Fishing pond, supporting recently adopted specialized smallmouth regulations on the Blue River and Sugar Creek, as well as sponsoring several important watershed related conferences throughout the state. They even ran their own fishing show each winter for the past 3 years in Franklin, Indiana.

Their most recent venture will be the Smallie-Stravaganza to be held this fall in late November. It will be an afternoon/evening gathering of smallmouth anglers from across the state to listen to some great speakers concerning not only fishing but the environment, a big raffle that will include guided trips, custom rods and lots of assorted smallmouth tackle, a buffet style dinner, fly tying and lots of fish stories. Check out their website at the link above in the opening paragraph and consider joining and supporting. It might be the most imporatant $20 you spend on fishing this year.

Winterkill

I started getting phone calls early this morning about dead fish all over the lake, so I headed out to take a look. We had a bubble of warm air move in overnight bringing air temperatures up to 50-60 degrees today. That, along with the rain started a good ice melting campaign. As the ice started to melt, hundreds of dead bodies started showing up (see pic - click to enlarge).

But upon closer examination, it turns out that everything dead happened to be a gizzard shad. This is a good thing from the lakes standpoint. Many times lake managers will intentionally try and induce a shad kill over the winter. This is exactly the case at West Boggs down south. They drop the water level 8 feet starting late in the year to compact the fish and stress the shad, then they hope for a good hard freeze that will typically result in a big die-off of shad. We didn't drop the lake but we have got the die-off. This is also the same intent behind the shad selectives which the IDNR carry out at lakes such as Glenn Flint or Waveland. Those are basically artificially induced shad kills that ultimately serve the same purpose.

As to what effect this will have on the fishery is still unknown. Here is a link to a 2004 fishery survey out of Nebraska for Stagecoach Reservoir. You'll note that they had a major shad winter kill back in 2000-2001 which ended up resulting in a strong year class of bass the following two years. Hopefully that will be the result on this lake.

Another interesting scenario this creates is a short term window of opportunity for one of the best catfish bites of the year. See page 6 of this Iowa DNR newsletter (Ice Out Catfishing). The ice in our area is still about 1" thick, and cold weather is headed back in for the next week. So I'm guessing the shad wil stay frozen in their little icy grave for the moment, but with a little luck and timing, we'll get a good warm-up soon that not only melts all the ice at once, but allows for me to get the boat out on the lake and capitalize on the catfish feeding binge. It won't last long but it could make for some memorable fishing. One thing I'm going to do different this year is to really try and take advantage of little "windows of opportunity" for specificly strong bites. This could end up being the first.

Rich Gets Published

If you've followed this site for a while, you'll know we've not only posted many of Rich's "sub-chapter" topics on the site, we've also engaged in a lot of discussion on the theory and mechanics of the topics in question. Rich has finally compiled a much more complete article/book of all the material and has it in whole over on the Walleye Central website. You can currently find the article link on the front page of their site (right above the Al Lindner article), or you can link directly to the entire .pdf file online, all 4+ MB (59 pages) of it, below.

Patterning Active Fish

Rich also has 3 other articles on the site that can be referenced HERE. Whether you agree or disagree with all the information presented, it is worthy of your reading consideration and obvious in the amount of time and effort that went into it. Congrats Rich.

Ford 54th Annual Indpls. Boat, Sport & Travel Show

It's that time of year again. Our biggest sport show opens tonight and runs through next Sunday the 24th. It has certainly changed over the years, arguably not for the better, but from what I hear it still beats most other large shows in the Midwest. I'll hopefully get out there a couple days and have some reports to give, maybe even a few surprises. Here is a link to this years FISHING SEMINAR SCHEDULE at the hawg trough.

Hello Korea, Bone Dry Bass, and Another Milestone

Just a little hodge-podge of stuff today.

First, while surfing the Internet I came across another bass blog. It caught my eye because it contained my Internet nick somewhere on its pages. A search also found one of my graph pictures in its archive...cool! Hello Kevin Shin and the "Bassing-Darider" blog. I've linked into his 2008 archive page HERE. Kevin is actually from California, but the neat thing is his blog is partially written in Korean. If you like word game challenges then this becomes quite interesting. Utilizing the Dictionary.com Translator, I used the Korean>English version and copy and pasted a whole lot of his website text into it. I'll warn you ahead of time that its translation powers are weak, but it gets the idea across with most posts and provides some entertainment in the process. For example, where ever he posts about either bass or fish it translates that word to "the meat". So you end up with things like "the meat" staging for the pre-spawn and such.

Also in the news today is the recent research suggesting that there is a 50% chance that Lake Mead will be dried up by the year 2021 and a 10% chance it could happen as early as 2014. The lake is supposedly already at half pool, and between climate change, water usage and drought conditions things could get bad pretty quick. Others in the chain like Lake Powell are also potentially in danger. This will be an interesting one to follow over the next several years. Bass fishing in Arizona and Nevada could be in for some major changes.

Finally, the site reached another milestone today with the 10,000 page view. This has taken just a little over 1 year to achieve, and I thought it was a neat little stat.

Mouth Wide Open!

Back in early December I posted about the feeding habits and abilities of flathead catfish. You can find and reread that post HERE if you'd like. A quick summary was that 1.) These fish can be highly prolific in the right environment, to the point of being considered invasive; and 2.) Have a large appetite, especially for smaller members of the catfish family as well as most members of the sunfish family (including bass). As such, it is not at all unusual for them to have a dramatic effect on population dynamics of certain species in some bodies of water.

The newest issue (Feb. 2008) of the North American Journal of Fisheries Management just being released has another interesting article concerning flathead feeding. In the article (Gape: Body Size Relationship of Flathead Catfish) the authors look at gape measurements and limitations for flathead catfish and how those might affect the largest size of prey that could typically be consumed. In layman's terms, 'gape limitation' simply means "the limit of how wide a mouth can open". The bigger the mouth, theoretically the bigger the food item you can eat. In largemouth bass (as well as most other species), it goes hand in hand with the "bigger fish:bigger bait" theory. It's also why some reptiles like snakes can swallow eggs or other items much larger than themsleves. They have a hinged jaw that allows them a huge gape size compared to their overall head or body size.

Any way, what does all this have to do with largemouth bass? One of the 3 studied prey items in this survey was a relationship model between gape size of flathead catfish relative to overall body size of largemouth bass as a potential prey item. And the finding; "no size of largemouth bass Micropterus salmoides...would preclude predation by flathead catfish." Some examples in their table include A.) a 28" flathead could consume 15" bass; B.) a 39" flathead could consume a 24" bass (~8+ lbs), and C.) a 47" flathead could potentially consume a 30" (think world record) largemouth. And flatheads get even bigger than that!