More great info summarized in the Statewide Black Bass Registered Tournament Monitoring 2010 report from Michelle Cain.
Lots of interesting things going on here. Notice that the number of reported bass has stayed basically flat over the past 5 years, this despite the fact that the number of bass tournaments has been trending down, and likewise the number of total anglers as well as the number of anglers/tournament being off about 12%. You can definitely see this show up in the number of boats that the larger circuits have been pulling per event, which is way off from what it was less than 10 years ago. Is it economic, or just a loss of interest, or perhaps even normal attrition of older anglers that aren't being replaced by younger ones moving into the ranks?
Also note that the number of angler hours has actually increased despite the drop in number of anglers, suggesting that tournament participants are fishing longer hours. Number of bass caught per angler has also increased while the overall number of reported bass has stayed the same, so it would seem that with less angler pressure in events, guys are catching a few more fish on a per person basis - more available fish to go around. However, since they are fishing longer hours, the actual number of hours to catch a keeper bass has increased slightly over the years.
Another interesting table showing stats by lake. Notice Wawasee had the most reported tournaments, followed by Monroe and Patoka. That said, when you divide the number of anglers by the number of reported tourneys, you see that Patoka (150) draws the largest fields by a wide margin, followed by Monroe (90) and then Wawasee (38). Actually, several other reservoirs have much higher average number of tourney anglers than Wawasee when you run the numbers, just not near as many reported events. Also interesting is the last column, number of hours to catch an 18" or larger bass in an event. You might die before ever catching such a fish at Hardy, where as at Patoka, you could expect such a fish about every third event.
Also interesting is that the average fish at Raccoon was largest of the lakes at 3.0 pounds, better than even our big reservoirs. On one hand that isn't surprising given the 16" size limit on the lake. As such, you would expect a larger average bass than at most other reservoirs with a 14" size limit. Same thing for Patoka with its 15" limit, but to a lesser degree. Still, when you look at hours to get an 18" fish as mentioned above, Raccoon takes almost twice as long to achieve that goal as the next best lake (Patoka), meaning the fish being weighed in at Raccoon are fat healthy chunks for their size. Monroe and Cataract take almost 3X as long to get an 18" fish compared to Patoka, and Brookville is exactly 5X as long, meaning a lot of 14"-17.9" are being weighed at those lakes relative to Patoka.
Pretty cool big bass stats, too. Patoka and Monroe run neck and neck with average big bass running either side of 6 pounds. Raccoon has the next largest average with 5.1 pounds, but close to it were Mississinewa (4.9) and Sylvan (4.6). All the other lakes were closer to a 4 pound average, except for Hardy, which has a large population of stunted bass, where big bass averaged a measly 2.8 pounds. Turns out statistics in the report showed a definite positive correlation between both water body size and angling pressure as relates to average big bass. From the report.
"The largest lakes with the most tournaments are producing the largest big bass weights. This is what would be expected. The more effort at a lake, the higher the chance to catch a large bass."
My first thought there was that perhaps that same correlation translates down to the individual angler, whereby the more time spent on the water bass fishing, the greater the chance you'll catch a big bass, or several.
One last bit from the report. I know some clubs choose not to fill out these tourney reports, or do so with the least amount of info captured they can get away with. That is a shame though because the data captured really gives insight into what is happening at our lakes and provides for great trending data, as well as possible early crisis recognition. Again from the report.
"The data collected annually from registered tournaments allow fisheries biologists to see a snapshot of the harvestable bass population present within a lake. This data, in tandem with survey data, can help to draw important conclusions on how to manage a fishery. It is especially vital in drawing conclusions on the number of legal size bass available in a lake or reservoir which may not be accurately shown by other sampling methods."
Guys, I know it can be a hassle, but take time to fill out these reports as best as possible, knowing that the data is being looked at, analyzed and used by our biologists, as well as making for interesting reading for all of us when published publically to the IDNR website. I know I read a lot of comments on various bass forums about how the IDNR doesn't do enough in regards to trying to improve our bass fishing here in Indiana, but at least a small part of that fault lies with the anglers when they choose not to take advantage of the opportunity to put good data in the hands of the biologists that could then be used to make/argue for those changes.
