Tournament Angling Benefits and its Effects
on Black Bass Populations
Our
Science Guy Brings us some Info.
By Adam Stack
Article Posted: March, 2006
In
the past 40 years, competitive bass fishing
has leapt onto the sports scene and
increased a great deal in popularity. The
anglers in organizations such as the Bass
Anglers Sportsmans Society, or BASS, and Wal
Mart’s FLW tournament trail are competing
for pay checks as large as $1,000,000 in
some cases. These tournaments boost sales in
areas around the bodies of water that these
anglers fish and tournaments are a real
economy booster to outdoor product stores
and companies (Edwards 2004). It also
promotes fishing and provides communication
between fishermen (Edwards 2004).
Anglers use top of the line equipment, drive
boats worth thousands of dollars, and are
decked out from head to toe in products
given to them by their sponsors. Things are
not this simple though. There have been many
issues challenging whether organizations
such as BASS and the FLW tournament trail
are treating fish as a resource, or if they
are treating fish as an economical profit.
Many struggle with the thought of bass
angling being referred to as a sport, due to
the fact that bass are not an infinite
resource. We will discuss the effects of
tournament angling on largemouth bass
Micropterus salmoides and smallmouth
bass Micropterus dolomieu
populations, and determine whether or not
the effects on fish populations out weigh
the benefits of tournament angling.
In today’s bass fishing tournaments, when
bass are captured by an angler, they are
placed into a live well in order to keep the
fish alive so it can be released after being
weighed in. Penalties have been incorporated
into the rules for each dead fish that is
weighed in. Though in theory this sounds
like a conservative practice, there is more
than just releasing the fish back into the
lake at any location. Studies have shown
that a low percentage of largemouth bass
return to previously held home ranges after
being displaced (Ridgway 2002).
There is also the presence of a delayed
mortality of black bass caught in
tournaments. A study conducted from Rideau
Lake in Ontario, Canada in 1996 through 1998
determined that only 37% of largemouth bass
return to their site of capture after
displacement (Ridgway 2002). The same study
also concluded that 71.7% of largemouth bass
mortality occurred during the fishing
season, and 59.2% of annual largemouth bass
mortality can be attributed to anglers (Ridgway
2002).
This is a fairly alarming number and this
study was conducted in the cool climate of
Ontario, Canada. The colder water
temperatures in this climate allow for
higher levels of dissolved oxygen and a
better chance for a successful release of a
fish. If the same fish were released in a
body of water with hot summertime water
temperatures and low dissolved oxygen
levels, the fish’s chance of death would
increase due to stress of live well
containment which causes the build up of
lactic acid. If the fish is already stressed
and has a lactic acid build up, low
dissolved oxygen levels and hot water
temperatures will significantly lower the
fish’s chance for survival after being
released. Water temperature, live well
containment, and displacement are a factor
that tournament officials need to consider
when scheduling tournaments, if they are
concerned with doing what is best for
conserving the resource of our black bass
population.
Another issue with the tournament scheduling
occurring today is that there has been no
respect for the fish during their spawning
periods. Tournaments have been deliberately
scheduled during the spawning period in
order to increase the weight limits to gain
viewers who want to see large and heavy
bass. Though the plan to gain viewers may be
a success, there is still the underlying
factor of how fishing for bass on their
spawning beds is affecting the fishery.
When bass are bedding, as a natural
instinct, they often become very aggressive
to anything that comes within proximity to
their bed. If a lure is dropped onto their
bed, bass will pick it up and move it. Some
anglers take advantage of this vulnerability
during the spring by locating the bass on
shallow flats where they spawn and dropping
lures on beds that are visible. If a bass
protecting brood is pulled away from a nest,
the nest becomes open to predation. Even
with the most cautious catch and release
methods, if bass are targeted while
protecting brood and pulled away from the
nest for even the shortest amount of time,
the amount of age 0 smallmouth found that
fall can be substantially lowered (Ridgway
1997).
In a study conducted on Lake Openongo in
Ontario, Canada, angling for smallmouth
during the early stages of the spawn were
the times that could significantly lower the
number of age 0 smallmouth bass present in
the fall (Ridgway 1997). After the fish is
pulled away from the bed and released, it
may need time to recover from the stress it
was just put through, and in some cases will
even abandon the bed, leaving it entirely
open to predation (Ridgway 1997). It has
even been determined that factors such as
the size of the bass can affect how well the
bed is protected after the fish is released
after being captured by the angler (Mackereth
1999). Male smallmouth bass use a large
amount of stored energy to protect brood
during the spawning period (Mackereth 1999).
The larger smallmouth bass contained more
stored energy than the smaller smallmouth
bass, making the smaller fish more likely to
abandon the bed after using their stored
energy during a fight with an angler (Mackereth
1999).
It has been recommended that there be a
closed season to anglers during at least the
first few weeks of the spawn to ensure an
abundance of age 0 fish in the fall of that
year (Ridgway 1997). Keep in mind, that when
a bass is relocated in a tournament in a
live well, that there is a zero percent
chance of the bass returning to the nest,
resulting in a very high percentage of the
brood from that nest being consumed by
predators.
There is no denying that bass tournaments
are great for economical gain. Tournaments
give publicity to bait companies and outdoor
superstores which create jobs. The Bass
Anglers Sportsmans Society was also one of
the first organizations to promote the catch
and release of fish (“About BASS”). There
are alternative styles of tournaments that
are not as hard on bass populations as
traditional style tournaments. These
tournaments are immediate catch and release
of bass and known as “catch-measure-release
tournaments” or “paper tournaments” (Hart
2003). These tournaments are catching on for
spawn period tournaments and areas of the
country with hot water temperatures and low
dissolved oxygen levels (Hart 2003).
Bass fishing has improved significantly in
its conservation methods in the past 20
years. From 1981 to 1997, an estimated 20%
decrease of mortality was caused by anglers
(Ridgway 1997). There are still many
tournament practices that need to be
outlawed in order to ensure a positive
future for our black bass fisheries. In the
case of the Bass Anglers Sportsmans Society
schedule, the power has fallen into the
wrong hands. ESPN, a sports network, has
taken over the organization and is now
scheduling tournaments with two things in
mind: ratings and money. The mentality that
bass fishing is a sport can be a potentially
costly one. Bass are a resource, and like
any other resource, they are not infinite
and need to be conserved. People will do
some extreme things in order to make their
living, and when there are people who make
their living competing for a resource, all
bets are off to how far they will go to make
money, and conservation is the last thing on
their mind.
All content is expressed
solely by Adam Stack, through his
experience. All photos and words are his.
Works Cited
About BASS.
2001. <http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/print?id=1257023&type=story>
Hart D. 2003.
Resource Conservation <>
Edwards GP,
Neumann RM, Jacobs RP, O’Donnel EB. 2004.
Impacts of Small Club Tournaments on Black
Bass Populations in Connecticut and the
Effects of Regulation Exemptions. North
American Journal of Fisheries Management
24:811-821
Mackereth RW,
Noakes DLG, Ridgway MS. 1999. Size-Based
variation in somatic energy reserves and
parental expenditure by male smallmouth
bass, Micropterus dolomieu Environmental
Biology of Fishes 56:263-275
Ridgway MS,
Shuter BJ. 1997. Predicting the Effects of
Angling for Nesting Male Smallmouth Bass on
Production of Age-0 Fish with an
Individual-Based Model. North American
Journal of Fisheries Management
17:568-580
Ridgway MS.
2002. Movements, Home Range, and Survival
Estimation of Largemouth Bass following
Displacement. American Fisheries Society
Symposium 21:525-533
