Opening bass season earlier.... A view from the MN DNR

[Dan Wood]

This is the best research I've been able to find on the subject. This includes many different studies and doesn't support my earlier views as only a small percentage go back to the location of capture. I believe this may be a more accurate representation since it is a collaboration of many different studies and is quite extensive.

http://www.fisheries.org/html/fisheries/F2807/F2807p10-17.pdf

Keep in mind that if you open to C&R during spawn, the fish will not be relocated to tournament headquarters during that time. They will need to be released at the site. This is an informative study on the subject of bass relocation after capture though.

[Dan Wood]

This article supports the previous study as well - that fish don't go back to capture site.

Conservation Update
Bass Heading Home: Part 1

[March 18, 2002] by Jim Summers, WVBF Conservation Director

First I would like to thank Mr. Douglas Stang, Chief of the Bureau of Fisheries for the State of New York for giving me permission to use his manuscript to try to answer some of your questions about tournament released bass and do they really head for home.

The New York Fisheries people chose four popular black bass fishing waters to monitor post-tournament movement and dispersal from the weigh-in site. The St Lawrence River study area encompassed eastern Lake Ontario and the New York portion of the St Lawrence River from it source to approximately 37.2 miles downstream. The tournament weigh-in and release site was located on French Creek, a tributary of the river approximately 16 miles downstream from Lake Ontario.

Cayuga Lake is a 42,590-acre natural Lake located in central New York with a shoreline length of 89 miles and because of the habitat of the lake black bass are limited to the shoreline and the northern 6605 acres of the lake.

Saratoga Lake is a 3763-acre natural lake in northeastern New York with a shoreline of approx. 12.5 miles more like the size we are use to here in West Virginia.

The Hudson River study area encompassed the upper 110 miles of the tidal estuarine reach of the river (approx. 40,000 acres) and the tidal portions of four of its larger tributaries. The release site was in Catskill Creek 500 to 600 yards north of the mouth of the creek.

Radio telemetry procedures were similar for each study and tournament anglers identified the capture location of each fish. Transmitters were attached to fish after the tournament weigh-in and all fish were released at the weigh-in site except at Saratoga Lake where 3 fish were released out into the lake. This was done to evaluate the difference in fish released into the lake and fish released in an outlet to the lake.

The results on the St Lawrence River were as follows. During the first 2 days after release, the radio tagged fish did not make any significant movements away from the release site. The smallmouth bass congregated near the confluence of French Creek and French Creek Bay 3 days after release. About 4-9 days after release, all the smallmouth bass moved from French Creek to the Bay and the main body of the St Lawrence River. After becoming established in deeper water in the Bay four of the five smallmouth bass showed little movement for the next 8-10 days. One smallmouth returned to its capture location 2.3 miles downstream from the release site 4 days after its release. Four of the five largemouth bass remained in French Creek for the initial 14 day tracking period. One largemouth bass was located 12.2 miles downstream from the release site 9 days after release and returned to within 1.5 miles of the release site 48 days post release. So I guess we can assume bass don't really head for home at least not on the St Lawrence River because of the 10 fish in the study; after nine months seven of the fish were located alive, one was within 4 miles of the release site and six others within 1.5 miles of the site of release. The final locations of the bass were 11.5 to 49 miles from their respective capture sites.

On Cayuga Lake after release, the radio tagged largemouth bass moved into habitat less than 6 tenths of a mile of shore from the release site. Mean distance from the point of release 24 hours after release was 330yards. Fish did not move substantially farther over the next two weeks. Mean distance from the release point for most fish increased to only 440 to 550 yards. Two fish dispersed .8 tenths of a mile and 1.3 miles from the release point during the initial 14 day period. From 29 to 46 days after release, mean distance from the release site increased from 6 to 8 tenths of a mile. Seventy-five days after the tournament, the mean distance from the release site was 1.4 miles. Distance from the release site and the location of tagged fish 76 days after release were compared to the distance to capture site for each fish to determine if tagged fish were homing back to their area of capture. Six of the nine fish with known capture locations moved closer to their capture sites a mean distance of 9 tenths of a mile, whereas three other fish moved away from their capture site a mean distance of 1.3 miles. In general the fish did not appear to exhibit a homing tendency because 2.5 months after release, the mean distance from the capture site 4 miles was equivalent to that on the release date of 4.2 miles. Of the seven fish that were located 221 days after release, five were within 1.2 miles of the release site four of which were within 6 tenths of a mile from the release site. Mean distance from the release site for the five largemouth bass located 277 days and 295 days after release were 1.2 and 1.4 miles respectively. Only one fish returned to the vicinity of its capture site 6 tenths of a mile due east of the release site 221 days after release.

Saratoga Lake during the first 2 weeks after release, seven largemouth bass remained within 6 tenths of a mile of the release site, two others were less than 1.2 miles away and one bass moved 4.5 miles to its capture site in 4 days. One fish was found dead 2 days after release and one fish was harvested 8 days after release. Between 15 to 36 days after release, the average distance from the release site increased from 1.2 miles to 1.5 miles. Fish were harvested on the 23rd and 24th days after release. By 151 days after release, the average distance from the release site increased to 2.7 miles, also two largemouth bass were harvested 43 and 96 days after release. Two fish caught and released in the outlet returned to within 100 meters of the location where they were caught. These fish returned 760 yards and 1.7 miles to their capture sites 9 days and 23 days after release. Remember the 3 bass I said were released into the lake at a site other than the weigh-in site? Well, their movement was not more pronounced than the fish caught and released at the weigh-in site. Thirty-six days after release, lake caught and released fish averaged ½ mile from the release site compared to 8 tenths of a mile for fish caught and released at the weigh-in site (excluding one fish that moved 4.3 miles.

Hudson River-All four radio-tagged largemouth bass remained near the release site for approximately 1 month and two of these fish never left Catskill Creek during the 40-day tracking period. After 1 month, two fish moved out of the creek 3.4 miles and 15.5 miles to the south and remained there through the end of the tracking period (3 weeks). At the end of the tracking period, these fish were 7.8 and 30.4 miles away from their respective capture sites. NO fish returned to their capture site during the tracking period of 40 days in 1989.

So, my friends, to make a longer story a little shorter only 1 of 5 smallmouth bass and 7 of 37 largemouth bass returned to their capture sites after release at tournament weigh-in sites, including 2 largemouth bass whose capture sites were only 6 tenths of a mile from the release site. Thirty-two black bass either remained at their release site or moved very short distances. One bass moved more than 11.8 miles from the release site and then returned to less than 1.8 miles from the release site. Most largemouth 94% and smallmouth bass 80% that were relocated were displaced for more than 20 days form the site where they were captured by anglers. The relocation of black bass has potential significance only if substantial portions of populations are affected. The relocation of black bass at anytime increases energy requirements and may increase vulnerability to capture and exploitation. These studies show that many smallmouth and largemouth bass remain near their release site for at least 2 to 4 weeks, and anglers are aware of these concentrations, thereby increasing the potential for the exploitation or at a minimum repeated capture. The recommendations that came out of this study were that tournament organizers should be encouraged to disperse fish away from the weigh-in site to minimize high concentrations of black bass being susceptible to exploitation, provided the fish are transported at low density in aerated or oxygenated livewells. Most state agencies require permits for fishing tournaments or otherwise regulate them; dispersal of fish after tournaments may be a permit condition. Limits may be established on the number of tournaments originating from a single site or area within a water body. Fisheries managers should also encourage "golden rule" tournaments where participants measure, immediately release, and record their catch. Hooking stress alone is not directly responsible for acute or delayed mortality, this type of tournament alleviates tournament induced mortality of black bass, relocation of fish and concentrations of bass near the weigh-in sites.

The study also indicated that some of the radio tagged fish could have been fish that were already displaced by tournament fishermen and further studies could be done on waters with very little or no tournament activity. Well, my friends there it is. I am sure you now have enough information to draw your own conclusions about the question of BASS HEADING HOME. Good Luck to all of you and I hope to see you all on the tournament trail somewhere this year. God bless and keep you and your families safe.

[Duffman]

I was just pointing out that you bass guys look through red shad colored glasses sometimes. There are probably studies out there that will back up everyone's opinion if ya search long enough.

My opinion is as follows;
First off, there is no way in heck that Lake Minnetonka should be one of top bass lakes in the U.S. It's under a sheet of ice half the year, the southern states have a much greater growing season, and therefore they should produce many more larger fish than we do up here. If you look at the tourney results from down south, they really aren't as impressive as they should be. But then again, they have a year round open season, coincidence? maybe, maybe not.

Secondly, we will never know what bass fishing up here would really be like cause the "crappie" fisherman have been yanking bass off of beds pre-season or during season since the beginning of time.

As much as bass fisherman practice C&R, there is still a segment of the population that would love to fill their freezers with 4-6lb bass if bass opened on the regular opener. Cause even you bass guys must agree, there is nothing easier to catch than a bass guarding it's nest, unless it's been yanked off a half dozen times already.

[DoctorB]

First of all, you can probably find a study to prove whatever you’d want to, but I’d put more stock in geographically close studies.

To that extent, I’d encourage you both to track down the DNR study from Minnetonka from the early 90’s. A special tournament was held before the bass season and during the peak of the spawn by the DNR. Everyone was given a specific place to fish and fish over three pounds were tagged, with several hundred radio transmitters implanted in fish as well. The fish were held in a netted area and held for a few days before being released.

The results of this study:

98% of fish lived (even after surgery!)
50% of the fish returned to their original capture point three to 90 days after release.
25% returned to the general area within one year
25% never returned and lived their lives out in other locations.

The early catch and release season for bass was opened up for commentary by the DNR about three years ago. There was a lack of interest so it was dropped.

Personally, I don’t see why people feel the need to target spawning fish. The fish are very vulnerable and can be caught basically at will.

BLB, I was up in your county fishing the first few weekends of bass and the fish were everywhere spawning last Saturday. I passed up hundreds and hundreds of bedding fish and watched in disgust as two out of state boats fished a small bay full of spawning fish with minnows and bobbers targeting fish on beds. That’s what scares me about an early season. Granted, it is open season, but I don’t like the idea of people beating up on spawning fish legally for another two weeks.

[Mark Christianson]

I think we are still forgetting some of the focus here.

First of all, I don't think anyone here has proposed opening the season earlier for harvesting. Do it on a C/R only basis only.
Fish will never be pulled miles from nests.

Secondly, the point has been made, that on most years, the bass opener still falls on spawning and prespawn fish anyway.

Northern MN has opened weeks earlier than southern MN for many many years, and I have yet to read about people complaining up there that the fishing is degraded, and you can be 100% assured that there are no fish done spawning up there when it is legally opened. And it is not even a C/R opener. It is a regular harvest em if you want opener.

No doubt there are positives and negatives in the matter.
Great info though from you guys. That is what this is about; to share our knowledge and to learn from it.
As my boss says, "Change is good". Maybe its time to give this a try.

PS - I hate that saying.

[BUSHWAC]

There is no study out there that is going to convince me that yanking fish off the beds is ok for them. Sure they may go back to the bed the first time, the second time but a third and fourth and who knows how many times a fish can get picked off his bed before it decides to flee or what ever.

Sure a bass may lay thousands of eggs because of such things as predation and such. That's what mother nature intended to insure the future of it survival. Mother Nature never intended fishermen to constantly harass spawning fish. maybe we should be looking at pushing back the bass opener instead of an earlier season.

Duffman is totally correct about Minnetonka. There is no way a Minnesota lake should be producing creel takes bigger than those of the southern states. They harass the bass 365 days a year and with the popularity of fishing as it is they are starting to pay the price. We should be protecting all spawning fish and limit the angling pressure on all species crappies and bass alike during the spawn. it takes almost no skill to yank a spawning fish from it's bed. what ever happen to fair play and challenge. And yes I am a very avid bass fisherman who doesn't feel the need to ah Crappie fish all may!!

[smallie_hawgin]

Good discussion folks. My point earlier was not to implicate tournaments, it was to attempt to answer the simple question of whether or not removing a fish from a nest for a short time has an impact on the population overall. Lets see there are several thousand beds on Lake x each containing the better part of 40,000 eggs. All it takes to sustain a typical bass population and even have strong year classes is one nest with good survival! Population estimates are rarely anywhere near 40,000 bass for a generic 1,000 acre lake. Let's think about the numbers game here. As I stated earlier, at least in central MN there are few fisheries short on bass. Most of these coincide with a strong, relatively stunted bluegill population (ie nest predators). So when we talk about potential impacts to the fisheries by opening up a bit of C&R the end result may in fact be an improvement. Granted there are scenarios in some northern lakes or areas on the Mississippi where recruitment is variable. In these cases maybe exceptions should be granted. The simple truth is that habitat degredation and density of predators (on eggs and fry) will likely have more influence on recruitment of bass to adulthood than any angler quickly returning their fish after catching it will. Think of it this way, the differences in the bass opener for NE MN has been in place for a long time in an effort to minimize smallmouth bass in the area (the original intent). Based on what I know of the areas, there are no shortage of smallmouth there.

[Lost]

Again, I question... why is the Wisconsin bass opener earlier than ours and has it affected their bass fisheries?

I'm having a problem understanding why people are so adamant about not having it earlier here in Minnesota when other states are not having any problems an earlier opener.

[Blackstarluver]

Because, the most difficult and painful thing in the world to accept is...change. What is the first thing you hear when your company makes a new policy? AWWW jeeez! Six months later everyone has either adapted or quit. I believe that the reason some people don't want an earlier opener is simply the (multiple random expletives) need to maintain an obsolete tradition. People will attack with every fallacy they can come up with to put down progressive thinkers whom believe that this is a good idea. You can spot the red herrings and straw men everywhere, if you know where to look. People will deny every fact put forth to them to obfuscate the truth. blah blah blah.
God lyk!

[psegriz]

This subject has been beaten to death all over FM. Those that don't want anyone fishing crappies, walleyes, pike, etc. until the bass are off thier beds I'd say fine. Then don't get upset when the panfishermen don't want you to fish ontil crappies and sunnies are done spawning. here's an IDEA Lets open season up on everything Aug.1st and close it mid Dec. cause then eyes are starting to hold eggs. Oh do lake trout spawn in fall might have to end the season 3rd week of Sept. Good we have 6-7 weeks to fish. I hope this sounds as dumb to everyonelse as is does to me. SORRY just gettin sick of hearin about people pretending to crappie fish or piken and people complain about incidental catches. Opening weekend found me trying to get some big northern. I got more pike over 10# than I did bass, got a few bass. I was using live frogs, just let them sit on the bottom and watch my bobber when it starts to move in any direction set the hook. If I's bassin I'd be w/o bobber and jig it off the bottom, catch 6 bass to every pike then. I do believe that some take advantage of panfishing/eyes/bassin, etc. but it doesn't mean that everyone throwing a small spiner in river is after eyes nor anyone pitchen jigs is after bass. Fish overlap on territories and ya will catch a little of everything w/o intending to catch it. That does not mean people were intending to catch something different.

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GRIZ

[Mark Christianson]

And what does that posting have to do with this topic Griz?
This topic is about opening a C/R bass season earlier.

[RandyFish]

This a great thread, but the emotion of anti-earlier group truly amazes me because these two simple facts:

a)Southern Minn. Bass opener is still during spawn...Bass currently receive no special protection based on "spawn biology." If they did, opener would be even later. It is based on tradition only.

Other states with earlier openings have no reported massively negative impacts on the bass populations, and the seasons have been earlier for years.

As far Minnetonka vs. southern fisheries argument: It is moot.

We are talking tournament reporting and outdoor media hype here. Not actual non-tournament fisheries. Find the out of the way Texas pond and compare its fishery with a similar Minnesota water. The Texas fish would be larger and show the difference in growth because of latitude -- even with average year-around southern fishing.

If the arugment is: "See how negative year-round bass fishing on heavily fished waters can be to a population" then perhaps the argument holds merit.

But we are not talking year-around open water fishing here. Winter takes care of that. We are talking opening a season a few weeks earlier.

Open all the seasons on the same date and ask bass guys to catch and release (most of do anyway).

(If catching that bedding bass is so stinkin' easy, why do the ones I find keep staring at a tube bait with their mouths closed.)

It is a good forum, and good to see passion on both sides of the fence. It shows people care.