1. Every year during the bass spawn, lot's of bass die. This has been happening for decades. Long before tournaments even existed. Just ask an unbiased fisheries biologist.
2. Every bass I saw dead out in the lake, and it wasn't a ton, was on the small side - most undersized. I did not do autopsies (anymore than the MDNR did), but I'm betting some died from non-fishing causes and some died after being deeply hooked. The more natural the bait or lure, the more likely the bass will be deeply hooked. Small bass are harder to remove from deep hooks, so are probably more likely to be killed. They are more likely to swallow live bait and there are a lot of live bait anglers out there. There's been dead smallies floating around the lake for weeks. There's been anglers out there fishing for other species with live bait for weeks. Bass don't know they aren't supposed to bite. I didn't see any more noticeable number of dead bass this weekend than last.
3. Bob Haas doesn't like tournaments. I know this for fact. Him pointing the fingers at tournaments is very sad. He knows as well as I do that live bait mortality is higher than artificial lures. He has no idea that dead bass out in the lake are related to tournament anglers verses very numerous non-tournament anglers of all kinds who also catch a lot of bass. For him to say so is irresponsible. Some of the dead bass back in the Metro park bay where probably related to the large BFL tournament. I saw a few dying before I left. You catch a lot of bass and keep them to bring to a weigh in, some will die. We could all keep 5 bass if we wanted to, but we choose to put them back and with our moderate temperatures of 75 or less, most will live. Bob is right that the number that die is insignificant. His general statement that we don't take as good a care of the bass is the result of his bias. Since he doesn't directly participate, he really doesn't know what he is talking about. He is assuming that because some bass die, that we don't do all we can. He feels this is because tournaments attract anglers who don't care about the resource - which is ridiculous. Tournaments attract anglers who like to catch bass and who like to compete. Some will be real conscientious and careful and some will be less. We have rules, penalties and peer pressure to get everyone to do all they can for the bass, but still, some will die. If we only lose a few percent of the tiny percentage of the overall population we are bringing in - along with a few out in the lake - we are doing a great job. Considering that most tournament anglers release most of their bass most of the time, we aren't impacting the bass much at all, especially compared to all the other anglers out there. THIS IS supported by studies by other fisheries biologists although you won't hear about it from the MDNR probably.
Some of us could do a little more probably and Bob could probably make helpful suggestions, IF he would work with tournaments groups instead of just making public, derogatory statements about them. Why his statement bothers me so much is that he is using a repeatedly occuring event - bass dying out in the lake from natural causes and all kinds of anglers - and using it as a negative against tournaments when he knows his issues with us revolve around delayed mortality of the released bass at the actual weigh in sites. In other words, he had a weak excuse to make tournaments look bad and he took it. Maybe he was taken out of context, but what he was quoted matches his statements to me in the past.
I think it would be great if the MDNR would be present and work with major tournaments ahead of the time and during. We already have booklets and information available to take good care of the bass on individual and organizational levels, but there are sometimes local considerations. We probably shouldn't be releasing a lot of bass later in the summer back in Metro Beach or the Clinton River for example. Changing this would probably be more PR value than value to the bass population, but with people out there willing to target us like this every chance they get, we should consider it important. It can only be a benefit to us.
3. Maybe Gerry's quote was taken out of context. I don't know. Regardless, if you read the report Mike Thomas recently posted about Lake St. Clair smallmouth information, than you would have seen that the number of smallmouths kept verses the population as a whole is very small. If some anglers want to keep a few bass to eat, they have every right to do so whether they are from Michigan or from somewhere else. Studies show up to 60% of the bass die every year from all causes. The smallies kept by some anglers probably do as much good as harm in keeping the population balanced. There are lakes where catch-and-release may have gone too far even. As long as St. Clair has great forage, the bass will probably be fine, but it is okay to keep some. I don't purely because I don't like to eat fish. I eat walleye, perch or other panfish just a few times a year. I don't begrudge anglers keeping any legally caught and kept fish to eat fresh. It will take something much more catastrophic than just fishing to seriously harm bass on St. Clair. Charters were keeping coolers full of bass before I started fishing St. Clair and some still do keep a lot of small ones, yet fishing on St. Clair is awesome. If one area is heavily targeted, it may appear to be less productive over time, but appearances are often deceiving, and the bass population on St. Clair is still huge with some of the best fishing anywhere. A few anglers from other states OR from Michigan won't change that on their own just by keeping bass they are legally allowed to keep. They can only legally possess 10 keepers last I knew. Most anglers still don't catch their limit of keepers, even on a lake like St. Clair.
4. The Lake Erie Ohio smallmouth situation is an excellent example social management verses biological. The Ohio fisheries biologists told this spring that it would be 4 to 5 YEARS before they had meaningful results of their study on spawning smallmouths and gobies with fishing allowed during the spawn. So why are they already proposing now to close the season during the spawn? Because a number of anglers - charter boats, non-tournament anglers, and even a few tournament anglers - are pressuring the Ohio fisheries people to do something about these rumors they've heard about gobies eventually destroying the bass even though there are zero studies showing this and tournaments catches are still excellent on Ohio Lake Erie waters; despites gobies having been in Erie for years along with wide open fishing. Charters and anglers have heavily targeted certain areas of Erie like Rattlesnake Island and apparently reduced the fishing success in those particular areas, yet overall results are still excellent, and quality areas sometimes come back when they become less popular for a while. Even with years of targeted pressure, some of the popular reefs still produce excellent fishing anyway.
This all happens while New York still has an early opener on Erie and Pennsylvania doesn't have a closed season on Erie. Some will say that gobies are more numerous in the Ohio waters. Maybe they are. It doesn't change that the fishing is still great and that no one has demonstrated that gobies are able to harm the overall bass population of any water. Yet, some anglers have heard that individual beds are harmed at times and took that to mean more than it means because they don't have good knowledge of bass biology. They are pressuring for change 'before it's too late' even though no one has any indication that something will actually happen because of bass fishing during the spawn with gobies around.
Gobies have been there for years. Anglers have fished and kept bass during the spawn for years. Charters have hammered the bass for years. And, wind - the real main culprit - has blown on Erie and damaged beds for years. The fishing is still some of the best there is. Why? Because bass are prolific spawners among other factors. Smallmouth fishing will always cycle up and down based on recruitment which is mainly effected by weather. But in my lifetime, Great Lakes smallmouth fishing has become the best it has ever been anyway. That's what I see. We've cleaned up the water. The water has gotten clearer, mayflies are coming back big and the bass explode despite charters, despite zebra mussels, despite wind, despite tournaments AND despite gobies. The justification for such a change in Ohio's Lake Erie bass season does NOT exist, but they are getting pressure, so they entertain a change. That is social management. Something the Ohio Fish and Wildlife normally avoid. My guess is that tournament anglers and other knowledgeable anglers aren't voicing their opinions enough to counter the people who are buying into the unproven goby situation.
If they prove anything eventually, that is another story, but closing fishing isn't always the only answer either, especially if it is still legal to fish the same waters for other fish that all eat the same things.
What's happening in Ohio is bass management by opinion poll. My goal has always been to put out real information so that we may possibly, eventually manage our resources with science, not bias and misguided opinions.
