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Conserve the Fisheries:
An excerpt from Tim Holschlag's Stream Smallmouth Fishing |
Long gone are the days when sport anglers could afford to be concerned with only how many fish they can legally drag home. This outlook is particularly outdated for today's stream smallmouth fisher, because serious dangers threaten many of our moving waters. And these threats can only be overcome if more of us get involved in smallmouth conservation.
Our warmwater streams are threatened from both over exploitation by anglers and habitat deterioration. First, we'll look at angling exploitation.
EXPLOITATION BY SPORT FISHING
Remember the traditional pictures of the "successful" angler posing with what seemed like a hundred pounds of dead fish? The decline in the printing of those fish-hog photos is a reflection that, yes, legal sport angling can severely deplete the populations of larger fish. I'm not sure why it took some people so long to realize this. But now the evidence that many fine waters have been harmed by angling is irrefutable. Numerous scientific studies and countless angler experiences bear this out. And this is especially true for smallmouth, since most streams can only support a few hundred fish per mile, compared to many trout streams where densities can be over 2,000 trout per mile. Smallmouth also grow slowly, generally only 12 inches after four years.
Combining the smallie's low densities, slow growth rates (and often aggressive feeding habitats) and it's obvious that a stream's limited number of quality sized fish can be easily fished down. In the spring, pre-spawn smallmouth often stack up below dams, during the low water of late summer big fish concentrate in just a few pools and in the fall smallies often congregate in huge schools. In these and many other situations, bigger bass are extremely vulnerable to fishing pressure.
So obviously catch and release angling is essential if we are going to preserve quality fisheries that remain and restore those that have already been degraded by angler kill. Catch and release angling (or recycling the fish) simply allows a given smallmouth population to once again produce as many larger fish as the habitat can support. On many heavily fished streams recycling all the larger fish can mean a dramatic increase in bigger smallmouth. For example, on Iowa's Maquoketa River the percent of smallies over 12 inches went from just 5% before catch and release regulations were implemented to an amazing 46% after no-kill regulations were put in place.
QUALITY REGULATIONS TO PROTECT OUR FISHERIES
Some timid folks, hoping to avoid more formal regulations limiting angler kill, propose purely voluntary catch and release. This would be fine if it worked, but like most things in life, not everyone will voluntarily follow good policies. Even if only 15 or 20% of anglers continue to kill as many fish as they legally can, at today's level of angling pressure and habitat limitations, this minority of anglers can ruin the fishing on many waters. This means on select waters, we need to protect smallies with new angling regulations that eliminates or significantly reduces the harvest of larger sized fish.
For most rivers, regulations that protect the most fish the longest do the best job of creating and maintaining a quality fishery. The best and simplest practice would be "no kill" protection (all bass returned immediately to the water). Probably, the next best type of "quality regulations" would be those that allow the taking of some smaller fish (under 10 or 12 inches) while protecting larger specimens. Many fertile streams could stand some annual kill of small fish without dramatically reducing the number that make it to larger sizes. A third type of quality regulation that are starting to become socially acceptable are those that allow the killing of only "trophy" sized smallies (a 20 or even 22 minimum size).
The worst regulations (at least for those looking for bigger fish on the line) are the old 12 inch minimum size laws. Not only do they direct harvest towards larger sized fish, they also fool many anglers into believing that killing those 12 inch or larger specimens is fine since the law specifically allows it. On moderate to hard-fished waters, these old "maximum yield" regulations generally result in the cropping off of most decent-sized bass and produces a stream full of runts.
GETTING INVOLVED
In past years, smallmouth anglers who saw their fishing decline could do little more than grumble and look for a new fishing' hole, but nowadays we can really do something to improve our sport. The Smallmouth Alliance, founded in Minnesota in the late 1980s, is a smallmouth conservation group that has chapters in many Midwestern states. Made up of rank and file smallie fans who want to protect and improve their fishing, the Alliance is an excellent way to get involved.
The Smallmouth Alliance has already been instrumental in winning conservation victories in states such as Minnesota, Illinois, Ohio and Missouri. For example, in Minnesota the group played the leading role in getting reduced harvest regulations placed on the upper Mississippi. Protection that has allowed the river to maintain a high quality smallmouth fishery next door to a city of two million. In Illinois, The Smallmouth Alliance played a major role in getting Illinois to change its statewide smallmouth regulations. (For more info go to (www.smallmouth.org)
Beside joining or forming a local Alliance chapter, those who belong to other fishing organizations can also help the smallmouth cause. Get your
local club to not only support catch and release, but also to promote new angling regulations. As I've said, quality regulations is the way to create quality fishing and groups will be helping themselves if they protect their local waters.
There are many choices, but everyone who wants to see good fishing should do something. And once you're involved you'll feel great. There's a particular sense of satisfaction in knowing that you are helping to ensure better fishing for yourself and others for years to come.
Tim Holschlag is Midwest Fly Fishing magazine's warmwater fly fishing editor.
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copyright Midwest Fly Fishing Magazine 1999
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