Smallmouth Bass Management Update - Jan 16Th

[Dan Kreher]

I invite all interested smallmouth bass anglers to come out to the next meeting of the Missouri Smallmouth Alliance this Wednesday evening to hear from 2 MDC biologists involved with smallmouth bass management on our Ozark streams. See announcement below.

We've been waiting for more than a year to find out the results of the MDC's angler satisfaction survey and to learn more about the results of the tagging study. The time's here. John Ackerson and Jen Girondo from the MDC's smallmouth bass management group will meet with us at 7 pm this coming Wednesday, January 16th. Bring your friends, bring your questions, bring an open mind and let's find out what they've done during 2012 and what plans they have to help improve our treasured Ozark smallmouth fisheries during 2013. Don't miss this meeting.

We'll also be selling raffle tickets for the upcoming River Guide Series Raffles. $10 a ticket or 3 for $20 donation.

You'll find more information about this and all of our events and activities here:

http://missourismallmouthalliance.blogspot.com

[joeD]

I went to the meeting.

The MDC did a presentation on the results of yet another smallmouth survey and study.

The results? Smallmouth are fish that due stuff. Some of it pretty cool.

How does that effect you? It doesn't. Further study is needed.

Carry on.

[Gavin]

Didnt know you were there Joe....Stoneroller, Hammerstone, and LarrySTL were there too...We all shoulda had a couple beers and cigar in the parking lot instead of listening to chorus after chorus of "if harvest is the limiting factor but we arent certain that it is...needs more study"..

The migration study stuff was pretty cool......Tag return rates seemed pretty high.....and they said most get turned in the week after Memorial Day....Wonder if folks gig all winter and turn their tags in then? Several more years of $ for smallmouth tags coming...Tag study report due in 2015...No action possible till that is done is what I gleaned from the talk.

[joeD]

Gavin- I disagree. I hate Sunset Hills cops. Parking lot would not have done. Growlers was close enough.

Here's my issue: I think we (as Missourians) are quite lucky to have the MDC as a governmental agency managing our "sportsmens" or "wildlife" or "natural resources" needs. However, I think they are quite wrong, and, purposefully stubborn, when it comes to smallmouth bass.

Why? Because they're studying the wrong thing. One can study a certain fish species forever, and then what? Fish do this. Fish do that. Their brains are the size of a pea.

Instead, the MDC should be studying human behavior. For example, why, as an agency, or as a society, do we let people who knowingly break the law, (or the Wildlife code), continue to disrupt and ruin the public domain?

I thought it quite rich when one of the MDC reps took umbrage when one of our illustrious members voiced his frustration with the constant "studies" of the MDC without tangible "legislation" (for lack of a better term). He actually stood up and, in his best bureaucratic throat, " Well, I disagree with your statement, we DO listen to your concerns..blah blah blah..."

I'll wager that, in three years, none of the three MDC reps that showed up tonight will have anything to do with smallmouthbass management. Not their fault.

PS: I was the guy ...

[Dan Kreher]

I really don't want to launch into a tirade about how the MDC continues to study everything to death rather than move more quickly to enact better fisheries mgt regs to protect and improve our SMB stream resources given their high use by locals and tourists alike, but . . . I can't help myself.

As Conservation Chairman of MSA and having personally spent hundreds and hundreds of hours focused on this issue over many years, I too am disappointed that the MDC has effectively moved the timeline to the right by 2-3 years by choosing to conduct another Exploitation (reward tagging) study on the five streams under the program. They apparently did not get reliable data in the 2^nd year of the current study (2012) after seeing an avg of 40% of the adult tagged fish in these streams caught within the first 7 months of the project. Their numbers thru late 2012 showed that only 48% of the tags were returned to them for cash, indicating that something was amiss throughout the summer of 2012. They are surmising that this was due to the impact of the long, hot summer and drought conditions that prevailed here reducing angling opportunity on the smaller streams in the program (Castor, Courtois, North Fork, upper Black) while results on the Current weren’t too far off expectations.

Now they intend to do the study again in 2013-2015 (want full 2 years of harvest season data) in order to determine fishing pressure, catch rates and harvest rates. They didn’t give us too much info on the harvest % from the first year’s results last night, but given their early results they sure believed that they’d see close to 80% of the tags turned in over a 2-year period. In fact, they found that over 30% of the tagged fish on the upper Black were caught within the first 4 days of the catch and keep season in the first year – now that’s some fishing/harvest pressure!

I optimistically believe that as a science-based organization, the MDC is doing all the necessary legwork (Angler surveys, exploitation/harvest study, seasonal movement study) in order to support more comprehensive management regime changes in the near future. Yes, we’ve certainly known that harvest was an issue from an anecdotal perspective – we have lots of stream anglers and lots of them are allowed to keep too many SMB under existing regs – but the MDC lacked any empirical evidence to gauge it. As a result of the tagging study they’ll someday have that. Poaching and illegal gigging are other localized factors, but we cannot make management decisions for those outliers.

Not surprising that Avg Joe Angler who is not knowledgeable of SMB ecology, biology or the potential of our streams to produce better SMB fishing, is largely OK with the status quo (12” MLL/6 fish creel). The survey found that 82% of Avg Joe respondents either fish from the bank or are wade anglers. I do know some serious power-waders out there, but the vast majority of avid SMB anglers clearly fish our streams with the aid of watercraft (canoes, kayaks, john/jets). So, this cross-section of the public does not include folks who are likely up to speed on SMB mgt issues by and large. Their input has some value to the MDC for sure, but it will certainly not be the driving force behind future management decisions.

Likewise, I’m sure that the majority of our state’s deer hunters were not necessarily in favor of the antler-point restrictions when those were first proposed and then enacted. But, the managers who are responsible for our deer herd, the MDC, acted decisively regardless of this resistance and the state’s hunters and our hunting quality will continue to improve as a result. I think the same thing will happen with regards to management of SMB in our streams. Eventually.

Yes, I too had to bristle when the MDC said, “If we find that harvest is a limiting factor to our SMB populations, we will act accordingly.” No one is arguing that our SMB populations aren’t high – the proportion of adult SMB over 12/15/17 inches is just too low compared their potential and angling available in other less exploited areas. Given that we’ve been largely under the same regulations regime for the past 40 years, we also not likely to see marked year to year changes in SMB populations or avg size structure – we’ve reached a sustained level of mediocrity with regards to larger fish and anglers simply don’t know how good our streams could be under appropriate management.

When clarified, “if the harvest rate exceeds the natural mortality rate of SMB in our streams, more restrictive regulations should be considered” or something to that effect. Obviously, angler harvest rates of legal SMB of between 25% and 50% (pick your number) exceed the natural mortality rates of adult SMB (generally less than 5% annually). We don’t need more study to confirm that. But the MDC does need that empirical data before it proposes regs changes to its Regulations Committee and ultimately to the Commission.

In summary, I do not think that the MDC would be undertaking the time and expense of all these projects unless they were planning to do something of significance regarding management changes. Clearly, they could have enacted more special regs waters without all this fanfare if they wanted to. I am hopeful that their efforts will indeed “result in well thought out and progressive management of Missouri’s smallmouth bass resource” as wrote MDC Director Ziehmer in response to MSA SMB management proposals way back in 2010.

Call me crazy, but I will remain hopeful that the MDC will do its job to protect and improve our stream SMB fisheries for current and future generations. We’ll need to wait a bit longer for this but in the meantime I’d trust that all concerned anglers on this Board and elsewhere will continue to support the need for change in terms of both statewide length and creel limits and push for more special regs areas (like those 18”/1 fish limits that really make a difference). We don’t make the rules, but we need to continue to strongly advocate our positions.

I need to get some work done this week, so I’ll refrain from future comment until the weekend.

[Smalliebigs]

darn Joe!!!!! wish I would have been there but, it was my daughters third birthday. The MDC means well but, falls short when it comes to just inacting anything fast or in a timely fashion but, I don't give them a pass on this. They have been doing studies about how they travel, who fishes for them and when, blah,blah, blah. The MDC is more concerned that fishing will decrease and the industry as a whole will suffer if they (the MDC) were to make it to where very few smallmouth can be harvested legally. They have given me lame butt excuses forever about how if they were to allow a watershed to be catch and release the bass would become over populated?????? which is the biggest pile of BS I have ever heard.

I even heard some assclown even stood up and brought the longtime Missouri tradition of gigging and it doesn't effect bass populations??? I repect the MDC but, they have no clue of the tens of thousands of dollars someone like me who is hopelessly addicted to river fishing spends on fishing, they only consider the amaturehour people who visit the river once or twice a year and camp and have to be able to catch and keep a fish that is 12 inches, while they puke and piss in the river and go back to their campsite and puke on the side of their tent while the wife blares music all night at 97 decibles.That is a tradition that must be preserved for if not the fishing industry in Missouri will fall flat on it's face. I just don't think the MDC has their finger on the pulse of some issues or they choose to ignore in a nice way or push it to the back burner until they can lobby for more funds for certain things. The gall and the ignorance of the MDC people I talked to at the Franklin county office to say that gigging isn't affecting bass populations shows how queer their motivations are on certain things......oh well....... I have been fishing seriously for smallies for about 25 years and I'm 43......I don't expect any new regulations on Smallmouth bass fishing before I die at least something greater than a 12 inch length limit.....it's just reality

[Greasy B]

Optimism, pessimism. It's getting harder and harder to stay optimistic. One thing I completely agree with is JoeD's comment about the real issue being people management.

[Mitch f]

Wasn't there and wish I could have been, Go JoeD, Stoneroller, Cwc87, and Les!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Terrierman]

Call me crazy but I wish smallmouth bass tasted like crap.

[cwc87]

As in most cases I try to put myself in others shoes.

The mdc people worked really hard to get the info ready and I'm sure it became apparent to them from the very start of the question asking that no matter how they answered questions they were going to b a dart board Hence, future meetings are in jeopardy .

Now, I understand how frustrating it must be for us fisherman fighting to better smallmouth fishing and the agonizing snail pace MDC moves to make this happen. Heck, I'm sure it's painful for some of the hands on MDC employees involved with this project to see a wrath of resistance on harvest regulation change!

On a short story, when I was invited to float fish with the MDC fisheries heads several years ago and on the gravel bar at the confluence of the Huzzah and Courtois one of the top biologist was holding my 3/8 oz spinnerbait in his hand and commented " from my stand on this lure why did I witness smallmouth eat this lure today?" I told him I don't know but it sure brought many smallies to the boat!

Call it how you see it.