The MDC smallmouth study

[Ham]

Look, I've fished Bistineau enough to know that is NOT that great. It isn't in the top 10 in Louisiana. Shallow. Difficult to navigate. Water quality issues. Some large fish. Some spotted Bass. Lots of rough fish. Smelly. Hot, muggy nasty from May thru September. Just say no.

Without serious Payola, How does it make the list at all?

[Haris122]

Al, is there a direct link to this study. Been wanting to read a little bit on this type (and other types) of research they do, but I'm not finding it on the MDC website.

[Al Agnew]

I don't know...it was sent to me by Dan Kreher of the Smallmouth Alliance.

[Al Agnew]

Dan Kreher pointed out something interesting to me...the whole rationale behind not doing more restrictive regulations seems to be that the natural mortality is more significant than angler harvest as it is. But, how many of those who reported releasing their fish removed the tags? How many of those fish were then caught again days or weeks later and harvested? In other words, just because a fish is caught and released once doesn't mean it's safe from harvest for the rest of the year, and if the first angler removed the tag, there's no way to count later harvest.

[Mitch f]

Dan Kreher pointed out something interesting to me...the whole rationale behind not doing more restrictive regulations seems to be that the natural mortality is more significant than angler harvest as it is. But, how many of those who reported releasing their fish removed the tags? How many of those fish were then caught again days or weeks later and harvested? In other words, just because a fish is caught and released once doesn't mean it's safe from harvest for the rest of the year, and if the first angler removed the tag, there's no way to count later harvest.

This is a good point, I suppose a guy who caught the fish maybe thought he needed physical evidence to collect the money, but didn't want to keep the fish. I've only caught one tagged fish that I know of, and released it with the tag still on. My brother and I were fishing and he brought a video camera with him. You can see the tag in the video but I released it without even knowing it was tagged, Duh.

Anyway, those tags are pretty darn small, can you actually read the writing on them?

[Ham]

I'm a relative newcomer to the area, but I tend to agree with Al that the heavily spring fed systems don't impede growth, but rather enhance it. The fish get to eat more year round than the feast of summer and fast of winter fish in flows without majority spring fed. Even the White River with its significantly cooler water fosters better quality. EVERY smallmouth I catch on the White is fat and Happy. NOT everyone is long, but every one is a thick burger. Not at all the long and lean look you see in the Buffalo or Crooked Creek.

[ALLSTAR1]

Formula for natural Smallmouth mortality; ax100=b ( Live Otters(a)x100= Dead Smallmouth ()

[Al Agnew]

Formula for natural Smallmouth mortality; ax100=b ( Live Otters(a)x100= Dead Smallmouth ()

I think the otter thing is one of the few ways that poor habitat actually does do a number of smallmouth populations. If the smallmouth don't have a lot of good wintering pools, they tend to concentrate in a few small areas, and it's a perfect winter meal ticket for the otters. If there is a lot of good wintering habitat--big, deep pools with lots of cover--the smallmouth can do okay even with otters present. I know small streams with marginal wintering habitat where I'm sure the otters have had a huge impact on the smallmouth population, but I know of other streams with better wintering pools that have plenty of otters and plenty of smallmouth. There are otters in the Meramec, Huzzah and Courtois, Jacks Fork, and Buffalo, to name a few streams where I've actually seen a bunch of otters, but the smallmouths there are doing well.

[Ham]

I've just seen too many times where well intentioned sportsmen get group think about species interaction and decide to tip the scales in favor of their preferred animal.for example, "Kill the Road Runners, they're killing our quail" when it's often a habitat issue.

[SpoonDog]

I've been mulling it over a while, and I guess MDC's numbers regarding harvest and C&R adoption really don't surprise me. To me it seems easy to hang out at a MSA meeting or an online forum where maybe 70-80% practice C&R of smallmouth and then be surprised when MDC's results contradict that ethic. Maybe their data is skewed, or maybe it's a sort of angling echo chamber- if the only people you interact with practice C&R, you're gonna have an inflated estimate of how prevalent it is.

I practice C&R on smallmouth and I'd love to see more quality fish in Ozark streams. But IMO it isn't MDC's job to cultivate a C&R ethic among smallmouth anglers- that's the purview of organizations like MSA. And if most folks don't want C&R regs and those regs aren't going to contribute much to the numbers of quality smallmouth...I think it's fair to ask what the purpose of changing the regs would be.

If anglers really want more quality smallmouth regs, they're going to have to win over the hearts and minds of the meat fishing crowd. Or maybe they'll have to make a scientific case- that growth rates in Ozark streams are on par with those of trophy smallmouth streams elsewhere. A quick and dirty Google Scholar search suggests Age 4 smallmouth in the New River in WV and VA average 11-13 inches, and age 4 fish in the Red Cedar River of Wisconsin ran just under 13 inches. Two year old fish were already 10 inches long in the Devils River (TX), and 4 year old fish on the Maquoketa river in Iowa averaged 12.8 inches.

I don't know the answer, but it seems like maybe Ozark smallmouth really do grow more slowly than fish elsewhere. If that's really the case, then perhaps we as anglers need to pull our heads from the clouds and accept that biological reality instead of seeking scapegoats in otters and state biologists. Maybe more C&R, or tighter regs, or habitat improvement would help- but maybe no matter what we do, trophy smallmouth in the Ozarks will always be a rarity.