Implement a Results-Based Fisheries Management Plan …and Watch Your Fish Grow!
Spending money inefficiently on fisheries management is a common mistake made by thousands of lake and pond owners every spring. Oftentimes, the initial and essential steps needed to assess the current conditions of the fish, habitat, and the overall waterbody, are missed, keeping owners from having long-term success. Whether your goals are to maintain a healthy fishery, provide great fishing for kids, or design a world-class trophy fishery, it is best to follow fundamental fisheries practices. A Fisheries Management Plan is a tailored plan that takes your fishery, goals, and budget into consideration.
Understand Your Fishery with Electrofishing
When developing a plan, the fishery is first assessed with an electrofishing boat that allows biologists to safely sample fish, gather data on the fish, and then release them, unharmed, back into the waterbody. In addition to learning about your fish, biologists also gather information about the habitat including water quality, spawning substrate, fish cover as well as many other characteristics of each specific lake or pond. Using this unique information, customized management strategies can be implemented to meet your overall goals and budget, improve the efficiency of your financial resource utilization, and leave you with a results-based fisheries management program that will increase your long-term success.
Is your fishery developing as well as you thought it would?
Waiting for your fishery to improve naturally may seem like a good idea, but unfortunately, waiting time provides minimal improvement if the fishery has fundamental issues. It is common for lake and pond owners to wait several years for their fishery to develop, just to find out that the fishery has not progressed. Taking a proactive approach is the most effective way to ensure your fishery is set up for success.
Do you notice your bass are smaller than desired?
Frequently, people have a preconceived notion that stocking more bass will help them produce bigger bass, even though they already have a lot of smaller bass. In reality, stunted bass should be removed in this situation and the focus should be turned towards improving the habitat and forage base, encouraging an ideal predator-to-prey ratio.
Is your fishing great?
It is normal for most people to think that because their fishing is good today and that it will remain good several years from now, but unfortunately, good fishing is typically temporary, and to maintain good fishing requires a proactive management strategy. Keeping a fishery in healthy shape is much easier and far less expensive than fixing a broken fishery.
Long-Term Fisheries Management Plans
The long-term management strategies outlined in your tailored Fisheries Management Plan will provide the most cost-effective solutions and should be the foundation for all fisheries work. This spring, rather than making arbitrary fisheries improvements, consider having a customized Fisheries Management Plan developed for your property, with your specific goals in mind. This process will be sure to identify all the positive and negative attributes of your fishery and provide you with the best odds for success.
For those clients who want to get involved in the fun with our fisheries biologists, from the initial electrofishing process to the fish stocking, we can let you ride along and be included in every step. For all clients, hands-on or not, we will always provide you with the continuing education necessary to fully understand the fundamentals of creating a great fishery. Warm weather is upon us… contact the professionals at SOLitude Lake Management and get started with an electrofishing study today!
