Trophy Bass Fishery Management

AS SEEN IN POND BOSS MAGAZINE

A Largemouth Bass fishery that continues to produce new generations of trophy fish is something to get excited about. At their core, these fisheries defy nature’s natural course as they achieve sustained success. The path to trophy growth is narrow, and one slip-up results in reduced top-end potential. Staying on track day after day, year after year is nearly impossible. 

Far too often, most trophy bass fisheries produce just one or two generations before getting off-track. Although cultivating a single generation of trophy bass is an incredible accomplishment, at the same time, it is oftentimes not the desired outcome. It is disheartening to have to settle for less exceptional fishing following years of routinely catching trophy bass. As humans, many of us are wired to see improvement, which makes it even more difficult to watch a great fishery drift off course, and have to settle for less than we desire.

The proper approach to sustainable success requires identifying all of the ways that the bass may fail to reach trophy size, then working diligently to ensure that failure does not happen. Based on latitude, elevation, watershed, water depth, etc., each waterbody has a different likelihood of success, with some waterbodies having a significant advantage, i.e. a lower risk of failing. Those with the highest odds of success are often those that naturally have robust, yet healthy levels of productivity, a long growing season, and limited external sources of risk such as flooding, drought, otters, cormorants, etc. 

The risks that result in failure continually shift with the seasons, as well as over the years, and to complicate matters, will vary from waterbody to waterbody. Although all fisheries are at risk of failing, trophy fisheries carry the highest risk, and it is normal for the probability of failure to be very high. In some cases, a waterbody is not realistically able to produce trophy Largemouth Bass, making the goal unobtainable from the start. A few examples of this are: waterbodies with excessively high water flow rates throughout the growing season, water temperatures that are too cool for bass with great genetics to survive, thousands of fish-eating birds onsite daily at times while managers are not allowed to control them due to regulations, etc.

Oftentimes, even when the fishery is capable of achieving trophy status, the risk of failure is too abundant relative to the available budget and effort required to succeed. In these cases, when the risk reward is too poor, either the goal should be modified or a different, more suitable waterbody should be used to create the trophy bass fishery.

These risks can be broad or specific—broad meaning the risk is a threat to all fish, and specific meaning limited to a single species, size class, or age class. Additionally, risks can be either acute, meaning they immediately impact the fishery’s ability to reach its goal, or chronic, meaning the negative impact will slowly chip away at the trophy fishery, preventing it from succeeding.

Knowing where to look and what questions to ask is a key part of achieving sustained success. Afterall, how can you identify potential risks if you don’t know where to look or what to ask? The source of these risks will either originate from outside of the waterbody (external) or from within (internal). Overlooking one place or missing one question is enough to derail an entire fishery. I have seen some of the best, most thought-through fisheries fail from an odd outlier that was not foreseen.

As always, stay proactive when possible. Reactive management is complacent management, and complacency leads to a lower probability of success. Given that success is not certain, a complacent approach is foolish.

Routine observations and data collection allow for a constant stream of intel, providing clarity on the health of the ecosystem and variables that are important for keeping the fishery on track. The frequency to gather the intel will vary based on the type of data. For example, dissolved oxygen data should be checked far more frequently than the body condition of your trophy bass. And although the body condition of your bass is important, if you are observing poor body condition, then things have been off track for a while. Water quality and the availability of forage fish both play a large role in the body condition of bass, so rather than waiting until the bass are showing signs of poor performance, make a larger effort to monitor the variables that lead to the poor performance.

This approach of looking at leading indicators is certainly a more complex approach, since many of the leading indicators also have leading indicators themselves. For example, baitfish are a leading indicator for bass growth, zooplankton are a leading indicator for the baitfish, phytoplankton are a leading indicator for zooplankton, and water quality is a leading indicator for all of them. In some ways, this food chain example may seem straightforward. However, the complexities of the food web and environmental factors create a much more intricate system. Water quality, weather, baitfish size, predator population, vegetation, disease, genetics, etc. all influence the overall balance. These interconnected factors contribute to the ecosystem’s complexity.

A successful strategy requires boots on the ground monitoring. A trained eye can pick up on the subtle details around what is going well and what risks may be present. Teamed with these intentional observations needs to be the use of specialized equipment to assess the ecosystem’s vitals, similar to bloodwork your primary physician looks at to monitor your health. In-field water quality monitoring provides key insights. Dissolved oxygen, temperature, secchi reading, and pH are some of the data-points to monitor. Additionally, water and sediment samples need to be analyzed in a lab, particularly for parameters that require precise techniques due to the low-detection limits. Phosphorus and nitrogen are the two most vital parameters to assess in a high-quality laboratory.

In-field observations and water quality monitoring, combined with the lab results, provide a decent number of data points to begin identifying where the fishery is at risk. What parameters to monitor will vary from one waterbody to another, and the frequency at which you monitor them will depend on how much they fluctuate, as well as how well they stay within their ideal reference range.

Creel data and electrofishing data are also both critical to the fishery’s long-term success. Angler data provides key intel on the predator fish population. An electrofishing vessel, another specialized piece of equipment, provides significant insight into many of the fish species present, and allows an experienced biologist the opportunity to determine if all of the other observations and data available accurately reflect the observations and data collected while electrofishing. This is incredibly important when assessing if you have the necessary puzzle pieces, as well as if they fit into place. Looking at comprehensive data, a biologist can see into the past and present, and even predict the future to some degree, providing clarity in a scenario that is complex.

This is where things reach another layer of complexity. The data provided by these specialized pieces of equipment is generally accurate, but the parameters they are assessing vary throughout the course of the year, and in many cases they vary throughout the course of the day. This complexity means the data is subject to improper interpretation. Meaning that your informed decision may be informed by a data point that is misleading. This then becomes a blind-spot—you’re vulnerable to failure but unaware of the risk due to complacency.

Failure almost always comes from something you don’t see coming, or from something you are being complacent about. In other words, you may think you have a piece of the puzzle figured out, but in reality, you misinterpreted the available information, or lack sufficient data. This is an error that I see on a regular basis while coaching up high-quality, less experienced biologists. They have a natural tendency to trust a data point so much that they fail to validate it, even though they have other pieces of data at their fingertips that tell a different story.

Fortunately for those wise enough to look further, many variables are interconnected, providing many opportunities to review multiple pieces of information that are related, but at times are telling different stories. These thoughtful moments can help you avoid the full extent of the failure you would have otherwise suffered. Whenever possible, take the time to validate what you believe to be true.

When mitigating risks, it is important to prioritize your resources, ensuring you are addressing them in the proper order of importance, starting with the more likely and then working your way towards the less probable. Understand that solving for one risk ushers in the high likelihood of another risk becoming problematic. This is a seemingly never-ending loop. Even as technology advances, and success is further automated, Mother Nature will still bring uncertainty.

Success is difficult without a management plan drafted by an experienced fisheries biologist who can effectively interpret data and provide the necessary insights to make informed decisions. The ability to make informed decisions using subjective data is incredibly valuable if you are serious about growing big bass. The right experience teamed with the right perspective allows important details to be honed in on, while dismissing less relevant observations with confidence.