The
perception that tournament fishing has negative impacts
on bass populations is widespread among non-tournament anglers.
Many studies have shown that heavy tournament activity does
affect bass fishing, but generally not to the degree that
many believe.
The
most recent data from a study on a huge Texas impoundment
tends to support the conclusion that population impacts
do occur, but are not excessive.
Sam
Rayburn Reservoir is the site of more than 300 bass tournaments
every year. About half of the total number of anglers surveyed
there participate in tournaments, which is a much higher
percentage than average. The result is that about a fifth
of total angling effort on Sam Rayburn occurs during tournaments,
and more than 150,000 tournament angler-hours were expended
during the study.
Estimates
of fishing mortality in the reservoir were generated from
a tagging project that marked more than 6,000 fish. Of these,
only 40 fish were later documented in creel surveys.
When
the researchers used extreme estimated rates of exploitation
and mortality, tournament fishing would kill 6 percent of
legal-sized fish, accounting for 28 percent of total angling
mortality. And when using more realistic exploitation and
mortality rates, tournament fishing kills just 2 percent
of legal fish, or 16 percent of total angling mortality.
At
16 percent, tournament-caught bass mortality is actually
lower than that of catch-and-release fishing, which is 20
percent of total fishing mortality. Of course, mortality
in the ice chest is 100 percent, and fish that are harvested
by non-tournament anglers account for between 56 and 83
percent of total angling mortality.
Will
these numbers stop the debates between tournament and non-tournament
anglers? Of course not – there are still plenty of
issues to argue. It seems that anytime that two or more
groups utilize natural resources differently, disagreements
spread.
This
study supports the idea that all types of bass fishing will
affect populations – even 100 percent catch-and-release.
How much impact occurs from tournament, catch-release or
harvest fishing depends on local conditions.
Still,
some tournament anglers would prefer that no bass be brought
to the table, while harvest-oriented fishermen are probably
correct in assuming that fish that see lots of lures, and
may have been caught before, are often difficult to catch.
In fact, the authors of the current study provide some issues
for further debate.
Their
data, like some previous work, indicates that the mortality
from tournament bass fishing may be greatest for larger
fish. They also point out that their conclusions are not
necessarily applicable to lakes much smaller than Sam Rayburn,
which is nearly180 square miles in area.
Back
to Top |
