2003 BAIT Report

INTRODUCTION

The printing of the 2003 B.A.I.T. annual report marks the eighteenth year of the B.A.I.T. program. The objective of the program since its inception has been to gather information on bass populations by combining the efforts of bass club members and state fisheries scientists. The B.A.I.T. program summarizes catch data on reservoir bass populations that are collected and provided to us by participating clubs. This information is used by state fisheries scientists in combination with data from other sources as a basis for fisheries management decisions. Bass anglers use the report to establish future tournament sites or to locate a reservoir that provides a particular type of fishing action.

Through 2003, we have summarized 8,940 tournament reports. B.A.I.T. team anglers have spent 2,100,376 hours collecting data for this program. They have contributed data from 480,407 bass that weighed 809,239 pounds.

METHODS

Every year we attempt to maintain the support of the previous year’s clubs and to enlist the support of new clubs through public meetings, news releases and letters. Participating club officers or tournament directors are sent the previous year’s annual report, with tournament report postcards to be completed following each tournament. Clubs are assigned individual numbers to insure confidentiality. As tournament cards are received, they are checked for accuracy and entered into a computer database. Club officers are contacted when data are suspected to be erroneous. We compile and analyze the data following receipt of December tournament reports. Statewide tournament results are sorted by reservoir and by club.

To rank reservoirs, five "fishing quality" indicators were used: percent of successful anglers (percent of anglers with one or more bass at weigh-in), bass average weight, number of bass per angler-day, pounds of bass per angler-day, and hours required to catch a bass five pounds or larger. Since the length of a fishing day varies between tournaments, an angler-day is defined as 10 hours of fishing effort. A minimum of five tournaments for an individual reservoir is considered necessary for minimum confidence in each reservoir dataset. Reservoirs with five or more tournament reports are ranked for each of the quality indicators. Values are assigned to each rank and an overall rank is determined for each reservoir by summing the values of the five quality indicators. This ranking system is intended to be a quick reference for club tournament site selection. It does not constitute a "best and worst" list of Alabama reservoirs and should not be interpreted that way.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Bass clubs submitted 564 tournament reports during 2003. As has been seen in many of the past years, Club representatives did an excellent job filling out the cards and few reports were rejected due to incomplete or erroneous information. We want to again, thank all of the participants of the B.A.I.T. program and urge them to keep up the good work! Forty-one clubs or tournament organizations provided data in 2003. Two hundred and ninety reports from Alabama waters were received from Dr. Carl Quertermus of the University of West Georgia, who summarizes tournament data from the Georgia B.A.S.S. Federation and 30 reports from the Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency that Tennessee clubs provided from Alabama reservoirs. Without their support, several Alabama reservoirs would not have been well represented in the quality indicator rankings (Table 2). Once again we must stress that reports from more locations increase the capability of the summaries to reflect actual fish population conditions and not just a good or poor day's fishing by one or two clubs.

In 2003, tournament reports were received for 31 bodies of water that were fished 99,258 hours. B.A.I.T. anglers caught 23,426 bass that weighed 42,927 pounds (Table 1). A total of 212 bass five pounds and larger were reported for an overall catch rate of one bass five pounds or larger for every 468 hours of fishing. The number of bass reported with weights of over eight pounds had declined from 17 in 1997, to 4 in 2001 and 4 again in 2002. During 2003 the number of bass reported that were eight pounds or larger increased to 7 (Table 5). The largest bass weighed 10.25 pounds and was caught in Harris. With 48 bass weighing five pounds or larger, Eufaula led this category, followed by Guntersville with 32.

In 2003, the overall average catch rates for both number (2.36) and pounds (4.32) of bass per day were better than in 2002 and also the best reported since 1992 (Figure 1). Compared to the 2002 report, eleven lakes improved in overall fishing success, eight lakes declined and four lakes remained about the same (Appendix A).

Of the 43 clubs or tournament organizations that submitted data during 2003, 24 submitted five or more tournament reports; twelve clubs submitted 10 or more reports. Six contributors submitted one report as compared to nine contributors last year. All club representatives should understand that every tournament report is important if this program is to continue to be successful. A list of clubs contributing tournament results for the 2003 B.A.I.T. report is presented in Table 4.

More tournament reports were received from the Eufaula (72) than from any other location. West Point (61) was second and Logan Martin (55) was third. Weiss, Guntersville, Lay, Martin, Mobile Delta, Neely Henry, Pickwick, each had 20 or more tournament reports (Table 1). Ten lakes were represented by 20 or more reports in 2003, which was down from twelve in the 2002 report. A good distribution of reports provides more representative catch statistics from which meaningful summaries can be prepared.

Of the 31 reservoirs from which reports were received, 21 had five or more tournament reports (Table 1). The following comments deal with these 21 reservoirs, which are ranked by quality indicators in Table 2. The percent of successful anglers (those with one or more fish) ranged from just under 53% at Coffeeville to over 88% at Jones Bluff. The average weight of bass caught ranged from 1.27 pounds at Martin to 2.58 pounds at Guntersville. (Table 1). Catch rates expressed as bass per angler-day ranged from 1.54 at Wilson and Guntersville to 3.39 at Jones Bluff. Catch rates as pounds per angler-day ranged from 3.51 at Martin to 6.98 at Jones Bluff. The statewide average weight for bass caught on all 31 reservoirs was 1.83 pounds.

Overall, Jones Bluff reservoir accumulated more quality indicator points (100) than any other reservoir in Alabama, replacing Weiss from last year. Logan Martin (77) placed second and Lay (75) came in third. It should be stressed that it has been very unusual in the history of this program for one reservoir to be ranked as number one in as many quality indicators as Jones Bluff has in 2003. Readers should note that the primary intent of Table 2 was not to determine the overall "best" reservoir, but to characterize the fishery of each reservoir. Anglers should first review the quality indicator that is most important to them. The overall rating would be used to narrow choices. For example, if an angler felt that the average weight of bass being caught was the most important indicator, then Guntersville would be the first choice. However, Eufaula that ranked second in this category has a better overall ranking and should provide large bass combined with other higher ranked qualities.

Bass data as expressed in the B.A.I.T. report from reservoirs with harvest restrictions or length limits will be biased since the data is a function of the restrictions. Length limits are imposed to increase the number of fish below a minimum length or within a specified length range (slot limit) which should eventually result in a greater supply of bass above the limit. Because all minimum lengths and length ranges will be above the 12-inch limit fished in most tournaments, the restrictions will reduce the total harvest in numbers and possibly pounds. However, those fish weighed in will be larger (longer) by virtue of the minimum length or slot limit when the restriction has become fully functional within the bass community. In the B.A.I.T. report, length limit lakes should rank high for average weight and near the bottom for percent success and bass per angler-day. For instance, bass per angler-day averaged 2.36 statewide in 2003 but for Wilson it was low at 1.54. Statewide average weight was 1.83 pounds for all 31 reservoirs but at Wilson, Guntersville, and Eufaula average weight was over 2.0 pounds. These average weights were higher primarily because the fish weighed in are larger due to the imposed length limits.

Length limits remained in effect during 2003 on West Point (14-inch minimum on largemouth bass), Wilson and Guntersville (15-inch minimum on black bass), Eufaula (14-inch minimum on largemouth bass) and Demopolis (14-inch minimum on black bass), Pickwick (14-inch minimum on smallmouth bass), and Harris and Smith (13 to 16-inch slot on black bass). The quality indicator of pounds of bass per angler have continued to increase in the reports from Demopolis and the average individual fish weight and the number of bass caught per angler which had remained somewhat flat, seem to be beginning to trend upwards. The reports from Wilson have shown a flat to declining trend for average weight since 1996, but compared to 2002, the quality indicators of pounds per angler and number of bass per angler have increased markedly. Additional sampling and more B.A.I.T. information will be needed to determine if the length limits at these two reservoirs will be effective. Guntersville did appear to reflect a positive response in the bass population in 1999 from the implementation of a length limit but there were not any remarkable additional increases in 2000 and 2001, with data continuing to remain at about the 1999 levels. Beginning with the 2002 reports though, there seems to have been a change at Guntersville with higher values for pounds per angler and average weight. In 2003 though, the values for pounds per angler and bass per angler dropped somewhat. Fishing as measured by the quality indicators at West Point during 2003 has continued to improve since 1999 in terms of bass per angler and pounds per angler but average weight continues to remain relatively flat. Fisheries biologists have noted a marked decrease in the fertility of West Point and an increase in the proportion of spotted bass to largemouth bass in this reservoir. Eufaula has shown an increase in pounds per angler and bass per angler since 2000 but has continued to show a flat trend in average weight. Prior to 2001 all three quality indicators for Eufaula had remained flat to slowly declining since 1997. Standardized sampling of bass populations on Eufaula have indicated that there had been an increase in the number of all sizes of bass but that they are in poorer condition and were exhibiting slower growth. Georgia and Alabama biologists discussed various management options and it was determined that the length limit would be reduced from 16 inches to 14 inches to allow increased bass harvest. This change in length limit took effect in November 2000. Lewis Smith’s bass population has continued to improve since 1999 but it’s performance in the BAIT Report has been erratic. Pounds per angler and bass per angler were both up from 2002 and but average weight declined slightly. It is very important that anglers continue to harvest largemouth and spotted bass smaller than 13 inches from Smith and Harris Lakes. Slight improvement was demonstrated in 2003 for Harris Lake with pounds per angler and average weight somewhat higher than was reported in 2001 and 2002. The length limit on smallmouth bass in Pickwick is continuing to help sustain an excellent fishery for this species, however slight declines in average weight, pounds per angler and bass per angler for all black bass were reported in 2003.

A trend that first appeared in the 1998 B.A.I.T. data that has been a major concern ever since is the dramatic decrease in the catch rate of bass over five pounds from reservoirs throughout the State. The average number of hours (effort) needed to catch a five-pound or larger bass has increased from 265 in 1996 and 291 in 1997 to 594 in 1998 and 837 in 1999. In 2000 this amount of effort decreased to 685 hours and then to 659 hours in 2001. In 2002 this value fell to 565 hours and in 2003 it fell further to 468 hours but these amounts of effort are still much higher than those seen in 1996 and 1997. It appears now that this trend is continuing to show slow improvement. The decrease in large fish in Alabama occurred regardless of the river system, reservoir size, reservoir location, or type of management. Regionally this phenomenon was also documented in Tennessee, Georgia and Oklahoma. It is now generally accepted among regional fisheries biologists and researchers that this decrease in the number of larger fish being caught by anglers can be attributed largely to the impact on bass populations of the Largemouth Bass Virus Disease (LMBV). LMBV was first identified in the Santee-Cooper Reservoir of South Carolina in 1995, however further investigations have demonstrated that this disease organism was present in Florida waters even earlier. LMBV has been found in bass populations throughout the southeast and as far north as Illinois and Michigan. LMBV has been attributed to largemouth bass mortalities in Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Georgia, South Carolina, Texas and Louisiana. Adult bass two pounds and larger seem to be the most susceptible. We are continuing to cooperate with researchers at Auburn University and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Warm Springs Fish Health Center, to assess the presence of this virus in Alabama bass populations and to monitor any further fish mortalities caused by this pathogen. The decreasing amount of effort required to catch large bass in Alabama since 1999 is a hopeful trend and this has been interpreted by many of the researchers monitoring this disease as an indication that our bass populations are beginning to adapt to this new pathogen. There are still indications that this disease is continuing to impact our bass populations by elevating natural mortality rates above what was observed prior to it’s introduction but it is hoped that in time our bass populations will develop a greater resistance to this disease. In addition, fisheries management biologists and fisheries pathologists from across the country are now working together to learn more about this disease as quickly as possible in hopes of determining strategies to minimize its impact on our largemouth bass fisheries. To aid us in this effort please report any unusual bass die-offs to your district fisheries office.

Graphs in Appendix A  provide you with a historical record of how your favorite waters have performed in the B.A.I.T. program. A few words of caution, these graphs are not restricted to bodies of water with five or more tournaments. Data points for some years may be represented by only a few tournaments. However, those situations are restricted to those water bodies that generally have not been included in the quality indicator rankings in Table 2. Secondly, when comparing water bodies, be aware that the scale on the vertical axes have maximum ranges that vary. You can use these graphs to predict future fishing by looking for trends.

Good luck fishing and don’t forget to take a child with you and introduce him or her to your sport. Our children are our future anglers and stewards of Alabama’s resources!