Population Management
The increasingly popularity of the sport combined with "catch and release" practices have in some cases led to an overpopulation of bass.
An overpopulated, stunted bass population can best be detected in the spring when all the bass are at least one year old. If virtually all the bass are 4 inches long or smaller, the population is probably stunted. Some indicators that a bass population is overpopulated:
(a) The largemouth bass caught are all less than 1 pound and are "skinny". (b) The bluegills are 1/2 pound and larger (too large for the bass to eat). An overpopulation an/or stunting of bass may be caused by several factors including: (a) Not enough bass being harvested. (b) Too few bluegill or redear sunfish were stocked initially or they are failing to reproduce and the bass population does not have an adequate food supply.
It is posited that the easiest way to control an overpopulation of largemouth bass is by increasing the take of bass. This is clearly an effective method of thinning the bass population providing recreation at the same time. It may take two to three years to bring the population back into balance. If forage fish are scarce, stock adult bluegill or redear sunfish (7 to 8 inches long). These fish will be too large to be eaten by the bass. The large panfish will spawn in the spring and produce a supply of forage.
Read more about this topic: Bass Fishing
Famous quotes containing the words population and/or management:
“This was the Eastham famous of late years for its camp- meetings, held in a grove near by, to which thousands flock from all parts of the Bay. We conjectured that the reason for the perhaps unusual, if not unhealthful development of the religious sentiment here, was the fact that a large portion of the population are women whose husbands and sons are either abroad on the sea, or else drowned, and there is nobody but they and the ministers left behind.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The management of fertility is one of the most important functions of adulthood.”
—Germaine Greer (b. 1939)