B.A.S.S. Powerful Force for Conservation

New York's Paul Hudson empties line recycling bin at launch site.

If people know about B.A.S.S. at all, what they usually know is that it’s a tournament fishing organization. If they are anglers, they might also be aware that its founder, Ray Scott, popularized catch-and-release, a conservation practice now utilized worldwide among sports fishermen.

But B.A.S.S. is much more than that. Through its National Conservation Director (Noreen Clough) and through its state B.A.S.S. Federation Nation members, it is a powerful force for stewardship and protection of angler rights.

The director works mostly behind the scenes, partnering with groups such as the American Sport Fishing Association and the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation to present a united front for anglers. She also provides guidance for state and club conservation directors, all of whom are volunteers.

State chapters and clubs, meanwhile are the conservation backbone of B.A.S.S. and do much great work to protect and enhance fisheries. For the most part, it’s work that goes unrecognized.

Here’s what 1,954 B.A.S.S. volunteers did through 12,886 hours of effort during 2011:

• 10 tons of trash removed
• 1,662 artificial habitats placed
• 15 miles of roadways cleaned
• $505,700 raised for charities and conservation
• 7,366 acres improved by habitat placement
• 5,000 pounds of invasive grass carp removed
• 4 tons of invasive plants removed
• 350 water willows planted
• 600 bass tagged

As a Life member and Senior Writer/Conservation for B.A.S.S., I’m extremely proud of my organization. 

Carp Are Doing Damage Even When You Don't See Them

These bighead carp were damaging a Missouri pond without the owner even knowing they were there. USGS photo.

The Journal Sentinel offers an in-depth look about the search for techniques to track Asian carp. But first, it presents this anecdote that typifies damage that invasive species can cause with little or no realization of what’s going on:

A fish pond in Missouri reveals just how stealthy Asian carp can be.

Maybe an acre in size, the pond had been stocked with catfish, bass and bluegills. The owner was pumping it full of fish food, yet the fish appeared to be starving. So in early 2010 the owner called in a consultant. 

"They came out with electrofishing gear, caught some fish and looked at them," said Duane Chapman, one of the country's leading Asian carp experts and a biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey. "The fish were emaciated and he didn't know why. He said, 'There's something wrong here. We need to start over again.' They brought in rotenone and completely killed the pond."

Over the next week, the rotting carcasses of about 300 bighead carp surfaced. The smallest were 20 pounds. The big ones were a border collie-sized 35 pounds. Poisoned Asian carp, Chapman explained, are different from many fish species in that they typically don't surface unless the water is warm enough for gases to build up in their bellies, a process that can take a week.

"It was quite amazing there could be that much poundage in one small pond," Chapman said.

It turned out that a decade earlier the previous property owner had stocked the pond with bighead. They had flourished right under the nose of the new owner, who had smelled trouble - but couldn't see a thing.

I found the story especially interesting because grass carp --- illegally introduced by lakefront property owners who should be arrested --- have done the same thing to the small lake behind my house. Those carp, most of them 20 pounds and more, make up the majority of the biomass.

And just as an acre of land can grow only so many bushels of corn, a lake can sustain only so many pounds of fish. As a result, the bass and catfish in my little lake grow slowly, if at all, with the bulk of the bass being 12 inches or less.

Will what has happened in that pond and my lake also occur if/when Asian carp move into the Great Lakes?

Do we really want to wait and see what happens, endangering a billion-dollar sport fishery? The time is long past due to close the manmade connection between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River basin. Right now, it provides an open door for invasive species to migrate from one system to another.

Stocking Exotics Is Thoughtless and Selfish Act

The snakehead is growing in popularity among anglers.

This fish has been spread far beyond its native waters. It leaps often from the water. It has damaged fisheries.

Name that fish.

If you said “silver carp,” you are correct.

But that description also applies to the largemouth bass.

I thought about that recently, after reading this article.

Before I make my point about that, let me first explain some terms. An “exotic” or “non-native” is any species introduced outside its native range. It can be from another continent or it simply can be from another watershed.

If it proves harmful, then it is also can be termed “invasive” and/or a “nuisance” species.

Few would argue that silver and bighead carp, both from Asia, are both invasive and nuisance.

On the other hand, the largemouth bass is the most popular sport fish in North America and possibly the world. Where’s the negative in that?

Let’s start with its historic --- and limited --- range. It existed originally east of the Rocky Mountains from southern Ontario and Quebec down to east Texas and northeastern Mexico and across to western New York and Pennsylvania, as well as the southeastern states.

Today, the largemouth is established in every state except Alaska, as well as Japan, Spain, Italy, South Africa, and Zimbabwe, among other countries.

In most instances, the predatory bass has been a welcome addition to sport fisheries because it both adaptable and cooperative. But that is not always the case. For example, Japanese resource managers report that it is eliminating smaller, native species.

My point is this: I see the same thing starting to happen with the snakehead as happened with the largemouth bass. Anglers have begun to recognize it as an aggressive sport fish that is fun to catch, and, thus far, it hasn't seemed to damage the Potomac River and its tributaries.

My fear is that anglers will spread snakeheads because they want to catch more of them and in waters closer to their homes.

We planted largemouth and smallmouth bass ---- along with rainbow and German brown trout --- in new fisheries during a less enlightened time, when we gave no thought to consequences and ecological balance. We created some great fisheries. But we devastated some as well, including many waters populated by brook trout.

Today we know about the problems that exotic species can bring, as we watch Asian carp cause catastrophic damage to our rivers.

Yet anglers, lakefront property owners, and others continue to illegally stock fish. Among them: grass carp, northern pike, walleye, and crappie. Will the snakehead be next?

 I hope not. To do so would be an incredibly thoughtless and selfish act in which a public resource is put at risk for private gain.

For the most part, we got lucky with largemouth bass. But we’ve had plenty of examples since to show that, most times, introduction of exotics does more harm than good. 

Grass Carp Also Threaten, Damage Fisheries

One of four illegally stocked grass carp that Activist Angler has caught in lake behind his house.

Bighead and silver carp are making most of the news these days, as they threaten invasion of both the Great Lakes and inland fisheries in the Upper Midwest.

But before these two Asian carp species escaped from fish farms and began to devastate our rivers, a few states were trying grass carp --- yet another Asian carp species --- to manage invasive aquatic vegetation, notably hydrilla. And biologists developed a sterile (triploid) variety to lessen the likelihood that this exotic would reproduce in waters where it was introduced --- or to which it escaped.

For resource managers, the problem is that using these grass grazers for vegetation control is mostly an all-or-nothing proposition: Too much vegetation without them, none with them.

And the problem for the rest of us is that --- as with bighead and silver carp --- our elected officials bowed to special interests and failed to protect our aquatic resources. Grass carp always have been and continue to be much too easy to obtain.

As a consequence, illegal stockings are common, as has happened at the little lake behind my house. Grass carp now make up most of the biomass in the lake, meaning they basically have destroyed the sport fishery.

Fortunately, most grass carp sold today are sterile. But not all.

A grass carp recently shot by a bow angler in Michigan’s St. Joseph River was reproductively viable, according to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR).

What makes this especially disturbing is that the fish was in the Berrien County portion of the river ---- very near Lake Michigan.

DNR says this:

Grass carp are rarely found in Michigan waters. Previous cases were usually the result of illegal stocking in ponds or movement from other states where stocking genetically altered triploid fish for aquatic vegetation control is allowed.

Other states allow the stocking of triploid fish because they believe the fish have a low probability of reproduction, but the sterilization process is not 100 percent effective.

Given their potential negative effects on fish habitat, the DNR strongly opposes the use of triploid fish and reminds the public that live grass carp are illegal to possess, transport or stock in both public and private waters.

In response to this finding, the DNR’s Fisheries Division will continue to assess the distribution of grass carp in the lower St. Joseph River through electrofishing surveys this fall, monitoring movement through fish ladders and angler harvest reports. Potential points of entry will also be assessed to prevent further releases in Michigan waters.

Why We Fish: The You-Just-Never-Know Factor

Heat and drought have pushed the bass and most of the bluegill out to deeper water in the little lake behind my house.

And too many years of catching big bass on topwaters, spinnerbaits, and swimbaits at Lake El Salto in Mexico has spoiled me; mining the depths with finesse baits just isn’t appealing.

So I’ve been heading over to my neighbor’s dock once or twice a week to fish with him for bluegill, catfish, and --- my favorite! --- grass carp. He has an automated feeder that throws out pellets at 6:30 and again at 9, and the fish start gathering there about 6, along with turtles, ducks, and even a muskrat for the second feeding.

Only problem is that the fish have become so conditioned to eating pellets that they now ignore worms and even the bread balls that I offer the carp.

My friend turned off the feeder for a week and we tried fishing again last night, hoping that the fish would be more cooperative.

A few bluegill ate worms, as did a big softshell turtle. But both catfish and carp still wouldn’t touch our baits.

Finally, about 8:30, a few dimples started to appear on the surface of the calm, clear lake. Hoping that I could entice a big bluegill or a small bass, I started throwing a small minnow bait with an ultralight. It wasn’t my first choice. But it was rigged and ready.

About the fourth or fifth cast, with the bait only a few feet from the dock, a long, gray fish suddenly dashed out of deeper water and grabbed it.

Turned out to be a 5-pound-plus channel catfish, not bad for 6-pound line and a buggy whip rod.

That surprise element is one of the most appealing things about fishing for me. And it can come at any moment.

While fishing for bass in Oklahoma a few years ago, I caught a 20-pound-plus flathead catfish on a spinnerbait. And up in Nebraska, I caught a 20-4 northern pike on a smallmouth jig. In the Florida Keys, I dueled a goliath grouper for 45 minutes, after it ate a small grouper that I was reeling in.

And way back during my college years, I was bringing in a small bass that had eaten my topwater. As I reeled it the last couple of feet to shore, a tremendous explosion showered me with water and a fierce yank nearly pulled the rod from my hands. I never saw what ate the little bass and nearly hooked itself on my lure, but that brief moment in time will be forever with me.

When you throw out that bait . . . you just never know.