Guys on the east side complain about the lakes getting overfished by tournaments should look at these results. Austin Lake near Kalamazoo is about the size of Cass Lake had 65 events. Figure 4 months that's 16 a month or one every other day.
They don't have as many lakes with tournament-friendly launch ramps over there, especially for anything bigger than a small club tournament.
Fishing is good for fishing. There's no such thing as too much fishing when you're talking about a type of fishing that is near 100% voluntary catch-and-release.
Angler effort on Lake St. Clair is actually only 50% of what it was in the late 1980s by the way. People who believe there's too much pressure have just talked themselves into believing it. Usually, it makes a great excuse for why someone can't catch them... yet, someone always catches them (almost always).
Weather takes care of Overfishing on St Clair. Only so many good days out there. I think guys not moving with the fish and having bad days blame overfishing.
Some anglers will always look for some 'other' reason why they aren't catching fish... I've seen too many concrete examples of reality verses what anglers fish to put much stock in many complaints and stories.
Years ago people were complaining about the Grand River in Lansing. The MDNR came out and surveyed the river. It's no Lake St. Clair but they found good numbers of largemouth and smallmouth bass with good numbers of keeper-sized bass. No evidence of anything wrong.
Sometimes we just have to relearn the bass as they do move and change. I've been stressing the idea of learning about the available forage lately in the few seminars I do - the Rick Clunn story about the Comanche Indian telling him if you want to know the owl you study the mouse, not the owl. Forage changes, bass change.
I would like to see anglers as a whole be much smarter. Don't grab the first story you hear and think that must be it. Like people lately telling me how LMBV supposedly caused a big smallmouth bass die-off up north on Grand Lake... LMBV is LARGEMOUTH Bass Virus. It didn't kill any smallmouth anywhere to my knowledge... Maybe there was a smallmouth die-off on Grand Lake but I have to wonder about that 'observation' when I'm hearing it only from anglers who are also blaming LMBV for it?!?
One obviously bad 'deduction' makes all claims suspect... It would actually be easier and more likely to get someone to look at Grand Lake if people weren't talking about LMBV killing smallmouth bass.
I know the underwater camera also told me there are usually more bass in an area than I'm catching. Part of figuring out how to catch them better is figuring out are you just in the wrong spot, or are you not getting the ones there to bite.
I recall the MDNR telling me how there were seeing way more and bigger bass on their big underwater camera around Huron Point on St. Clair. That was the same EXACT week that Bassmaster was there and everyone was complaining about the 'skinny' bass that year. A local bass tournament angler had told the MDNR how he caught only 1 bass in that area all day, though it was a 5-pounder - the same area the SAME day the MDNR was seeing large numbers of big bass on their camera!
I was talking to one of the premier Elite Anglers at the final weigh-in that weekend. He was complaining about the poor fishing, worried that something terrible was wrong with St. Clair. I told him about the MDNR seeing all the bass, including big bass, on camera around Point Huron. Point Huron was real popular that year with those event participants - he had fished there a lot as well. He refused to believe what I was saying. He said they (the Elite Anglers) were all too good not to be catching them better if those bass were actually there...
I've seen other agencies do similar work - let the tournament anglers fish through an area. Then they go into the same area with the shock boat. Almost always, they capture a whole bunch more and bigger bass than what the good anglers managed to catch.
It's not that I discount everything anglers think, but I'm always aware that anglers can be a poor source of 'information' on what is going on many times. I try to withhold full acceptance of a possible issue or problem until there is more evidence of the scientific variety to demonstrate it is real.
Drives me crazy when someone involved with fisheries management tells me how fishing guides are 'excellent' resources for what is going on with a fishery because 'they're out there every day.' Fishing guides can be the most biased persons, they can be the most likely to not want others fishing their water more... Not saying they're all bad, but having gone through the bass season change and various muskie regulations changes the past few years I've seen some who definitely did NOT want someone else fishing their waters more... I have definitely seen fishing guides to be just as prone to believing and/or spreading bad information as any other angler.
The one thing I want to keep stressing is I believe anglers need to be way less concerned about 'too much fishing' and 'too many tournaments' and way MORE concerned about the decline in hunter and angler numbers! How can there be 'too much' when overall numbers are declining??
I've shared this before but I feel I need to keep sharing it until it sinks in with many more anglers, hopefully more prominent than some people's idea that there's too much of anything on St. Clair - Angling Effort on Lake St. Clair now is ONLY 50% of what it was in the late 1980s!?! I'm personally far more concerned about that huge a decline than I am in there possibly being 'too much' of anything going on on St. Clair.
We all should be encouraging more people to fish more often and I include bass tournaments in that statement.
Recreational Fishing is a dying activity. Most parents don't know how to fish so they can't teach the kids. Young kids now could care less about fishing. It is the same thing with Water Skiing and even Tubing and wakeboarding. On our lake has been taken over by the Wakesurfing Craze. There will be 4-8 boats out in the afternoons surfing. It is a good and bad thing. On the good part is it gets families together and outside. The bad is the Huge Wakes they create are causing a lot of damage. Our lake is probably 90 percent sea wall so erosion is no problem. Damage to boats and docks is another thing. I have towed in 2 pontoon boats this summer that still had the ropes and anchor poles attached. When we look out even cruising boats going by most of the people are staring at there phones. Even tournament participation has waned. I have been a director for the past 6 years and have seen a decline in numbers. Next year I won't be a director and will only fish the lakes I like. I fished 3 weekend events this year and the lakes were slammed. Was not fun for me at all. Time to do other things.
Not sure what the answer is.
Well... if you come up with it please share! We have lots of meetings where this question is the focus or a main topic. I've decided to continue to try to make fishing easier and more available as one small solution that I don't think will hurt anyways.
The High School and College fishing programs are another good thing for fishing. Participation continues to grow. Even the Michigan DNR did a study a while back that showed fishing competitions might keep more youth involved while also helping with adult participation. They just have to stop 'disliking' bass tournaments.
There are national studies that also show teenagers enjoying competitive fishing at least as far as fishing with their peers, comparing their catches and having prizes to win. Competitive fishing isn't for everyone but many people do enjoy it - I think having a wide variety of types of events helps.
Not sure it really 'hurts' participation in the bigger events. People are going to find or create what they want to fish if they can. Looking at the changes that really kicked into high gear when gas prices went way up it's not really surprising more people like fishing smaller, cheaper, closer events. There's also the perception that is becoming an epidemic - the 'I'm so busy' thing...