Smallmouth population

[Littlesaltwash]

There have been lots of fishing reports detailing the large number of small smallmouths being caught in relation to fish of the larger sizes. It would seem that these smaller fish would be classified along with the stripers and walleyes as “overabundant” or detrimental to the forage base and that a limit change could be beneficial for the whole powell fishery. Would another year, or two, of these fish spawning tip an already delicate balance that would be hard to reverse? Skinny stripers are returned to the food chain without much of a thought because of the unrestricted limit and knowing that too many predators aren’t good for the long term fishery. I know that Utah and the other states don’t want individual fisherman deciding what they think is “best” for their favorite reservoir and rightfully should leave the management to those qualified. What’s the solution? Does Wayne get to make another smallmouth decision?

 

[wayne gustaveson]

There have been lots of fishing reports detailing the large number of small smallmouths being caught in relation to fish of the larger sizes. It would seem that these smaller fish would be classified along with the stripers and walleyes as “overabundant” or detrimental to the forage base and that a limit change could be beneficial for the whole powell fishery. Would another year, or two, of these fish spawning tip an already delicate balance that would be hard to reverse? Skinny stripers are returned to the food chain without much of a thought because of the unrestricted limit and knowing that too many predators aren’t good for the long term fishery. I know that Utah and the other states don’t want individual fisherman deciding what they think is “best” for their favorite reservoir and rightfully should leave the management to those qualified. What’s the solution? Does Wayne get to make another smallmouth decision?

Yes I am considering a change to allow unlimited collection of smallmouth less than 14 inches. Unfortunately the next guidebook with new fishing rules does not come out until 2021. We will analyze the smallmouth bass size relationship and respond this fall.

 

[Dungee]

I like the initial thought of a slot on Smallies. I'm certainly no expert but our thought is that its just sometimes hard to keep the limit now. We always keep some of the smaller ones for fish fries but keeping a limit of say three or four requires effort and planning. Its a lot of work every night at camp to fillet three, maybe four limits of smaller smallies. I think the number is fine, but that more people (ourselves included) need to be persistent in keeping their limits of the smallies under 12",13".

 

[Flipper]

Considerable effort has been made in the past years to educate people on how to catch - fillet- and cook stripers. and the importance to the balance of the food chain in the lake to never put a live one back into the water. More recently that same type of effort has been made to keep the walleye under control. Instructional videos, tagging fish and contest, and special reports on how to catch them, and no limits on what you can keep. Maybe we need to push an equal amount of effort to control the numbers of smallmouth as well. A video on how to fillet them would be nice. I think a lot more people would keep more of them if they knew how to fillet them and how good they are to eat. When the wife is gone and I have to cook for myself it's always a fish dinner, and about half the time its small mouth. They can go from the freezer to the plate in less than 30 minutes and cooked several different ways.
I like the slot limit idea as well. Five or maybe 10 over 13" and unlimited or 25 or 40 under 13". I see that the official limits cannot be changed often, that being said most people reading this will do just about what ever Wayne recommends. What would be nice is if we could get 20" skinny stripers to eat 7" smallmouths. They simply can't catch them. As big a lake as Powell is and as few fishermen as there are comparatively it is really hard to control the number of any species with just fishermen and limits or lack there of. Crappie and maybe largemouth bass would be the 2 exceptions, and that is due to their nature and lack of habitat they prefer at times.

 

[Edward Gerdemann]

They fillet just like a striper except you don't have to cut out the red muscle meat. They are a firm and mild tasting fish. I've said for years people are missing out on not taking advantage of this wonderful fishery.

Ed Gerdemann

 

[Dorado]

Worth a shot. But regulation changes seldom make the difference that people, especially hardcore anglers, expect. To have any affect, people have to actually be keeping their limits, which seldom occurs as it is. Taking away limits or increasing the number of fish people can harvest usually has very little effect, since people are not really keeping any more fish. I am pretty skeptical that regulations have any effect at LP, the changing conditions in terms of forage and habitat really drive recruitment, and hardly anyone keeps big bass anyways...Stripers are limited by forage, mortality from harvest has got to be minimal compared to the big die-offs from starvation that occur every few years when they run out of shad....might as well eat em' though!

That said, there is no reason why those who want to keep a pile of little smallmouth shouldn't go ahead and do it! I always keep some, but find the little ones to really be a pain to filet for how much meat you get. They are quite tasty though!

 

[Cliff]

Let's see? Lots of people around the country keep lots of small Yellow Perch and filet them for the freezer. They tend to be small but people like eating them. Why not SMB? Lots of people around the country eat bluegills. Many ways to harvest them also, even small ones. Its all in the technique - how many fish can Wayne filet in 10 minutes? Ever watch him? I have!

I think a lot of it has to do with mind sets and the popular fishing contests with a no kill rule. It gets people (bass fishermen) to go to a certain mind set everywhere.

Now to be honest. I'm not a bass fisherman. I can catch all the strippers I want and I'm an avid trout fisherman (learning the new lake in Kanab right now, Jackson Flat Reservoir, PB 4 lb 6 oz brown trout), the wife likes to sit on the shore and catfish in the summer but I've never learned how to fish for bass. I guess I need to get out and try. If I could learn how to consistently catch smallies I'd filet them for sure. And, I'm the only one in the house that eats a lot of fish to boot!

 

[BrianID]

Cliff,

Catching smallmouths at Lake Powell is very easy from May to October. Wayne has a lot of information on this website on how to catch smallmouths. Last year I was averaging over 100 SMB per day without even trying for numbers. If my goal were numbers, I bet I could catch 200+ smallmouth in a morning. Send me a message and I'll give you my phone number if you want to talk to someone about tips and tactics for smallmouth at Lake Powell.

 

[Team Z7]

All you need is a Ned Rig.

 

[Cliff]

Thanks I'll do that Have some guests over the holiday so it'll be next week before I can even think about it

 

[PBH]

Worth a shot. But regulation changes seldom make the difference... To have any affect, people have to actually be keeping their limits, which seldom occurs as it is. ... since people are not really keeping any more fish.

This is exactly right. Right now people are not keeping their allowed limit. Increasing that limit may not help increase harvest. So what is the answer?

There are only four fishery management tools: (1) fishing rules and regulations; (2) public relations and education; (3) fish stocking and fish removal, and (4) habitat improvement and manipulation.

#1 (rules and regulations) may not work alone. We've already determined that increasing a limit when the current limit isn't being harvested may not do anything.

#3 (fish removal) is determinant upon anglers and #1.
#4 (habitat manipulation) is a mountain (continent?) of a task considering the sheer volume of viable spawning habitat in Lake Powell for smb. This is probably not the best tool available.

That leaves us with #2: public relations and education.

This is no different than what Wayne has been tasked with for the last 40 years at Lake Powell with striped bass, and exactly what he has been doing by asking anglers to harvest more smb / walleye. It took a long time, but anglers figured out, through education and public relations, that the striped bass population requires as much harvest / mortality by anglers as possible in order to maintain a healthy population. We now have to turn to both walleye and smb and educate anglers of those very same benefits of harvest of those species.

If you look at Wayne's fishing reports for the last few years, you'll notice a change -- while striper techniques and locations continue to be a significant focus of the weekly reports, smb and walleye now get similar attention.

Education and public relations are the key at Lake Powell to maintain healthy sportfish populations. That is where the focus needs to be, not only from the UDWR, but also for anglers. We need to help by promoting and supporting other anglers looking to harvest these species. Continued fishing reports of successful areas, techniques, and time of year as well as encouraging, rather than discouraging, the harvest of walleye and smb will only help these species maintain a healthy population in Lake Powell.

 

[fastarget]

Agree with Education and more of it. We were at the Bullfrog fish cleaning station, watched all kinds of fish and filleting going on. My 9 year old, a passionate fisherman and nature lover, spent a few minutes trying to convince the guy next to us that he should have put the big large mouth bass back in the water, because LMB take longer to mature and reach that size, not to mention their numbers are on the decline, and why that person should have kept all the SMB instead. The Kid even tried to teach the adult the difference between the two species.

Education and awareness work, the more the better.

 

[PBH]

Agree with Education and more of it. We were at the Bullfrog fish cleaning station, watched all kinds of fish and filleting going on. My 9 year old, a passionate fisherman and nature lover, spent a few minutes trying to convince the guy next to us that he should have put the big large mouth bass back in the water, because LMB take longer to mature and reach that size, not to mention their numbers are on the decline, and why that person should have kept all the SMB instead. The Kid even tried to teach the adult the difference between the two species.

Education and awareness work, the more the better.

That's awesome. Good for your boy.


One thing that all of us also need to understand and realize is that when it comes to average growth rates and popluation health, the size of the fish shouldn't matter. Any harvest of smb, whether they are large fish or small fish, will result in a net gain. Protecting the "large" fish in a situation where there are already too many fish does no good. The slot restriction protecting the "large" fish is simply a "social" issue -- trying to appease anglers. Biologically, it doesn't really help. It just makes us feel good. If we truly want to help the smb population through harvest, then we should include all sizes of fish in the harvest.

The magic of this is growth rates. We all hear all the time about how long it takes to grow a "big" fish. The truth is that "big" fish are the result of fast growth -- not time in years. If we are talking about time in years, then growth rates must be slow and we should concentrate on fixing the growth rate issue (ie: reduce the population size!). If we have fast growth rates, then big fish get big FAST. That's the ideal situation:




If you have an underharvested population, like we do at Lake Powell, then growth rates slow, and your annual production zone is very small.
If you have a population in the zone of maximum growth, you then have a very large annual production zone, and fish grow quickly!
If you have an overharvested population, then you [again] have a small production zone.


Keep in mind: the definition of a "stunted" fish population is one in which fish reach sexual maturity at small sizes. (NOT young age!) The only way to correct this is to remove fish, including the "big" fish.

 

[fastarget]

Excellent info, will have the little guy read this thread.