| Oklahoma bass fishermen may be missing out on one of the best parts of the sport, a meal of fresh fish. Protected slot limits are special size regulations (usually for bass) that are placed on certain lakes to improve the fish population. Fish that measure within the protected slot limit must be released immediately, while fish that are either shorter or longer than the protected range may be kept. "These slot limits are in place to properly balance the predator prey relationship," said Gene Gilliland, fisheries biologist with the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation. "Many of these slot limit lakes have an overabundance of small bass. By harvesting these fish it reduces the overall competition for food and allows the other bass to grow quicker." "We really need anglers help at these lakes. If anglers want a top quality fishery, the best thing they can do is take home some fish on these slot limit lakes." Gilliland added, that catch and release has been a valuable management tool over the years, but selecting the overabundant small bass (those shorter than the slot length limit) to harvest is the only way the slot length limits will improve the fishery. |
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| I'll give you a very loooooooooooooong answer to a short question because you have made a lot of assumptions that will affect the outcome. First, cross off the crayfish-only diet. Crayfish are slow and easily caught so bass like to eat them. But unless the lake had lots of weeds to provide the crayfish cover, they wouldn't last long and the bass would wipe them out, short-circuiting the food chain. That ultimately would equal slow or no growth for the bass. Crayfish also are the poorest choice from the food value point of view because a lot of them is shell that is indigestible. Now lets define "perch." I assume you mean sunfish such as bluegill, redear, longear, etc., not true perch such as the yellow perch like they have up north. OK. Let's pick the most common sunfish, the bluegill, and assume everything is "normal" in that population Bluegill and bass evolved together so the timing of their respective spawns is just right and many a large bass has been grown on nothing but bluegill. They are prolific and in a well-balanced population you will have a variety of sizes so the bass have appropriately sized food throughout their lives (tiny bluegill for the fingerling bass all the way up to 4-6 inch bluegill for the largest adults). Food availability at each stage of the bass' life stage is critical to growing fast and getting really big. You must have the right size forage and have it in abundance. Now let's define shad. There are two species - gizzard (GZS) and threadfin (TFS). They are very different in their life history. Which one is in the lake could effect the answer to your original question. Shad are prolific and good forage (high calorie content and no sharp spines to mess with). Gizzard Shad...Let's also assume the GZS population is healthy & reproducing. We may have a problem though if they are the only forage because in many cases the ones spawned any given year will outgrow the little bass spawned that same year and essentially be unavailable as food for any but the larger bass. If, however, the shad growth is slower, then you can have a range of sizes to feed all the different sizes of bass. They are the most common forage in our reservoirs. A possible problem occurs, however, when gizzard shad don't spawn regularly because of too stable water levels. You wind up with a population of very large adults (maybe up to 12-14 inches long) and no little ones for the smaller bass. This happens most often in smaller lakes and ponds. That's why we don't recommend stocking GZS in small lakes or farm ponds. Threadfin shad...TFS don't grow as large or as quickly as GZS so they are almost perfect as bass forage. However, they are not tolerant of cold weather. They die off if the water temperatures get below 40 degrees. That's why we don't have them in northern OK lakes and cold winters like we had in 2000-01 killed them off all the way south to Texoma. In which case restocking is called for. We never recommend them for small lakes. Another problem with TFS is that in lakes where they do overwinter and their numbers grow to huge proportions, they can actually compete with the bass fry for zooplankton, limiting bass survival. So, there is no clear-cut answer to your question. In perfect situations, to grow bass fast and large, I'd rank them threadfin shad first, then gizzard shad, bluegill and crayfish, last. But in the real world, a combination of these things is what will make the best forage base for a healthy bass population. Gene Gilliland |
| Slot Limits important fish management tool,,, |
| If you had three lakes exactly the same except for, lake one had only crayfish to feed on, lake two had only perch and lake three had only shad, which one of the lakes would most likely grow the larger Largemouth Bass? |