Missouri Smallmouth Alliance Proposes New Smallmouth Bass Regulations
SMA Aims for World-Class Stream Fisheries
By DAN KREHER
Editor's Note: Dan Kreher heads up the Missouri Smallmouth Alliance Blue Ribbon Panel, and has been a strong leader for decades in the movement for world class smallmouth bass fisheries in Missouri.
Missouri's Ozarks are blessed with thousands of miles of beautiful rivers, streams and creeks, most of which harbor viable populations of smallmouth bass. Anglers across the state and from beyond our borders enjoy floating on and wading in these clear-water gems in search of hard-fighting bronzebacks, hoping the lunker of a lifetime is just one cast away.
The Missouri Smallmouth Alliance, a non-profit angling advocacy group with nearly 300 members across the state, has put together a slate of proposed measures to markedly improve the opportunity for folks to catch more and much larger smallmouth bass in our state's moving waters.
Missouri's stream smallmouth bass fisheries have been managed under a 12-inch minimum length limit and a six fish daily creel limit since the early 1970s. These regulations have generally resulted in the sustainment of solid populations of smallmouth bass in most of our Ozark streams featuring suitable habitat. Meanwhile, the average sizes and proportional stock densities of larger bronzebacks in our streams have remained well below their potential.
In an effort to improve the overall quality of stream smallmouth bass angling opportunities, the MDC instituted its Special Black Bass Management Area program in the early 1990s.
This program has resulted in the designation of 12 separate stream reaches totaling nearly 350 miles in combined length. Ten of these areas feature a 15-inch minimum length limit and a one fish daily creel limit for smallmouth while two other streams (sections of the Gasconade and Jacks Fork) are managed as trophy areas under an 18-inch minimum length limit and a one fish daily creel limit.
The state's research has shown that these special regulation areas are working as intended. Angler catch rates, average fish sizes and the proportional stock densities of larger smallmouth bass in these areas have risen sharply and are continuing to improve over time.
Smallmouth bass in our streams grow very slowly, requiring four to six years to reach 12 inches in length. Their growth slows even more as they reach sexual maturity. It takes a long time to grow a lunker smallmouth bass in an Ozark stream.
In areas with adequate habitat, the reduced harvest of adult smallmouth bass has proven to be the number one factor in improving fishing quality. Once that keeper smallmouth is put on a stringer, that's one less bronzeback waiting to furiously smash your popping bug or Tiny Torpedo.
Avid smallmouth bass anglers are overwhelmingly in favor of these special areas and the type of fishing they can provide. Polls also reveal that sport fishermen increasingly value the opportunity to catch larger smallmouth bass as opposed to a limit of crispy filets.
Higher minimum length limits combined with low daily creel limits produce improved angling opportunities for smallmouth bass in those designated areas. The Alliance believes that this continued evolution in angler attitudes coupled with this proven scientific research has created a perfect storm of sorts.
Now is the time for the state to expand these proven management practices to protect and improve the existing smallmouth bass resources of our rivers, streams and creeks around the state.
The alliance's Blue Ribbon Advisory Panel, comprised of 20 experienced individuals (avid anglers all), including outfitters, outdoor journalists and a retired fisheries biologist, recently formulated and proposed a slate of fisheries management changes to the Regulations Committee of the MDC to address this very issue.
The panel's proposal is to:
- increase the minimum length limit for smallmouth bass in unimpounded waters statewide to 15 inches and reduce this species' creel limit from 6 fish to 3 fish per day;
- establish nine additional management areas (15-inch minimum/1 fish creel limit) totaling approximately 300 additional miles of water;
- enact four additional "trophy" areas (18-inch minimum/1 fish creel limit) on high potential stream fisheries totaling more than 100 miles aggregate length.
This three-tiered approach for the management of smallmouth bass in Missouri's moving waters is quite similar to the method used by the MDC to currently manage brown and rainbow trout in our coldwater fisheries under the white, red or blue ribbon designations.
To likewise codify the three levels of smallmouth bass regulations, stream reaches could perhaps be signified with bronze, silver and gold designations allowing anglers to more easily recognize the regulations under which particular stream sections are being managed.
Rivers proposed for additional special regs include a number of well-known bronzeback streams such as the Meramec, Bourbeuse, Huzzah, Courtois, Bryant, North Fork of White, James, Gasconade, Current and Big Piney.
The proposed statewide limit changes would raise the bar for smallmouth bass angling quality on all rivers, streams and creeks, allowing a more reasonable harvest of this predator species while requiring anglers to release unharmed the majority of smallmouth bass they catch.
Even if your favorite Ozark stream was not among those proposed for new special regs, take heart because smallmouth bass there would still receive much greater protection under the proposed statewide 15-inch minimum/3 fish creel limit regulations compared to what exists today.
To learn more about these specific regulations proposals and the Missouri Smallmouth Alliance, please visit www.missourismallmouthalliance.org.