One
of the scariest problems facing our smallmouth streams is the
continuing take-over by spotted bass. Spotted (Kentucky) bass are one
of three native black bass species in Missouri, but originally they
were only found in the southward flowing streams of the Missouri
Ozarks. Even in most of these streams they were scarce; they were
common only in the lower Black River, St. Francis River, Castor River,
and Whitewater River. Spotted bass were entirely absent on the Osage,
Gasconade, and Meramec river systems, but somehow they appeared in
Lake of the Ozarks. Someone apparently dumped some spotted bass in the
Osage River prior to 1940, and by the early 1940's they were well
established in the upper Osage and in the lake. By the late 1950's
spotted bass were common in the Moreau River, and they were shown to
be hybridizing extensively with smallmouth bass in that stream. Then,
starting in 1962, the Missouri Conservation Department began stocking
spotties in several streams flowing into the Missouri River from the
north, and they were soon common in the Lamine and Perche, which flow
into the Missouri upstream from the Osage, and the Loutre rivers. From
these footholds, spotted bass began invading all suitable streams
which flowed into the Missouri. By 1974 they were in the lower
Gasconade.
The
Meramec River enters the Mississippi downstream from the mouth of the
Missouri. There may have always been a small number of spotted bass in
the Mississippi, but whether the spotted bass in the Meramec Basin, as
well as in smaller streams such as Saline Creek which flow directly
into the Mississippi, came up from the lower Mississippi or down from
the Missouri is unknown. I caught my first spotted bass in Big River
in the mid-1970s, but they were still exceedingly scarce in the
Meramec River System until the mid-1980s. I fished the lower Meramec
in the area near Pacific and Eureka around 1980 and never saw a
spotted bass, but by l985 they were common downstream from the mouth
of the Bourbeuse River. They also began spreading up Big River about
this time.
Spotted
bass apparently migrate upstream on these rivers with the spring
floods. It seemed that the old mill dams on Big River and the
Bourbeuse were a barrier for a while, and the colder water of the
heavily springfed Meramec above the Bourbeuse also slowed them down.
In their native south flowing streams, spotted bass are almost
nonexistent in the cooler, clearer sections; there are very few in the
upper North Fork, in the Eleven Point in Missouri, and in Current
River, all these streams being heavily springfed. However, the lower
Gasconade, Big River, and Bourbeuse River are warm, fertile, and
murky, perfect spotted bass habitat. The smallmouths thrived, and grew
well, in these rivers without competition from spotted bass, but once
the spots arrived they outbred and outcompeted the smallmouths. The 12
inch length limit on streams also favored the spots, which seldom grow
larger than 12 inches.
Now
spotties are showing up on Big River as far upstream as the Desloge
area. They made up about 10% of my catch in Big River between St.
Francois Park and Washington Park this past year. They are rapidly
increasing in the special management area on Big River and probably
are up to 25% of the bass population there, but below the migration
barrier of Morse Mill, they now make up at least 80%. They've now
breached the Guths Mill Dam barrier on the lower Bourbeuse in large
numbers, and last year made up about 20% of my catch between Noser
Mill and Union, where just the year before they were quite rare. As
for the Meramec, spots have almost entirely replaced smallmouths below
the mouth of the Bourbeuse, and are at least as abundant as
smallmouths downstream from Meramec State Park. These are all streams
where the habitat favors spots over smallmouths, yet historically have
always been our best big smallmouth fisheries.
In
an effort to stop this tragedy, MDC imposed an experimental regulation
on Big River below the Highway 21 bridge near De Soto about three
years ago, removing the length limit on spotted bass, but creel
surveys show that fishermen are not keeping the spots. When asked why,
most say they just don't keep any bass. But for those anglers who do
keep bass to eat, removing length limits alone won't be much of an
encouragement--who wants to keep only six small spotted bass as long
as you can still keep much bigger smallmouths and largemouths.
Encouraging anglers to kill as many spotted bass as possible while
protecting smallmouths as much as possible is the only sensible answer
to this problem. Many experienced anglers, including myself, feel the
only way to do this is by removing the creel limit entirely on spotted
bass while using a combination of higher length limits and lower creel
limits on other bass in the affected waters. However, though MDC is
considering extending the no length limit on spots to other stream
sections, they are resistant to changing the six fish creel limit.
Their reasoning is three-fold; they don't think anglers will keep
spots anyway, they are afraid that misidentification between spots and
largemouths will damage fisheries, and they are concerned about
enforcement problems.
We
believe these arguments have little merit. The only way to get anglers
who are seeking fish to eat to kill spotted bass is to allow them to
keep enough little ones to make it worthwhile. Six 10 inch spotties
won't feed a big family, but 20 of them will, especially if you're not
allowed to keep a lot of bigger smallmouths. A stronger education
program, by MDC and by organizations such as the Smallmouth Alliance,
could also encourage more anglers to kill spotted bass, but a
regulation removing all protection for spots while further protecting
smallmouths would do much to send the signal that this is a serious
problem. As for identification and enforcement, it should be the
angler's responsibility to be able to identify spotted bass. New
regulations concerning spots on several Missouri reservoirs shows that
at least some in MDC are finally convinced that anglers can learn to
identify them. As far as damaging largemouth fisheries, I'd rather
sacrifice a few largemouths, which are abundant statewide, to protect
our much more fragile smallmouth fisheries.
Most
experienced anglers can tell spotted bass from largemouths at a
glance, but if you can't, here are some tips. Spotted bass, like
largemouths, have a dark broken line running through the middle of
their sides from nose to tail, and both species are generally greenish
in color, but there the resemblance ends. The upper jaw of spotted
bass only extends to a point about even with the back of the eye with
mouth closed, while on largemouths it extends well past the eye. The
scales on the cheeks of spotted bass, especially those on the lower
cheeks, are much smaller than the scales on the fish's sides, while on
largemouths the cheek scales are all nearly as large as the scales
behind the gill openings. Spotted bass have a patch of teeth in the
middle of their tongue which you can feel as a rough spot, while most
largemouths don't. ( Somewhere around 20% of largemouths do have these
teeth, however.) Spotted bass have distinctive rows of small dark
spots running horizontally on their lower sides, below the main dark
line. On largemouths some spots are sometimes visible, but they are
never obvious and don't form distinct rows. Finally, the notch between
the dorsal spines (the spines on the back) and the soft dorsal fin is
fairly shallow on spots, but on largemouths it is much deeper; the
membrane connecting the shortest dorsal spine to the soft dorsal will
dip almost to the fish's body. The best way to surely identify spots
is to first check for the tongue teeth patch. If it isn't there, you
have a largemouth. If it is, look at the scales on the lower cheeks.
If they are very small, it's a spot. You can look at the upper jaw as
another very good indicator. Coloration and dorsal fin shape are less
obvious, but as I said, once you've identified a few, you'll be able
to tell them at a glance.
Let's
hope MDC comes around to our way of thinking on this and starts
getting serious about the spotted bass problem, but until then, don't
hesitate to kill all spotted bass up to the legal limit in Meramec
Basin streams. They taste good, and you'll be doing the smallmouth
fishery a big favor.
Al
Agnew is a wildlife artist, writer, and avid fisherman living in Ste.
Genevieve, Missouri. The painting shown to the left, Sunlight On
Bronze, is available as a limited edition print from the artist. Al
can be contacted at alagnew@alagnew.com
or (573) 883-5121. You can write to him at 11779 Hwy 32, Ste.
Genevieve, Missouri 63670.
Thanks
Al and Mary for your continued support of The Smallmouth Alliance.
Sunlight-
on Bronze by Al Agnew ©1998
