Patrick Walters commented early on that making long casts are essential to catching his fish. There might be a strategic reason, but what he might not know is there most definitely is a scientific reason why it works.
The Texas Parks & Wildlife Department is conducting a most unique tracking study to determine if fishing pressure, and specifically the presence of boats, is causing Lake Fork’s largemouth population to be boat shy.
Lake Fork, the original premier trophy bass fishery, sees more than its share of bass tournaments. In the big scheme of space, 27,000 acres might not seem much, but when you consider the scope of tournaments here, it fishes small. Just last week, a tournament with 1,500 participants was held here. Some have even greater numbers, and they go the year around.
TPWD has outfitted radio transmitters on 23 largemouth, tracking the fish every other week, to determine how they respond to boat noise. The results are surprising.
So far, 156 total observations, or encounters, have been recorded thus far. About 50% of the observations showed a clear reaction to the approaching TPWD boats. Most of the surveyed fish remained in shallow water, making them even more prone to reacting to outboard motor noise, and then angling pressure.
“The big takeaway was those fish are boat shy, constantly moving,” said Jake Norman, district supervisor who oversees Lake Fork. “In deeper water though, the fish are moving tremendous bait schools, so we eliminated them from the data.”
The sum of the whole is about 30% of the tracked fish are 100% responsive to the presence of an approaching boat.
“I go back to the anglers, myself and included, and say that’s 30 percent of the fish that are more challenging to catch before you even pick up a rod and reel,” said Norman. “They are running on you before you make a cast.”
To read my entire article, click here. https://m.bassmaster.com/news/lake-forks-unique-tracking-study