Opening a Spring Catch-and-Release Bass Season in New York State: Using the Best Available Information When Real Science Can't Help

Prior to 2007, New York State employed a closed season for black bass (smallmouth and largemouth bass) through the third Saturday in June to protect the spawn- nest guarding period.  As nationwide regulations for black bass exhibited a trend towards increasing liberalization, including opening of spring fishing in some of New York’s neighboring states, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) experienced increasing pressure from anglers to open a Spring fishing season.  In response, a power analysis was conducted to determine the feasibility of directed research to assess potential impacts of angling during the spawn on year class strength.  High intrinsic variability in black bass year class strengths suggested an adequate study of angling impacts would require 20 or more years, a time frame that was unrealistic in light of increasing angler interest in a regulation change.  Angler surveys in two of the State’s 9 regions revealed that a majority of anglers supported a catch and release fishery during the traditional closed season, and DEC moved towards proposing a regulation change for public comment.  Prior to proposing the change, the Bureau of Fisheries Statewide Database was used to gather potentially relevant data for what amounted to a weight of evidence approach to assessing the potential risk of Spring fishing to bass year class strength.  Review of available water temperature data indicated that many black bass populations were still in some stage of the spawning-nest guarding phase when the season opened in mid-June.  No consistent temporal or spatial patterns in black bass abundance could be linked to potential variations on the extent to which the closed season protected spawning and guarding, and in Oneida Lake, where a long-term data set on smallmouth bass year class strength was available, no relationship between year class strength and variations in the level of protection offered by the closed season was observed.  A white paper was prepared to inform public comment on a proposed regulation change.  Based on public comment, a catch-and-release, artificial lures only season was opened from December 1 through the third Saturday in June in 2007.  A 2007 angler survey indicated that some 660,000 days of directed bass angling took place in the State during the newly opened season.  Subsequent assessments of smallmouth bass year classes in Oneida Lake so far show no negative response in year class strength to the liberalization of bass regulations.