Abstract
Voluntary tournament reports collected from bass clubs by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department provided the opportunity to evaluate the effects of bass-club tournaments on populations of largemouth bass Micropterus salmoides and assess the utility of these reports for monitoring the fishing success of nontournament anglers. Among six reservoirs having bass-club tournaments and creel surveys in 1985, tournaments reported by bass clubs accounted for 7–50% of the weekend daily fishing pressure and 6–80% of the daily harvest. Significant differences in harvest rates and mean weights of bass were not detected between tournament and creel survey data from within-reservoir comparisons for the six reservoirs. Annual statewide fishing pressure and harvest reported by bass clubs were less than 2% of the statewide creel estimates during 1978–1985. Statewide bass-club tournament and nontournament harvest rates showed similar trends during 1978–1985. However, statewide bass-club harvest rates were significantly higher than those of nontournament anglers, as was the mean weight of bass harvested in bass-club tournaments until 1983. Bass tournaments may concentrate fishing pressure for brief periods, but direct comparisons showed that bass-club anglers and nontournament bass anglers were equally successful. Therefore, tournament data may be useful for monitoring harvest rates for reservoirs lacking creel surveys.
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