POPULATION PHENOMENA IN CERTAIN GAME FISHES OF LAKE SIMCOE, ONTARIO, AND SOME EFFECTS UPON ANGLING RETURNS. PART I. THE SMALLMOUTH BASS, MICROPTERUS DOLOMIEU LACÉPÈDE

Abstract

The varying susceptibility and availability of game fish populations to angling methods is seldom approached by modern scientific procedure, despite the fact that angling returns are generally accepted as reliable indices of population densities. Lake Simcoe—Ontario's fourth largest lake—afforded an excellent opportunity to study a situation of long standing wherein a great abundance of smallmouth bass had long yielded generally poor angling returns.Results from a scientific investigation, conducted mostly during the summer of 1940, were as follows:(1) A somewhat radical angling method was developed which yields greatly increased and highly satisfactory returns from the bass population.(2) The discovery that shifts in habitat—both diurnal and otherwise—by particular age groups of the smallmouth bass population had a significant effect upon angling returns.(3) The discovery that the smallmouth bass population of the lake was heterogeneous in character, i.e. that bass from one section of the lake had a significantly more rapid rate of growth than bass from another section, and that this influenced the quality of catch.(4) The conclusion that the smallmouth bass problem of Lake Simcoe cannot be solved by stocking; but rather by the dissemination of knowledge on improved methods of utilization.