COLUMN: CONSERVATION
ROGER PETERSON/ENGBRETSON UNDERWATER PHOTOGRAPHY
FINDING BASS PART 3: competition
Weighing the odds of various patterns based on resource availability
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
TJ Maglio is a tournament
angler and outdoor writer
based in Minnesota. He
has a degree in wildlife
ecology from the University
of Wisconsin-Madison and
has also worked professionally
as a wildlife biologist
and environmental
consultant.
W
hen anglers think
about where and why
a bass might be in a
specific area in a waterbody, a
whole host of factors need to be
considered, including seasonality,
water temperature, water
clarity or quality, and even the
presence or absence of cover
and structure. Understanding
and unlocking those factors
goes a long way toward finding
and catching more bass. For
the purposes of this discussion,
let’s call those primary factors.
In prior installments in this
series, we explored additional
or secondary factors that can
help further unlock the bass
location puzzle. Secondary factors
are more nuanced, like
how to understand local and
regional habitat, as well as
studying forage type and abundance
to better predict location
and hone presentation.
The last of the secondary
factors to consider is competition
– not in the sense of
anglers competing in a tournament,
but rather how bass
compete with other bass and
other species for the limited
resources available in any
given fishery.
Studying competition
between and among species is
one of the pillars of fisheries
science, and although it’s hard
to tangibly apply the understanding
of competition
directly to catching more or
bigger bass, having baseline
knowledge of how animals
compete for limited resources
can improve an angler’s ability
to critically think. It also
explains many of the conundrums
encountered on the
water.
Bass Economics 101
Believe it or not, to help
understand competition in
bass, it helps to quickly review
a little economic theory.
The first concept to understand
is that resources are
scarce, meaning there’s a
finite supply of forage species,
ideal habitat, etc. available in
any waterbody. All the bass
(and other species that share
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