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HABITAT ENHANCEMENT IS A PILLAR OF MLF FISHERIES MANAGEMENT DIVISION
It ’ s safe to assume that many of your favorite bass lakes are 50-plus years old . The peak of reservoir construction in the United States was 1950 through about 1970 . Since then , there ’ s been a steep decline in construction of new reservoirs in the U . S .
Reservoirs are designed to control downstream flooding , sometimes for power generation , and always to provide water to growing urban populations . But regardless of the purpose of a reservoir , fisheries managers have learned that they all age through very similar processes .
Most reservoirs start out with deep channels , hard-bottom areas , flooded standing timber and fish populations that seem to grow exponentially . Through time , they constantly accumulate both sediment and nutrients from the surrounding watershed . Woody habitat is lost to decay , shorelines erode , hard bottom is covered in soft silt and algal blooms become more prevalent . This process is a significant challenge for fisheries managers as they strive to turn back the hands of time and restore or slow the results of aging .
This is one of many reasons the Major League Fishing Fisheries Management Division ( FMD ) has made fisheries enhancement one of the main pillars that guide the scope of our work .
“ Fisheries enhancement ” encompasses everything from restoring fish habitat to improving angler access to quality fisheries , but for this article , we ’ re going to focus specifically on the habitat components .
By Steven Bardin and Gary Klein
PHOTOS BY RACHEL DUBROVIN
ALL ABOUT HABITAT
Fish habitat refers to just about any physical component of a waterbody that attracts fish to a specific location and provides them a benefit ( increasing their survival , improving reproductive success or maximizing feeding opportunities ). One of our first steps in creating a habitat project is to try to define the presence and abundance of ambush , escape , reproductive and recovery habitat within our targeted reservoir . This is done via time on the water , both with our anglers and collaboration with state agencies . Once we define what is present , we can then make decisions on what habitat types need to be improved or replaced .
Ambush habitats : These habitats primarily benefit predators . They ’ re typically individual structures placed in relatively shallow water that provide shade lines , hard edges and color breaks . Laydowns or boulders are good examples . The purpose of these habitats is simply to allow a predator to quickly target unsuspecting food items . These are often obvious targets for anglers to catch one or two fish quickly .
Escape habitats : These are high-density structures that can be placed in just about any depth . As the name implies , these habitats provide areas to escape predation . Examples are brushpiles and submerged vegetation . For anglers , the benefit is typically around the perimeter of these habitats , as the edges will hold fish that are roaming and looking for an easy meal .
Restoration projects like the one accomplished during Heavy Hitters in North Carolina are part of the overall habitat plan of the MLF Fisheries Management Division .
16 MAJORLEAGUEFISHING . COM | JUNE-JULY 2021