PHOTO BY GARRICK DIXON
PHOTO BY CHRISTOPHER SHANGLE
Dustin Connell Fletcher Shryock Andy Morgan
PHOTO BY PHOENIX MOORE
breaking down the data
As you can imagine with the Bass Pro Tour visiting half a dozen or more states annually , we receive very diverse data sets . No matter what data the state biologist provides , our process at the FMD desk is always the same .
First , we filter all the data by species – largemouth , smallmouth and spotted bass are individually analyzed if they exist in the same fishery . Next , we must standardize length and weight , so we run the data set through formulas to give inches for length and total pounds for weight . Step three is to then sort the filtered data by length and remove all fish below legal size . For fisheries with a slot limit or special regulation , we ’ ll typically use the statewide standard-length limits .
The data set may start out covering the past five years with 3,000 fish , but typically when we remove non-legalsized fish , we quickly get down below 1,000 legal fish in the data set . At this point , we pause our data sorting and calculate the average weight of a barely legal fish , just to get a base line for what the absolute minimum a legal fish weighs . The average weight of a 14-inch fish from one fishery to another may vary by as much as a quarter pound . For example , a 14-inch fish at Lake Fork was 1.31 pounds , but at Lake Palestine it was 1.42 pounds .
Once we have the data standardized , sorted and all nonlegal fish removed , we then group the fish by weight in 1 / 4- pound increments . We calculate what percentage of legal fish in the data set fit into each weight class and finally total what percentage of the data set would be included if each weight class was the minimum scorable weight . We then replicate this for each species if that ’ s needed .
For example , at Lake Fork , we started with a data set and filtered it down to 473 legal fish over 14 inches ( which is the state regulation ; not the slot limit used on the fishery ). Of those legal fish , 90 percent were over 1 1 / 2 pounds , 70 percent were over 2 pounds , 62 percent were over 2 1 / 4 pounds , and 54 percent were over 2 1 / 2 pounds . This is the data we presented to the committee for selecting the Minimal Scorable Weight , along with a recommendation for exactly where we think the standard should be set for that fishery .
making the final scorable-bass standard
Other members of the abovementioned committee are anglers and league officials who might bring results from local tournament weigh-ins , their pre-practice experience , predictions on weather conditions or even our own SCORE- TRACKER ® data from past events . The committee discusses our recommendations and compares this science-based approach to real-world experience to come up with the Minimum Scorable Weight . After one final vote , it ’ s set and we move on to the next season .
The key is that this process is happening well before the schedule is even announced . The goal is to make a real-time minimum weight determination that holds the Bass Pro Tour anglers to a higher standard than most comparable events on a given body of water . Sometimes we get it right . Other times , unpredictable conditions make our standard set too high . Regardless , the Minimum Scorable Weight is one of the many ways the Bass Pro Tour maintains a very high level of competition , and the MLF Fisheries Management Division is happy to play a small role in making sure it ’ s based in science .
JUNE-JULY 2022 | MAJORLEAGUEFISHING . COM 13