FLATHEAD
Captain
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- Dec 29, 2002
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One of our members on our local fishing board posted this. I found it very interesting, thought I might share it here.<br /><br />--------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br />5/30 A radio telemetry study on ShareLunkers could duplicate lessons already learned<br /><br />By Matt Williams, Outdoors Writer<br /><br />There's been some talk around the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department's inland fisheries division about sinking some money into a big bass telemetry study. Fisheries biologists are wondering if they might learn more lunker largemouths by spying on them in their natural environments. <br /><br />The details of a possible study are pretty sketchy at this point. But according to Phil Durocher, TPWD's director of inland fisheries, the study more than likely would be performed at Lake Fork using ShareLunkers as guini pigs. <br /><br />ShareLunkers are 13-pound-plus bass caught from Texas lakes between Oct. 1 and April 30. The fish are put on loan to the state for spawning and genetics research. <br /><br />Most of the bass are returned to their lakes of origin when the TPWD is done with them. Fork has produced 215 of the 367 ShareLunker entries since 1986. <br /><br />"I haven't seen a proposal yet, but I did suggest that our staff up at Lake Fork look into it," Durocher said. "We're always looking for research that's interesting. If my guys put together a proposal, there are going to be some questions to answer. We won't do a telemetry study just to be doing it." <br /><br />Prior to release, the ShareLunker would undergo minor day surgery to plant an electronic transmitter inside its body cavity. The battery-powered transmitter would emit a signal that could be detected using high tech, radio telemetry gear. <br /><br />Fisheries biologists could then monitor the seasonal movements of individual fish and learn more about their feeding habits and other behaviorial characteristics. <br /><br />The study also could provide interesting information about how big bass react to changes in barometric pressure, moon phase, etc.... <br /><br />Ultimately, scientists could find out how long the ShareLunkers live after being returned to the wild following several months spent in a strange environment. Initially, the telemetry study might sound like a neat idea. In fact, it might even sound like a great idea. Problem is, John Hope beat the TPWD to the punch years ago. <br /><br />TPWD fisheries staff won't be exploring uncharted waters they launch a radio telemetry study on lunker bass. Hope tracked an army of piscatorial giants for nearly a decade and he worked at it feverishly. <br /><br />Hope was a fishing guide at Houston County Lake in East Texas in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He was so obsessed with big bass that he began equipping them with electronic transmitters so he could monitor their daily routines. <br /><br />Between 1986 through 1994, Hope planted coded transmitters inside 57 bass ranging from six pounds to more than 15 pounds, some of them ShareLunkers. He monitored fish in 15 different lakes ranging in size from 100 acres to 114,000 acres. <br /><br />Hope funded the study with money from his own pocket. The transmitters cost him $150 each. He went through three sets of tracking gear, which cost $3,000 a pop. <br /><br />Most of Hope's research lakes were in Texas. He also tracked fish at Lake Truman in Missouri. <br /><br />Hope said three of his subjects were ShareLunkers — a 15-pounder from Lake Fork, a 14-pounder from Lake Murvaul and a 13-pounder from Sam Rayburn. <br /><br />He also planted a transmitter inside a 13-pounder at Houston County and a seven-pound smallmouth at Lake Whitney. The smallmouth was the No. 2 fish on top-50 list for that sub species at the time. <br /><br />If time equals money, Hope worked on the project more diligently than TPWD would ever be able to justify financially. <br /><br />Hope once spent five consecutive days and nights with his earphones on at Houston County Lake, a 1,500-acre reservoir near Crockett. <br /><br />The guide slept in the bottom of his boat in a sleeping bag, waking periodically to document the movements of his finny subjects. He came to shore once a day to eat and bathe. <br /><br />Hope took his tracking study to the next level at Lake Amistad, where he lived in a motel for a full year. Clad in scuba gear, Hope trailed along behind four different bass up to 11 pounds each day and night. <br /><br />Hope tracked big bass in temperatures as cold as 28 degrees, as hot as 110 degrees and in raging thunderstorms. He was serious about the game, indeed. <br /><br />The objectives? <br /><br />Hope wanted to learn as much as possible about trophy bass and make a name for himself in the fishing industry. His ultimate goal was to make money by sharing his findings and to attract more guide clients. <br /><br />Most folks were intrigued by Hope's study. Others felt threatened by it. <br /><br />Hope said some Lake Fork fishing guides screamed so loud that TPWD created a fishing tracking permit and implemented a rule that made it illegal to have a guide license and a fish tracking permit at the same time. <br /><br />"They (TPWD) pulled my guide license, because a group of fishing guides thought I had an unfair advantage," Hope said. <br /><br />For years, Hope's research was well read in a monthly column "Trackin' Texas Trophies" published in Honey Hole Magazine. He also performed speaking engagements and worked closely with TPWD fisheries biologists more than once. <br /><br />Hope's tracking study eventually lead to a job as host of Fishing Texas television program. The job consumed so much time that he couldn't continue the project any longer. <br /><br />But it really didn't matter. By that time, Hope's research had begun to repeat itself. And he didn't need a degree in fisheries biology to interpret the data. <br /><br />"A big bass is a big bass, no matter where the lake is," he said. "After a fish reaches seven pounds, it does the same things and goes the same places, everyday. It makes no difference if it is seven pounds or 18 pounds." <br /><br />I've fished with Hope on several occasions. But the trip I remember best was the warm August night spent on Houston County Lake in 1986. We were tailing "Wanda," the fish that started the program. <br /><br />Wanda was a 10-pounder Hope caught in March 1985. The guide installed a transmitter in the fish and documented its movements for three years. <br /><br />Amazingly, Hope caught and released Wanda four additional times (twice during the spawn) during that period and his son-in-law caught her once. The big bass was eventually caught and mounted by another angler. She weighed 12.8 pounds. <br /><br />Hope learned a passel of lessons from Wanda — lessons that were paralleled by every fish in the study that weighed seven pounds or more. <br /><br />One of the more valuable lessons is that big bass are home bodies. Once they establish a home range, they keep it for life. <br /><br />"Every big bass has a bedroom where it rests and a kitchen where it feeds," Hope said. "And those places won't be very far apart. I never had a fish move more than 400 yards from its bedroom when it went to feed. They don't go roaming around all over the lake from one day to the next." <br /><br />Hope also learned that big bass feed predominantly at night, 12 months a year. <br /><br />"Every fish over seven pounds is a nocturnal feeder," Hope said. "They may feed periodically during the day, but they do most of their feeding at night, usually in two hour intervals. They feed for a while, then rest for a while." <br /><br />Wanda spent a high percentage of her time suspended over 20 feet of water along the edges the Little Elkhart Creek channel. <br /><br />When the fish did go on the prowl — presumably feeding — she always headed for a nearby shoreline. The bass cruised up and down the same 100-yard stretch repeatedly. <br /><br />Hope said Wanda was so predictable he could set his watch by her movements. <br /><br />"She would suspend in her bedroom most of the day, then she would crank up 30 minutes before dark and feed all night long," Hope said. "Thirty minutes after daylight, she went straight back to her bedroom. Every fish I tracked over seven pounds operated the same way." <br /><br />Each time Hope caught Wanda outside the spawn she was actively cruising her kitchen. The bass refused to bite when she was in her bedroom, suspended over deep water. When it did come time to spawn, Wanda always dumped her eggs on the same flat, year after year. <br /><br />Data collected on several tournament-caught bass on Sam Rayburn adds more clout to Hope's home body theory. <br /><br />The fish — all six and seven pounders — were caught north of the State Highway 147 bridge and taken 18 miles south to Twin Dikes Marina for weigh in. That's where Hope planted the transmitters and released the fish. <br /><br />Hope located the bass a week later. Amazingly, all but one of the fish had made the 18-mile journey back home. They were positioned in the same areas where they were caught a week earlier. <br />The fishing guide/writer eventually produced an 81-page book, "Trackin' Texas Trophies," that chronicles his years of research -- knowledge gained through countless hours spent monitoring big bass during all hours of the day and night, during all seasons of the year, in pleasant and foul weather conditions, alike. <br /><br />All this said, does it really make sense for TPWD to invest time and money in a telemetry study with a ShareLunker spin? <br /><br />Would the department, or ShareLunker program sponsors, be willing to foot the bill for research that would surely demand hundreds of man hours to establish reliable data -- information that already has been gathered? <br /><br />Finally, could such a study unravel any mysteries about big bass behavior that Hope's study didn't already solve? <br /><br />Hope doesn't think so. <br /><br />"I spent years trying to make a living doing this and I learned a lot about big fish in the process," Hope said. "TPWD can't send somebody out once a week or month to track a fish and establish any sort of reliable data. In my opinion, the only question TPWD could answer by doing a telemetry study on ShareLunkers is how long a fish lives after they return it to the lake." <br /><br />That raises an interesting question. <br /><br />Years ago, fisheries biologists began installing passive integrated transponders (pit tags) in ShareLunkers. Most 13-pound ShareLunkers are around 10-years old — more than likely on the back side of their lifespan. <br /><br />The internal tags give scientists the ability to determine if a fish has been in the program before. ShareLunker pit tag data indicates that only two fish have come through the program twice. <br /><br />Could the lack of return customers mean that most ShareLunkers are going belly up soon after TPWD releases them back into the lake? Or, does it bolster the theory that giant bass are tough as nails to catch? <br /><br />Hope doubts the highly-prized fish are going belly up due to stress. To the contrary, he thinks big bass spend much of their lives suspended in a bedroom — a special place where the door remains locked a high percentage of the time. <br /><br />And he's got plenty of research stored away to back it up — information that it took years and countless hours on the water to collect. <br /><br />--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br />I am in no way affiliated with this book but thought maybe some of you guys might be interested in reading more about this. Below is info on gettin a copy. I am gonna get one.<br /><br />Tightlines Flathead<br /><br /><br />Hope's book, Trackin' Texas Trophies, sells for $17.95 plus shipping. To order send check or money order to: John Hope, 4499 S. Highway 19, Palestine, Tx. 75801.
