Photo by Ted Peck.

When it comes to managing black bass, the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission relies heavily on self-sustaining populations, according to Bob Lorantas, head of the agency's Warmwater Fisheries Unit.

"Self-sustaining populations are indeed our principal goal," Lorantas said. In other words, no stocking of bass. "On occasion we make exceptions, although that is rare."

Those "rare" exceptions are newly filled reservoirs, where poor water quality has been remediated and also where bass reproduction has been poor for number of years. In these cases, Lorantas noted, the PFBC performs a seeding of waters over one or two years so that stocking will no longer be required.

But just because they do little bass stocking, that doesn't mean the Fish and Boat Commission has a hands-off policy regarding management of largemouth and smallmouth bass. A keystone of the program is the monitoring of the bass population with biological surveys through night electro-shocking or trap-netting.

"New approaches that create more efficient broad-scale (that is, state-wide) monitoring are being reviewed and developed," Lorantas said. "The purpose of this is to insure we deploy adequate sampling effort to measure changes that may be taking place in bass populations -- and more importantly, to insure we can make accurate statements about changes in black bass populations.

"The number of reservoirs or lakes surveyed varies annually," he added. "However, a minimum of eight reservoirs is usually sampled for black bass electro-shocking assessment."

Something new in the assessment process is a better understanding of different areas of the state during the same year.

"The agency is re-examining protocols on how frequently various resource categories are sampled and species targeted in those surveys," Lorantas said. "Our goal is to provide for greater coordination, so that when observations are made in the east end of the state, we have perspective on those species observations in the western and central portions of the state as well. We do a good job of that now, but wish to see if we can make improvements."

The agency's regional coordination was revealed in the way it has handled the smallmouth mortality problem in the Susquehanna River.

"In the case of smallmouth bass in the Susquehanna Drainage, in the summer of 2005, environmental conditions appeared to create a scenario that stressed young smallmouths and favored development of columnaris disease," Lorantas said.

"Circumstances previously observed have not been observed in 2006 in smallmouth bass. (And) that disease problem has not been observed in black bass in reservoirs in the state."

For the last seven years, a key in the agency's management program has been its year-round bass fishery.

"We have not identified any problems with this," Lorantas said. "In our regular black bass assessment, we continue to look for issues that may be attributed to year-round fishing. But none have been identified.

"With year-round fishing came other harvest restrictions, and no tournament fishing is permitted in the mid-April to mid-June catch-and-release season. The outdoor media can help insure that impacts remain small by encouraging short play time and prompt release of bass caught in the catch-and-release season. Also, not removing bass from the water while unhooking during this period benefits survival."

While the PFBC has not identified problems with its year-round fishery, a review of data collected since 2000 is slated to be discussed by fisheries managers at an upcoming technical meeting, Lorantas said. "This review is a matter of protocol and has not been precipitated by any problems that have been observed."