Georgia Bass Club Creel Census Report
I have always been fascinated with fishing records and statistics to the point of keeping a record of every bass I have caught since I was 12 years old. The Georgia Bass Chapter Federation Creel Census Report compiled by Dr. Carl Quertermus at the University of West Georgia provides me with a lot of great bass fishing information.
Starting in 1978 Dr. Quertermus compiled records of club tournaments and now contracts with the Georgia Wildlife Resources Division on it. The Georgia Bass Chapter Federations require each of their clubs to send in a detailed report after each tournament. Each report includes number of fishermen, number of hours fished, lake, winning weight, total weight, total number of bass, big bass weight, number of limits, number of zeroes, number of spots, largemouth and other bass, and more.
One of the most surprising facts to me is the amount of time it takes a typical club fisherman to land a keeper bass and the average size of that bass. It has been very consistent over the 30 years of this study that the catch rate is .20 to .25. That means it takes four to five hours on average for a club fisherman to land one keeper. And that keeper will average less than 1.5 pounds.
The increasing population of spotted bass is well documented by this report. Lakes where spots are not native have seen huge increases in them. Jackson Lake had 99.52 percent largemouth reported in 1994. By 2007 that had changed to 52.4 percent. Russell had 96.66 percent largemouth in 1994 and 49.4 percent in 2007. For good or bad those changes were brought about by illegal stocking of spots by fishermen.
Dr. Quertermus is a founder of the Carroll Bassmasters and, after some time not fishing with them, is back in the club. He enjoys catching bass as well as studying them. In the In Fisherman 2001 Bass Guide he wrote an article “Timing the Bass Bite” using his reports on over 8000 club tournaments. It confirmed some of the things most bass fishermen believe, but also showed some of those beliefs to be wrong.
The best months for catching bass are April, March and May followed by October and November. No surprise there. But it was a surprise when he looked at night tournaments and found it really does not make any difference if you fish during the day or night even during the hottest months as far as catch rates go. It may be a lot more comfortable fishing at night but the bass don’t seem to care.
There was a difference in spots and largemouth at night. In looking at 677 day tournaments and 758 night tournaments on lakes with both spots and largemouth, there were more largemouth caught in day tournaments and more spots caught in night tournaments. It is a good idea to plan your night trips to lakes with good populations of spots.
When can you catch your biggest bass? Dr. Quertermus found the winning stringer weight for bass was higher in January, February, March and December. Also, the average biggest bass caught in tournaments was higher in March and February. So go fishing right now for bigger bass.
One of the biggest surprises is the fact Allatoona is NOT the Dead Sea. In 2007 it had the fourth highest catch rate per hour, following Clark’s Hill, Hartwell and Russell. In 2005 and 2006 it had the highest catch rate of any Georgia lake. It is hard to believe you can catch more bass at Allatoona than Sinclair but club reports show you can.
Looking at numbers is fun and they can help you decide which lake and time is your best bet, but doing your own research is much more fun!