Florida’s economy affected by largemouth bass

This past Sunday afternoon as I was watching the Outdoor Channel, a very interesting story came on about Florida’s new state-of-the-art bass hatchery.

The new facility will be redeveloped at the old Richloam Hatchery. The 72 existing ponds hold 55 acres of water and are from 0.25 to 1.5 acres in size. The 36-year-old plumbing system will be revamped to con-serve water and new state-of-the-art raceways will be installed.

The raceways will allow more fish to be raised per gallon at a much lower cost per fish. Use of raceways reduces predation, improves feed conversion, saves water and energy and allows better control of parasites and diseases.

Historically, Florida’s lakes had sufficient water quality and abundant fish popu-lations, but the new system is designed to increase production by 25 percent. This aggressive action is a result of research on the economics of bass fishing.

Florida freshwater fishing provided 20.8 million angler-days of recreation (92 percent resident) based on 14.5 million trips. (A trip is from the time someone leaves home until they return and may include many days; a day is defined by activity on a specific day.) Bass anglers fished a total of 12.2 million days in Florida, for an average of 9.3 days per angler in 2001.

An “average” Florida freshwater fishing trip, according to a 1997 Florida State University study, lasted 5.4 hours. Although expenditures are a useful indicator of the importance of sport fishing activities to businesses, local, regional, state and national economies, they do not measure the economic benefit to individual participants. Nor do they touch on the true recreational benefits that enliven the soul, and help people escape the stresses of everyday life and to reconnect with nature, family and friends. After all bass fishing, like all fishing, is for fun. Golf is also for fun. Only a very small percentage of fishermen and golfers compete in tournaments.

However, when you get a couple or three guys together, someone’s going to come up with some form of competition. A crazy example is “pinching coins to the line,” “matching for coins” or, back in the old days, pulling “Coca-Colas.”

Let’s don’t forget the ultimate competition “WAR.” It’s sad to say, but it’s true, if you disagree just listen to the news each evening, as it always furnishes us with scores for that day. What a waste. Florida is a natural fishery and it holds the top five 5-fish limits of BASS’ all-time heaviest one-day catch list. Considering this, one could ask, “Why do they want to improve these already fantastic fisheries?”

The answer is a question. Why not ?!! Next week I have a great deer story that you don’t want to miss.