Forward-facing Sonar Effects on Crappie and Bass Catch Rates

Fishy Fridays

Weekly spotlight on fisheries science journal articles

 

Jeff Kopaska
AFS Executive Director
jkopaska@fisheries.org

Today’s article addresses a popular topic in fishing circles, the impact of forward facing sonar on angler catch rates. If you talk to veteran fisheries managers, you will hear that this discussion has played out many times over the years, and that technological advances are going to impact fish populations. This article follows on the heels of the Neely papers out of Kansas, that studied crappies and catfish, and the Smith paper out of Texas. This is the first one to assess Largemouth Bass catch rates. The take home seems to be that there is still a lot of variation in how much the technology can impact catch rates, and the size of fish caught, but it can increase both. On the flip side, there was no difference in crappie harvest between anglers with and without advanced sonar tools. Enjoy!

Differences in catch rates of Black Crappie and Largemouth Bass anglers using forward-facing sonar in Lake Talquin, Florida