BIG BASS IN A HURRY
If you want to know which reservoir offers you the best odds for catching a big bass, the number of hours required to catch one of 5 pounds or more is important.

That table lists Guntersville, Millers Ferry, West Point, Eufaula and Weiss as providing the best chance of catching a lunker bass in a short time.

This ranking of Lake West Point in the 2004 B.A.I.T. report may surprise many anglers, because West Point has traditionally experienced either a boom or a bust situation in its bass population.

In the early years of impoundment, West Point, like many other new impoundments, had so many bass that each angler could easily catch and release 50 to 150 bass per day. Rarely would these fish weigh more than 2 1/2-pounds each.

Today, West Point Lake has a 14-inch minimum-length limit for largemouths, as does Lake Eufaula. Thus on both waters, the average-size largemouth bass has to be larger than 14 inches, and thus more big bass are present. In the case of both lakes, however, there is a fly in the ointment regarding the usual equation of bigger bass on a length-limit impoundment, but smaller numbers of fish caught. Both of these lakes have expanding populations of spotted bass, which are not subject to the length limit.

"The lakes with length limits do seem to rate higher in this particular category," Nichols said. "However, other factors contribute to why these five lakes -- some with length limits and some without -- rank as high as they do on this report.

"For instance, Guntersville, West Point and Eufaula all have length limits," he continued. "But Millers Ferry doesn't, and it's an extremely fertile lake and historically cranks out a lot of bass.

"Although Weiss Lake doesn't have a length limit, it's a very fertile reservoir and has always been a sleeper bass lake. The crappie get the most attention of the fishermen at Weiss, which may be why you don't hear much about what a great bass lake Weiss really is."

SLOT LIMITS?
Fisheries biologists can point to slot limits as very useful tools for managing some of the Cotton State's waters for bigger bass and better fishing -- but such limits are no panacea.

Biologists have pinpointed one major problem with using this tool to increase the size of bass. It simply does not work unless anglers harvest some of the smaller fish that are legal. This type of regulation is imposed on lakes that are overpopulated with smaller bass. Some of them need to be removed so that the remaining fish will have enough forage available to put on some inches and extra pounds.

Catch-and-release is second nature to most bass anglers these days -- so much so that it's increasingly hard to get fishermen to take a few of their favorite fish home for dinner. When this situation occurs on a slot-limit lake, the length limits can actually make the situation worse! Not only are the smaller bass not being harvested, but anglers who do usually keep their catch have to put back some slot-limit bass as well. Thus, there are even more fish in the lake than if no limit were imposed in the first place.

When this happens, expect the diehard catch-and-release gang to be the first to complain about all the small bass they encounter. All the while, they wonder why no bigger bass are present, when in fact they could mimic the comic-strip possum Pogo in stating, "We have met the enemy and he is us!"

If you are fishing on a lake with a slot limit, the best thing you can do is release any 2 1/2-pound bass back into the water, but "release" a few of your 12-inch ones into a hot pan of grease.