Fishing for bass when there should be only trout.

A bass fishing paradise?

As someone who enjoys fishing, part of me likes the fact that a healthy population of largemouth bass now inhabit the tributaries and water bodies associated with the Pitt River.  Of all the fish I have caught, the most memorable is the bass.  Large bodied creatures with a voracious appetite and ability to consume anything half their size, they readily will take almost any lure they come upon.  I caught one in Lake-of-the-woods in Ontario once and was surprised by the strength of the Piscean Arnold Swartzenagger.  Bending my rod in half, it gave me the fight of my life.  Even large pike never gave me that kind of battle.

Aside from the sport of it, bass is a remarkably tasty fish.  White, succulent flesh, easy to denude the flesh from the bones, you have to appreciate their food value.  Trout and salmon have more bones than an ossuary but are harder to find.  Inevitably I get one stuck in my throat.  Instead of enjoying my meal, I have to go fishing twice, hunting for every little calcium splinter that would play havoc with my tonsils.  Not so the bass.  Easy to clean, an amazing amount of meat, and a meal without the threat of a lacerated esophagus. 

This all sounds too good to be true!  A sport fish of world-class caliber at the base of a mountain vista unparalleled in the universe (OK - a bit over the top), and in the beautiful province of BC in easy reach of the entire lower mainland awaits those who would pick up a rod and reel.  Just on the other side of the dyke is Pitt Lake, the world's largest tidal freshwater lake.  It is so big they filmed Free Willie III here.  The lake also boasts an amazing variety of fish, both native and stocked (click here).  Given all the positives, what could the problem be?

Largemouth bass are not native; they were introduced by a third party group interested in producing an attractive sport fish in the area.  The fish are extremely aggressive, eating everything they can fit into their gullet.  As such they fit into the category as an invasive species.  This ranks right up there with bullfrogs and starlings.  To give some perspective to this, about 50 pairs of starlings were released in New York about 170 years ago.  They are now ubiquitous across North America and are responsible for wiping out countless other bird populations that they out-compete.  Bullfrogs eat everything in their path and themselves are destroying wetlands, one meal at a time.

Bass have just gotten a toehold into our fresh waterways.  Think of the carnage that will happen down the line (little pun there).  How will they affect salmon stocks, trout stocks, and even entire ecosystems?  A bass can suck down a duckling in microseconds.  They happily live in shallow waters and can handle low oxygen environments.  These places, normally safe areas for so many species, are now merely part of the buffet.  In a hundred years our fishways will look entirely different.

So, get out there and go fishing.  Catch bass and enjoy the meal.  Have no mercy on the fish, because it will have no mercy on the environment it is destroying.  When you catch it, whisper a little something to them.  Tell them, "Eric sent me."

Thanks for reading.   www.ericspix.com   Eric Svendsen