I. NEW
OPPORTUNITIES STRATEGIES
Background:
These action
items will help identify new or special opportunities to create or
substantially enhance black bass fisheries, and ensure FWC is
proactive about opening new public fisheries and managing them for
the public. New opportunities include newly created reservoirs,
reclaimed phosphate or rock pits, private water bodies, water-level
management (e.g., drawdowns, renovations), improving angler access
(e.g., new boat ramp construction, boat ramp renovation/maintenance
and creating fishing piers/boardwalks), fish management (e.g.,
stocking, special regulations, controlling the amount of fishing
pressure, fish attractors), and habitat enhancement (e.g., aquatic
plant management, dredging, scraping). The FWC will seek external
partnerships with other agencies and stakeholders while exploring
new opportunities within its own agency to enhance the effort.
Successfully implementing new opportunities will require an
aggressive, proactive, science-based approach that also involves
local citizenry. These can also be categorized as habitat, fish or
people management but those listed here emphasize new possibilities
that do not currently exist or cannot be specifically
anticipated.
Action items:
- Pursue public access to reservoirs during their
planning phase, and develop management plans and agreements with
water management districts and the Corps of Engineers (COE) to
produce appropriate trophy black bass fisheries.
Three Forks Marsh Conservation Area and
Fellsmere Water Management Area are examples of planned reservoirs
that could be filled by 2014 and provide an excellent largemouth
bass fishery.
There is a growing understanding that
there will be an increased need for municipal, agricultural and
commercial water supplies. Florida's five water management
districts, the U.S. Corps of Engineers and the Department of
Environmental Protection should balance these needs with the
ecological needs of fish and wildlife. FWC staff is continuing to
engage these managers to help ensure fish and wildlife are
protected and to optimize recreational opportunities.
- Make it easy for the public to find places to fish and
freshwater public access (e.g., ramps, piers, shoreline access)
using electronic and print media.
FWC and partners can also provide via the
Internet additional information such as available electrofishing
data, creel summary, water quality data, tournament data, event
schedules, and boat ramp amenities. FWC is currently developing a
"Google Earth" database map of all public access points and
visually verifying the information. Plans are to integrate this
program into user-friendly mapping software and link other
important information to those points. FWC is partnering with
TakeMeFishing.org and "VISIT FLORIDA" to make this information
available to a wider audience with less cost and via mobile
applications (apps).
- Formalize partnerships with WMDs, federal, local, and
state governmental agencies, and private landowners to enhance
public access.
Increasing and enhancing freshwater
fishing access is the most direct way to increase fishing
opportunities and thus fishing effort, which was identified as a
high priority by our stakeholders (DFFM Vision Document, 2009). The
Small Lakes Management Committee (FWC) has identified a list of
candidate lakes in each region, which are less than 1,000 acres
that are without public access and have adjoining public land where
access could be provided. The opportunity to secure public access
is vital in providing future anglers access and increase fishing
effort for bass. Florida has 7,700 lakes, but there is only public
access to approximately 550 lakes. Many of the lakes in Florida are
on private property. A "Share-a-Lake" program that provides
incentives (e.g., tax relief, land management, lake management, and
plant management) to private landowners in exchange for public
access could provide new opportunities for black bass anglers.
- Help local communities to attract major bass
tournaments by enhancing ramps and associated facilities that will
benefit local economies and anglers.
Identifying and incorporating vital
design elements into a "Bass Tournament Facilities Plan" will
provide the blueprint for tournament friendly facilities on
Florida's major systems and benefit anglers by providing greater
access, facilities and parking.
- Implement complete de-water renovations on aging
reservoirs and lakes with water control structures to stimulate
trophy largemouth bass fisheries.
Reservoirs and other water bodies with stablilized
water levels often lose habitat complexity, suffer sediment
build-up and produce less trophy-sized largemouth bass as they age.
Florida fisheries staff pioneered the use of drawdowns on lakes
with water control structures, and the Mississippi Department of
Natural Resources has demonstrated that regularly draining
reservoirs, scraping/sculpting the bottom, adding fish habitat,
re-filling, and stocking stimulates rapid growth of bass and
results in high quality fisheries.
- Create contingency plans to enhance fisheries on water
bodies that naturally experience rapid water level changes to
provide long-term benefits.
After refilling, lakes such as Johns Lake,
Orange Lake, and Lake Jackson in Tallahassee, which occassionally
drain rapidly, offer new opportunities by providing optimum habitat
and producing strong largemouth bass year classes. If prepared in
advance, FWC has a unique opportunity to respond to natural events,
such as sink hole lakes draining, or low-water conditions caused by
droughts to enhance fisheries. Plans that can be implemented when
needed will be prepared to dredge, scrape or sculpt substrates, to
construct brush or rock pile fish attractors and to create fishing
fingers or other shoreline fishing access. Biologists will draft
plans for fish management actions such as stocking fish or special
protective regulations to create and protect strong year classes of
bass.
- Develop a network of special-opportunity trophy bass fishing
areas, on water bodies not currently open to the public.
Special opportunity fisheries (similar to
special-opportunity hunts on FWC's wildlife management areas), with
limited access can provide a higher quality experience and generate
stakeholder excitement. Incorporating limited access and/or closed
seasons may help entice the WMDs, municipalities, counties or
private landowners to be more willing to participate in the
program. This would open new water bodies to the public on a
restricted basis, and with intensive bass management protocols
could result in special trophy fisheries.
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