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By Louie Stout

Biologists study St. Joseph River BassBiologists study St. Joseph River Bass

Has the slot limit offered any change to the bass fishery on the St. Joseph River?

Not much, says Indiana DNR Fisheries Biologist Matt Horsley, who did electro-fishing on portions of the river throughout Indiana last October.

“Our preliminary review indicates not much has changed since we put the new regulation in place,” Horsley said.

But don’t expect any changes or reversal to the old regulation. More about that later.

In 2013, Indiana changed the 14-inch size limit to a slot regulation in which no fish 12 to 15 inches and no more than two fish over 15 inches could be kept. Fish under 12 could be kept providing anglers adhered to the five-fish bag limit.

Biologists hoped that such a change would produce more and bigger bass.

Last October’s survey was a follow-up to a similar study the DNR conducted in 2018. This year, crews electro-fished for 12 hours at various sites from Bristol, Ind. down to St. Patrick’s Park.

“We were looking for any change in the size and structure of the bass population since our last survey,” Horsley said.

Keep in mind that biologists don’t shock all 16 miles of Indiana’s St. Joseph River but they do visit the same areas throughout the river to compare bass populations in each area from one survey to another.

Electro-shocking involves electrodes running below the waterline in the water ahead of a boat, stunning fish that staffers net, measure and release. The electrodes are effective down to about 6 feet.

“The best site we found was below the South Bend Dam where we got quite a few bass,” Horsley noted.

Surprisingly, the worst site they recorded was downstream from 6 Span Bridge access, a popular spot for bass tournaments. However, that site, only a couple miles at best, also produced a large percentage of fish over 15 inches.

Horsley said that his research showed a slight drop in numbers of 8- to 10-inch fish throughout the river but numbers of bass over 12 inches remained pretty much the same as it was in 2013.

Of the bass captured, 11 percent of the smallmouth were over 15 inches and 3 percent were over 18 inches. Remarkably, 50 percent of the largemouth captured were over 15 inches and 4 percent were over 18 inches.

“We did see 1 to 2 percent increase in the number of larger fish,” he added. “It’s possible that there are more of the bigger fish in the system, but my data isn’t telling us that.”

Regulation change coming?

Horsley said a change back to the 14-inch size limit is unlikely since the current regulation covers all rivers and streams statewide.

“Given that our state is trying to simplify regulations, proposing a change for the St. Joe would be difficult to get through the process that the state requires to make such a change,” said Horsley. “Now, if I were seeing a negative impact or a huge drop in the 8- to 12-inch size fish, I would consider proposing a change.”