With all of the big-ticket items on his plate over the past decade, few problems troubled John Cooper more personally than the belief among some anglers that the introduction of smallmouth bass has hurt walleye fishing.
I hear that on the Missouri River and around the glacial lakes area, and I agree with Cooper. I've researched the topic and can't find any study that suggests smallmouth bass either out-compete walleyes for forage or take over their habitats.
Fishery biologists suggest that Lake Sharpe is on the verge of becoming a world-class smallmouth bass fishery, and I agree - though I'd add we have several northeastern South Dakota lakes that are already there, especially Roy Lake. Moreover, during the times I've fished Roy Lake in the autumn, I've seen solid evidence that this battling brown fish has brought in a new kind of fishing tourist; one who catches and releases.
Isn't that a novel idea?
What hurts walleye fishing more than the unsupported belief among the smallmouth skeptics is that catch and release and walleyes are rarely used in the same sentence.
I'm not a biologist, but I have great respect for them, especially South Dakota's fisheries crew, which I rank as among the best in the nation. They are scientists who act not on emotion but on meticulously gathered data.
I remember the warm February afternoon many years ago when Jack Merwin, Bob Hanten and myself were fishing walleyes in the stilling basin below Oahe Dam at Pierre. Hanten, who headed the fisheries department in those days, made the off-handed comment that the one thing we didn't have to worry about with the massive reservoirs is fishing pressure because the lakes were so big that it would render sport harvest an insignificant factor.
Reminded of that comment just a few years ago, all Hanten could do was shake his head. That's because his original comment was made when most boats were 14- to 16-footers powered by 20- to 50-horsepower engines and anglers didn't have the ability to find or catch fish the way they do now.
Today, many boats are 20-feet with huge 200 plus horse outboards. They are equipped with the latest and best sonar equipment, far more angling knowledge than their counterparts back in the 1960s and 70s. The result means there are no places on lakes even as large as Oahe where fish have some sort of refuge.
I was pleased when Chinook salmon were introduced and some anglers learned to catch a new and exciting species. Today, you can move into most any Oahe bay and catch channel catfish of fine size. The same is true of white bass. You can still catch northern pike that rival the largest you can fish even on expensive fly-in trips to the northernmost reaches of Canada, though only a handful fish them or those other species. And when they do, they unfortunately keep what they catch, releasing only smaller pike. They do it because that's the way it's always been with many anglers.
Then end result of that tradition is inevitable for walleyes. If you take and take and take, you ultimately end up with fish of smaller size and fewer of them. At that point, bar room biology says, it must be the smallmouth ... or non-resident fishermen that are causing fewer walleyes.
I remember the day an angler at a fish cleaning station on Lake Sharpe pointed out a boat with an Iowa license and another bearing a Minnesota license telling me "we can't continue to provide walleyes for the rest of the nation ... as he cleaned his limit of 4- to 5-pound walleyes. Blaming non-resident fishermen for fewer walleyes is using the same logic that fewer walleyes is the result of the presence of smallmouth bass.
Nonsense! It's arithmetic, just as it was when a handful of perch fishermen caught and kept more than a quarter-million perch in Cattail-Kettle lakes in a six-week period some years back. It's difficult to name a great prairie perch fishery that's lasted much more than a year.
That's why I agree with Cooper on smallmouth bass. It truly is one of the gamest fish that swims. And if we can maintain our fine quality smallmouth fisheries, we will see the day when a new type of angler arrives, one that is willing to catch a large fish and release it.
And therein lies a good lesson for all fishermen, especially those who relentlessly target walleyes.
Finally, I am reminded of my friend Bob Propst, a man who is among the best walleye anglers of all time who has caught more fish over 10 pounds than arguably any walleye angler in history. In spite of his big fish mastery, you can still frequently find him jigging or rigging under the bridges at Pierre, joyously catching and releasing many 14- to 16-inch walleyes. And when he's not there, you might find him on a glacial lake in northeastern South Dakota, catching and releasing smallmouth bass.
