As the graph below shows, we had some production of bass in 2006 (the year prior to the moratorium), very little to no bass produced in 2007 (the first year of the moratorium), and bass production in 2008 (the second year of the moratorium). If you focus on the one-year old fish (those less than 110 mm or 4-1/2 inches), you can see that in 2008 sampling (green bars) there are very few fish that are one-year old (smaller than 110mm) but there are plenty of these one-year olds in 2007 and 2009. Interestingly enough the one-year old fish present in 2007 (yellow bars ~ 100mm) show up in the 2009 sampling (blue bars) as 3-year old fish around 220 to 290 mm.

If you remember the 2007 moratorium was not total as ABA held a tournament on Crane as they had been granted a permit prior to the discussion of the moratorium. Was that responsible for the lack of bass production that year? Maybe, but there was no tournament moratorium in 2006 and yet a fairly strong year class was produced.

I also wanted to include the following graph which demonstrates how even when fishing was getting better, the seeds for the depressed state of the Crane Prairie fishery were being sown.  In 1998 you see the huge number of fish between 300 and 400 mm (12-16 inches); these are predominantly the bass produced in 1992 that created the huge number of 4+ pound fish prevalent early in the 2000’s.  However, in 1998, you also notice that there are very few one-year old fish present. This was really the first year since we began sampling Crane in the mid-1980s, that we didn’t have bass production.

The sample in 2003 (purple bars) represents about the peak of the bass fishery – lots of fish in excess of 16 inches (400 mm) but again as was common for the 10 years after 1997, very little or no production of young bass. Finally, the 2009 sample (blue bars) shows where we are now – greatly diminished trophy fishery and, with the exception of the 2006 and 2008 year classes, very little production behind those trophy fish.  The strength of the 2006 and 2008 year classes, while encouraging, will probably not be strong enough to return the Crane Prairie fishery to its peak of 5-7 years ago. Additionally, we are seeing an increase in bluegill and brown bullhead which could alter the dynamics of the whole ecology of the lake in ways we can’t forecast.

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