Photo courtesy of Alabama Bass Trail
Fishermen gather on Lay Lake in Shelby County for the Alabama Bass Trail Championship tournament in October 2024.
A new proposal from the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources limiting the size of bass caught at fishing tournaments in the Coosa River chain – including Lay Lake - has Shelby County leaders worried about the economic impact it could make across the county.
The department has proposed a measure that would prohibit the keeping of bass from 14 inches to 20 inches for tournaments, saying the rule would provide a healthier fish population in the future.
But some local leaders say the new rule, referred to as a slot limit, would have a ripple effect, scaring away the tournaments and, in turn, having an adverse effect on local tourism and the revenue collected from that tourism.
At the Shelby County Commission meeting on Nov. 13, County Manager Chad Scroggins said the rule could impact funding of schools and other projects, which depend on tourism dollars.
“It affects Oak Mountain State Park. It affects pickleball courts on Valleydale Road. It affects turf fields at Chelsea High School. It affects turf fields at Oak Mountain High School - that all comes off of tourism funds,” Scroggins said at the meeting. “All of that is affected by this decision.”
Scroggins also pointed to new roads at Veterans Park, the soccer fields on Dunnavant Valley Road that the Birmingham Legion use and the new lighting at Heardmont Stadium as examples of projects in North Shelby County that were paid for by the lodging tax and tourism dollars directly tied to the tournaments. The county contributed $250,000 to Oak Mountain High School’s lighting project.
“So you will see that bass fishing is vitally important to the lodging tax that's generated in this county, and all of the lodging tax is dedicated towards tourism, amenities and economic development,” Scroggins said.
And, Scroggins said, those tournaments provide a lot of revenue for the county. He believes the rule will lead to the tournaments leaving.
“What it does is it will absolutely stop all tournament fishing on Lay Lake.” Scroggins said. “We will demand a public hearing on this from the state.”
Chuck Sykes, Director of Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries at the department, said they are trying to protect the long-term health of the bass population in the chain. To that end, they conducted a three-year study with Auburn University about the mortality of fish in the tournaments held on Neely Henry Lake near Gadsden.
The report said that 2% and 4% of Largemouth bass and Alabama bass were caught by recreational fisherman. Tournament fishermen accounted for 40 percent of fish caught. The report said 45% of bass that were weighed in during tournaments suffered either pre or post-release death.
“This is likely a conservative estimate, as research has shown that total tournament mortality can range from 50 – 80% during hot weather,” the report said. “As high school and collegiate tournaments have increased, the number of summertime tournaments has also increased.”
Because tournaments reward the catching of larger fish, the population is suffering, Sykes said.
“So you're getting a really disproportionate mortality on bigger fish females and faster growing young fish,” Sykes said. “So that's very detrimental to the long-term health of the fishery in the Coosa system.”
Sykes said the intent of the rule is simply to protect the health of the bass population.
“We're not trying to run tournaments out,” Sykes said. “We want better fishing for everybody. Tournament folks, economic development folks, just the average guy going out on the weekend to catch four or five fish to cook for his family. Our job is to look out for the resource for everybody, not just one user group, and this is what the data is showing.”
The study was initiated in response to complaints from recreational fishermen, and Sykes said it cost $843,000 to complete.
“If we do nothing, it's going to continue to decline,” Sykes said. “We did the study based on complaints from anglers who have fished the Coosa and saying it's worse. It's worse this year than it was last year. It was worse last year than it was a year before.”
Kay Donaldson, director of the Alabama Bass Trail, which runs a tournament at Lay Lake said the new proposal was “a little too aggressive” and said it would cut the number of tournaments held in the state, thereby reducing revenue collected from the tournaments.
“It creates sales taxes in communities that need those dollars. A lot of the places that we go . . . they're not downtown Birmingham's, they're not Montgomery, they're not Huntsville. We're going to areas that thrive off of tourism dollars, and these will be cut significantly, from my perspective,” Donaldson said. “As far as our participation, it could cut our participation in half by 50%. It will then cut the eyeballs that see us. Why would you want to continue to live stream when people are catching seven to nine pounds? That's not exciting. Nobody tunes in to watch that, which will then be a downturn in sponsorships, and then that closes our doors.”
Donaldson also said she would like to see some tournaments exercise better fish care – what happens to the fish between being caught and being returned to the water.
“Do I believe there's post-tournament mortality? Yes, I do.,” Donaldson said. “I think that is worse in other tournaments than in some. I think that all tournaments are not created equally. I mean, they're just not. All tournaments don't do the same thing from fish care. I think that tournaments can do better. So I'm not just putting all this off on the department of conservation. I do think tournaments can do better.”
Donaldson said she was open to a compromise with the department.
“We would love to talk about a compromise, but every time we bring up a compromise, we're basically shot down and said, this is what Auburn came up with. This is what our biologists believe,” Donaldson said. “But I think there is a compromise. I think a 13 to 16, even a 14 to 16, or 14 to 17, we can live with.”
Sykes, for his part, said his staff looked at several options and welcomed suggestions – as long as it protected the fish population.
“I have yet to have one person send an email or make a phone call that says this slot limit is detrimental to the fish. Every one of them says this slot limit is detrimental to me, to the tournament, to economic development,” Sykes said. “Well, a certain question is, is a failing fishery good for economic development, or would a thriving fishery be better for economic development long term and sustainable?”
Sykes said if nothing is done to protect the population, the tournaments will go elsewhere anyway because there won’t be enough prized fish to make the tournaments worthwhile.
“This isn't telling anybody they can't have a tournament. And in three or four years, this slot limit will be a joke, because there will be so many fish above the limit, it doesn't matter,” Sykes said. “Or you can - which is what's happening - ring the phone off the hook with the commissioner, with the legislators, with the governor [and] stop this. And then in three or four years, the fishery [will] not be any better, and tournaments go somewhere else anyway.”
The proposal will go to Commissioner Chris Blankenship and the advisory board, which will decide on whether to accept the proposal, reject it or return it to the staff for revisions at their February meeting.
