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Jon Williams gives us some insight into his continuing bass angling journey.![]()
www.ukbass.com/my-bass-angling-journey/
www.ukbass.com
BASS legend Peter Macconnell who passed away in June![]()
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www.ukbass.com/remembering-peter-macconnell/
www.ukbass.com
A silver lining (or two)?![]()
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Last year’s juvenile bass survey programme in Cornwall was severely curtailed by the Coronavirus pandemic. It’s been good therefore, to be able to resume the programme this year, and carry out a reasonable number and range of surveys. We’ve reached the mid-point of our programme, so this is a good point at which to take stock.![]()
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In May and June, we are primarily looking for bass from last year’s spawning, the so-called ‘1’ groups. Results should (hopefully) confirm our estimates of year class strength for the previous year, and check that fish numbers have not been unduly affected by prolonged (more than 3 weeks) spells of very cold weather over the winter; these can kill young bass off if they have not made sufficient growth (to 6cm) before the winter starts.![]()
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Due to very limited sampling last year, we just weren’t able to get a fix on how good the spawning, and settlement – the movement of larvae and fry from spawning grounds to inshore areas – had been for 2020, as least far as the south coast of mid-Cornwall is concerned.![]()
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So it was encouraging to find ‘1’ groups on all our surveys (apart from one site in the Fal which was being trialled). And as the summer has progressed, the results have improved. The numbers we’ve seen have increased to around 200 in both the Fal and Helford. These are not the big numbers (~2,000) we see after a really good spawning year, but are nonetheless encouraging enough to say that the 2020 class looks like being a reasonable one; perhaps one silver lining from the awful Covid cloud?![]()
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Another silver lining was Derek Goodwin’s John Leballeur Conservation award from the Bass Anglers Sportfishing Society, in recognition of his many years of juvenile bass sampling in Cornish estuaries. As a member of the group which carries out the surveys under Derek, and having become involved in running the surveys on his behalf, I can vouch for how richly deserved this award his. I was very pleased to be able to present this to Derek on behalf of the BASS Committee during one of our recent surveys. Derek’s award comes soon after he was awarded the MBE for services to the study of fish populations in Cornwall.![]()
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The survey programme is suspended during July, since the incoming fry don’t withstand the rigours of netting well due to their small size (~3cm). Work will continue, exploring potential new survey sites, but we won’t resume netting until August.![]()
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The second phase of the programme, during August and September, aims predominantly to assess the number of this year’s bass, the so-called ‘0’ groups. It’s difficult to predict what we might find, but the cold spring we had, with a run of easterlies in April, can’t have helped.![]()
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A big thank you to our brilliant volunteers, without whom this important work would not be possible. If you would like to help, particularly if you can spare time during the week, please let me know.![]()
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Robin Bradley
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