Bass Anglers’ Sportfishing Society

Fighting for Bass and Bass Anglers’ since 1973

Call For Bass Anglers With An Interest In Scientific Research

Plymouth University and the Devon and Severn IFCA have successfully been awarded European funding to conduct a large scale bass tracking project in three estuaries of Devon. The project aims are to study; which habitats are used by, and movement of immature bass within and adjacent to protected Bass Nursery Areas (BNA).

We are aiming to start the project from June 2018, and aim to collect 150 immature bass (20-42cm total length) across the project. We would appreciate any local knowledge and/or assistance in collecting the fish. These fish will then be tracked for a period of 1.5-2 years, and their movement patterns used to better understand the importance of estuarine habitats for bass conservation. Once the fish have been tagged there is scope for continued involvement in the project through active tracking surveys, and angling based surveys.

We aim to survey our target estuaries at specific dates and times. All tagging work can only be conducted by home office trained Plymouth University staff, however, we need help in capturing the bass which will be tagged. For this will need to rely on local knowledge and capture by specialist bass anglers. If you would like to be involved in the project, and/or regularly fish for bass within the; Dart estuary, Salcombe harbour, and the Taw/Torridge estuaries please contact us via email at:

thomas.stamp@plymouth.ac.uk