Tidal Largemouth Bass Volunteer Angler Program

Instructions

Thank you for being one of the charter members of the Tidal Largemouth Bass Volunteer Angler Program! This is the first year of this program and its function is to get tidal largemouth bass anglers involved in the management of their resource. While MD DNR surveys several tidal rivers each year to obtain information about our tidal bass populations, our resources are limited and we cannot obtain data on all of our largemouth stocks. This is where you play an important role, enabling us to obtain information about bass populations in these areas and charting their progress over time with your catch records.

The survey consists of 2 forms: the Angler Information form and the Catch Information form.

Angler Information form: This form needs to be filled out only once, unless your personal information (such as mailing address) changes. Your name is the only piece of information that is mandatory on this form. Your home address, phone number, and e-mail address are optional, but would be helpful in case we need to contact you regarding a question or for additional information which will be mailed out in the future. Please check your Club Affiliation and if you would like to receive additional information on future Tidal Bass Programs. Note that each sheet contains an Angler ID number. This number is unique to each angler and is how we will identify each anglers specific data. Please write this number down and use it on the Catch Information form.

Catch Information form: This form records your information from each of your fishing trips. Please fill out your Angler ID #, name, date of fishing trip, the river where you were fishing, the # of anglers on your boat, and number of hours fished. Check one of the boxes that describes the type of fishing you were doing. Individual fish information is recorded in the length box. When you catch a bass, measure the fish and record a tick-mark in the appropriate line that corresponds to the fishes length. For example, if you caught a 14.75" bass, you would place a tick mark on the 14 - 15" line. At the end of the day, simply tally up the tick marks on each line and write down the total number of fish in each length group. Those can then be added together with any fish that were mistakenly not measured and put onto the Total Bass Caught line. If you have any Comments on the fishing or about a particular fish, please write them down in the Comments area.

Important:

1) Please fill out a form for every bass trip in Maryland tidal waters, regardless of the length of time spend fishing,

2) Please fill out a form even if you caught 0 bass. Catching 0 bass is just as important as catching 20 bass when we look at numbers of fish per angler over a period of time,

3) Please measure each fish. Do not guess what its length is!

4) If you forget your Angler ID number, please call me at (410) 260-8287 or e-mail Don Cosden and he will look up your number,

5) Each form contains folding lines and my mailing address on the back. Just fold, staple, and put on a stamp and drop it into the mail. To save on postage, fold several forms at once or all anglers from a tournament before mailing,

6) Note this all information provided is for use by MD DNR only and will not be shared, sold, or otherwise divulged to non-DNR personnel.

I have tried to make this form as simple as possible. However, improvements can only be made by your feedback! If you have any suggestions or ways to improve this survey, please give me a call or send a note via e-mail or snail mail. At this point in time, I cannot offer anything for participating in this survey other than your name on a list of participating anglers at the end of the year. My hope is that in the future we can offer yearly pins, hats, t-shirts or some other reward for bass anglers that provide a minimum amount of angler information for this survey. Results of the survey will be made available to all participating anglers, to the Maryland and Delaware BASS Federations, and on the MD DNR website (www.dnr.state.md.us) when they become available next year.

Please contact me if you have questions or need additional sheets. The sheets will also be made available to download via the MD DNR website. Hopefully this survey can be made available in the near future via the Internet to input results and save on postage.

Thank you for your interest in your Tidal Largemouth Bass resources and by working together we can ensure that this fishery remains one of the best in the country! Don Cosden, Southern Regional Manager- MD DNR (301) 888-2423; dcosden@dnr.state.md.us