Controlling authorities issued 1,252 event permits in 2002. We added 10% for non-permitted events and estimated there were about 1,375 tournaments this year. That’s 115 tournament every month, 26 per week, four per day!!

• Permit numbers were down only 4% from 2001 but were down 29% from the record high set in 1998.
• We received 685 Tournament Reports from 53 lakes (Table 1). This is a return rate of only 55% of the permitted tournaments.
• Reports were received from 91 organization. These returns are down from as many as 1,000 reports sent in by 180 organizations in years past.
• The number of tournament entries (Table 1, Column 2) provides a measure of fishing pressure, not actual numbers of anglers, because most anglers fish more than one tournament.
• Tournament permits are down 29% since 1998 but the number of entries is down only 20%. Individual anglers are fishing more tournaments each year - but declining participation indicates that recruitment of new tournament anglers is not keeping pace with those dropping out.
• Team tournaments averaged 30 boats. Draw-for-partner events made up 24% of the contests (the highest percentage in nine years) and averaged 28 participants per event.

• A total of 28,560 bass were brought to weigh-in totaling 59,112 pounds.

• Each tournament averaged 42 bass weighing 78.3 pounds compared to last year’s 49 bass that weighed 99.5 pounds.

• The overall success rate (anglers or teams bringing at least one bass to weigh-in) was 55%, a drop of 2% from 2001.

•  The average bass weighed 2.07 pounds, up slightly from 2.03 pounds in 2001.

• Winning weights dropped to 9.30 pounds, down 0.67 pounds from last year.  This was the lowest winning average in nine years.

• The heaviest five-bass limit weighed 21.56 pounds from Sardis Lake during a LeFlore Co. Bass Club meet.

• Limits of bass were weighed by 12% of all anglers or teams compared to the nine-year average of 14%.

Top-20 Lakes

• Kerr topped our list this year (Table 2).  It jumped from 9^th Place last year, with the highest Average Winning Weight, fourth highest Average Number of Bass Caught per Day and the third highest Percent of Successful Anglers.

• Hudson snagged 2^nd Place on our list. It received high marks for Average Winning Weight and Average Weight per bass.

• McGee Creek, Ellsworth and Lawtonka took 3^rd, 4^th, and 5^th Places.  Grand, Sardis, Murray, Greenleaf, and Texoma round out the Top-10.

The largest bass reported this year weighed 10.06 pounds from Sportsman Lake caught during a Heart of Oklahoma club tournament (Table 3).

• Numbers of bass over 5 pounds were down 19% compared to last year.  However, bass of 8 pounds or larger were up, increasing from 7 in 2001 to 13 in 2002. 

CONCLUSIONS

 Electrofishing surveys in 2002 showed declines in the bass populations in some of our lakes.  Tournament results substantiate this decline.  Biologists believe that these changes in fishing quality are in part due to poor recruitment (survival of young bass) during the drought years of 1998 and 1999.  Poor survival then, resulted in fewer “keeper” bass in 2001 and 2002.

Unfortunately, with those weak year classes, those “holes” in the population structure, fishing quality for intermediate-sized and larger bass may be slow to recover in the next few years.  However, those same surveys show good numbers of younger bass in most lakes.  Given time, these fish should grow to keeper size and provide quality angling opportunities in the future.