OUTDOOR CORNER: RIGHT INGREDIENTS FORM A LUNKER

Every angler likes to catch big fish, really big fish.

Sure, catching lots of fish is fun, but those monsters are something special. These are the fish stories that last a lifetime. It doesn't matter if they are bass, crappie, catfish, bluegill or any other kind of fish.

Have you ever wondered why some lakes have more lunkers than others? We're going to take a look at why and how big fish get big.

First of all, there needs to be a sufficient number of fish such as bass, but not too many. If there are too many bass, growth will be slow, resulting in few large fish.

The abundant young bass eat most of the small bluegill and other small fish soon after they are spawned. Once these small fish become scarce, the bass won't get enough to eat to grow well, and they will become stunted. The bluegill that survive quickly grow too large for the small bass to eat because there is little competition for food.

Food, or prey, is obviously necessary to grow big fish. What kind of prey are best? That depends on the species. Most predators prefer gizzard shad in this part of the world.

Bass prefer shad and also feed heavily upon bluegill, other sunfish and crayfish. Crappie like shad, minnows, and small sunfish. Muskie do not usually eat fish that have spines in their fins such as bass, sunfish, or crappie. They prefer soft-rayed fish such as suckers, carp, and of course, shad. Flathead catfish will eat any live fish.

These predators not only need plenty of food, but it must be small enough to eat. If bluegill or shad grow too fast, as discussed above, there may be abundant prey, but they will simply be too large for some fish to eat.

Habitat is another key to producing large fish.

How would you like to live in a house without much furniture? Say you have a family of four or five and have only two chairs and one bed in your house. Some of your family won't be too happy.

Fish need abundant, diverse habitats or more commonly called cover or structure, just like we need furniture in our homes. Fallen trees and logs, stumps, standing timber, rocks and vegetation are examples of quality habitat.

This structure also needs to be located at all depths to provide habitat during all seasons. If all the logs and trees are in the deepest part of the lake then they are useless during the summer, when there is very little oxygen near the bottom.

Lakes should be at least eight feet deep which will provide plenty of oxygen, offer refuge from summer heat, and avoid fish kills.

Another fairly obvious factor is that fish must live long enough to become large. If all of the others conditions are perfect, but fish don't live long, then few fish will grow large.

This is where anglers play a part in producing large fish. I'm sure most of you have heard of `catch and release.' Instead of harvesting the legal fish you catch, you voluntarily release the fish to give them a chance to grow larger. In lakes where the number of predators is low to moderate, minimum length limits are used to protect the smaller fish from harvest.

Catch and release' of the larger fish can improve the chance of growing large fish. However, in lakes with too many predators, catch and release' may actually hinder the chance to grow large fish. Releasing fish will only perpetuate the problem. In these lakes, slot limits are used to allow harvest of some smaller fish. By reducing the numbers, growth will improve and increase the chance of growing large fish.

Well there you have it; you can see that there are many things that help grow large fish. We as fish managers can help and so can anglers, but Mother Nature also plays a big part.

I hope that you have a chance to fish this year and I hope that you catch a bunch of fish. I also hope that you, and especially youngsters, catch at least one trophy fish this year.

Keep in mind, too, that if you release those big fish, then you give the fish a chance to grow ever larger and maybe someone else will have the same thrill of catching it again. Those are what memories are made of.

Mark Boone is a fisheries management biologist with the Missouri Department of Conservation.