I need to do a science project for school. I wanted to do something related to bass fishing. Any suggestions?

[small game sportsman]

I need to do a science project for school. I wanted to do something related to bass fishing. Any suggestions?

[FOX]

You could fish the same kind of lure in different colors and see which one the bass hit more.

[allegnmtn]

How about something on the effects of water quality and temperature on bass and bass spawning. In Pennsylvania we've had a lot of issues with smallmouth bass and issues related to this. There are some real concerns about the future of bass in the Susquehanna watershed right now.

[kmcbroom]

Hi Fox. This will take some research but is a good report you can do and explain in the class room. I would do a report on bait fish and what controls bait fish movement because the bass will be with the bait fish. This would include plankton bloom, wind direction which doesn't necessarily blow the bait fish but it blows the plankton that the bait fish feed on and that is the reason bait fish and bass can be located often on a wind blown bank. This is the important part to locating bass and gets little press explaining it.

[hfedder40]

I did dufferent line strengths of 8 pound test with a fish scale

[Carl Huber]

You can do a report on how an Ocean going Strip Bass. That spans in fresh water. Can be successfully transplanted and live it's life in a fresh water lake.

[Ncarl]

What is it supposed to be about? You know, because if your in biology a fishing line test would be interesting but I dont think it would get you a good grade.

[99explorer]

You might carve an artificial lure from wood and paint it with nail polish. Unscrew the treble hooks and eye screw from an old lure and attach them to the project lure. Voila!
It doesn't have to actually catch a fish.

[tuna0410]

I would do a project on the color loss in the water column. It would be a pretty cool project to do and a lot of people would learn something. Always thought it funny when people would use a fishing lure that was red and would fish it down 40 feet.

[seth trudeau]

Funny my friend just did a report on fishing. 1st Do it on something that you can use when you fish. 2nd Make sure that you focus on one thing otherwise you have a bunch of facts,and that doesn't affect fishing for a certain species of fish... My friend did his on different types of fishing lures and their defectiveness.
The good thing is if some of your facts are wrong you teacher probably wont know... Unless you are blessed with an out doors y teacher. Hope this helps.
Seth

[Bioguy01]

Just as someone who has sat in on a lot of fish projects, don't do bass because you won't get enough data for anything to be meaningful.

If you want to do a fish project, try working with minnows. Perhaps put minnow traps at different types of structure (i.e. wooden logs, lily pads, milfoil, etc.), or experiment with different depths of the same structure. Do not bait the minnow traps. Minnows are difficult to identify, so just do counts if you want to keep things simple. You may even want to monitor the numbers you catch over time to see if the numbers change from week to week. I know it's not bass, but you will learn a lot about where bass food can be found, and that's even more important.

[wallofsam]

How about catching the bass and then finding all the different food they eat by checking their stomachs. And then compare that to bass from other lakes. That sounds like a fun project to me!

[fliphuntr14]

bioguy is right if its a true scientific experiment you must control as many variables as you can and enough of them to make the point at the end a valid one. Bass in tanks are hard to keep alive due to oxygen levels. I did a project in high school with brown trout and there effect on bacterial content in water. There was alot of documentation needed and the upkeep on the tanks was almost a full time process. I also was lucky enough to have made contacts at a local hatchery to procure the 25 fish necessary for the project. one of the more successful projects I have witnessed and worked with was weather or not blue gill can hear and at what frequency they hear. 12 fish separate tanks fed just after the sound was played and the reaction to the sound recorded. if your wondering they can hear frequency is still not defined definitively.

I would go with a frequency experiment like bioguy mentions these projects are done on a larger scale all the time by fisheries biologists with larger nets. If i were doing a small project i would go with water quality or clarity experiment after a storm on small lake that you can test multiple spots in a good short time block. You would have to present a typical habitat for bass and how the water clarity change in key run of points could effect the fish good or bad. there are kits available to do these simple water clarity tests and also oxygen tests level testing. the amount of rain in the storm would have to be recorded and you would have to test at least five places on a lake three separate times and once or twice on a calm day as a control. good luck hope this is useful, im an environmental science major with an emphasis in fisheries so post more questions if you have any ill be glad to answer.