Reflex impairment in largemouth bass shows interactions of gear type, fight time, and air exposure

Largemouth bass, Bemep/Flicker

Cooke et al. 2016 examined reflex impairment in largemouth bass captured during the summer (25-27^oC). Excerpts from their paper detail study findings: 

“…little is known about how gear strength and fight time interact with air exposure duration to ultimately influence the level of exhaustion experienced by fish at time of release. Here we systematically varied fishing gear strength (ultralight versus medium-heavy) and air exposure duration (0 versus 120 s) when targeting Largemouth Bass Micropterus salmoides. We relied on reflex impairment (using five different reflexes) as a real-time indicator of fish condition.”

“One of the more interesting observations from this study was that fish that were landed rapidly and thus in better condition were more difficult to handle, which led to longer air exposure. We are aware of anglers and scientists that have mused about the trade-offs between fight time and ease of handling, but to our knowledge this is the first study to formally assess this idea.”

“In this study we used two extremes in gear type and suggest that moderate strength gear likely represents the best compromise in terms of achieving an appropriate level of exhaustion that would facilitate handling and hook removal without leading to complete exhaustion.”

Reflex impairment in captured largemouth bass, Cooke et al. 2016.

“Using reflex indicators, we showed clearly that there was a gradient in reflex impairment with Largemouth Bass; fish captured on UL gear had significantly higher reflex impairment than those captured with MH gear with no air exposure, while fish captured with both gear types had similarly high reflex impairment when exposed to the air.”