MEDIA ADVISORY/PHOTO OPPORTUNITY
February 27, 2008
“SHIP” SETS SAIL TO IMPROVE BASS FISHING ON LAKE LORAMIE
March 15th Bass School will educate youth on fishing and conservation
XENIA, OHIO - Bass in Lake Loramie will discover 100 new places to nest on Saturday March 15, 2008 when the Ohio Bass Federation’s Ohio Valley Bass Masters, Shelby County Bassmasters, Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) Division of Wildlife (DOW) and Lake Loramie State Park team up to complete the final phase of a Spawning Habitat Improvement Partnership (SHIP) project around the lake. This large-scale conservation-partnering project was launched to enhance largemouth bass spawning habitat using artificial nesting boxes and is modeled after a successful SHIP project conducted at BuckeyeLake in 2005.
“Like BuckeyeLake, sedimentation has greatly reduced available bass spawning habitat in LakeLoramie. Habitat is at the top of the list of factors critical to sustaining strong bass populations. A SHIP project has real potential to increase suitable spawning habitat, improve largemouth bass spawning success, and boost the lake’s bass population. Sediment challenged lakes are where SHIP projects have the best capacity to make a difference in spawning habitat.” stated Rich Carter, Fisheries Biologist with the Division of Wildlife’s District 1 and SHIP Coordinator. “This project combines the experience and manpower of the Ohio Bass Federation membership, biological insights from the DOW, and cooperation of LakeLoramieState Park to allow project partners to experiment with a large-scale habitat manipulation to improve bass fisheries.”
“After reading about the success of the SHIP project at BuckeyeLake, we decided that this project was the best way for us as a club to contribute to the health of Ohio fisheries” said JR Corbin, Ohio Valley Bass Masters’ Conservation Director.
Each nesting box is constructed using half of a plastic 55-gallon food-grade plastic drum that has the front and back walls removed to provide fish access to a gravel spawning substrate placed in the bottom of the drum. A landscape timber is inserted into the upper portion of the two remaining walls that is used for overhead cover and for transporting the box. Each nesting box weighs about 70 pounds.
The DOW will monitor the bass population over the next several years, using standardized electrofishing surveys to assess and track the population each spring. These results may complement bass tournament information that the Ohio Bass Federation plans to keep track of during this time.
SHIP participants will be meeting at the lake’s Main Launch Ramp Pavilion at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday March 15 to complete construction of the nesting boxes. The boxes will be placed in the lake beginning at 1:00 pm.
In conjunction with the nesting box activity, the project partners will hold BassSchool, a hands-on fishing and conservation oriented educational event for youth anglers ages 6 to 18. Youth can learn fishing knots and rigging, fish handling, casting, fish habitat and conservation from DOW certified Passport to Fishing instructors. Youth interested in participating must pre-register through the Lake Loramie Park Office by calling (937) 295-2011. The event will be held inside at the lake’s Main Launch Ramp Pavilion from 10 am to noon, with lunch provided from noon to 1:00 pm.