Smallmouth bass can be found in rivers throughout Oregon. The fish is an invasive species and has a big appetite for salmon smolt. Smallmouth bass have been disturbing ecosystems and compete with other species for food and habitat. The Native Fish Society will host two events on Saturday to raise awareness about the problem. The “bass bashes” will happen on the Molalla River and the Umpqua River. Attendees are encouraged to catch as many smallmouth bass as they can, and the event includes a cookout full of the freshly caught fish. Kirk Blaine and Liz Perkin are the southern and northern Oregon coordinators, respectively, of the Native Fish Society. They join us with more details about the smallmouth bass and the events.
Note: The following transcript was created by a computer and edited by a volunteer.
Dave Miller: From the Gert Boyle Studio at OPB, this is Think Out Loud. I’m Dave Miller. Oregon anglers will have two chances to catch fish for a cause. This coming Saturday, the Native Fish Society will hold the third annual “bass bash” on the Umpqua River and the first annual bash on the Molalla River. They are opportunities to bring awareness to and to remove some of the smallmouth bass that are taking over Oregon’s waterways. These hungry invasive species disturb ecosystems and compete with native species like salmon for food and habitat. Kirk Blaine is a Southern Oregon coordinator for the society. Liz Perkin is a Northern Oregon coordinator. They both join me now. It’s great to have both of you on Think Out Loud.
Kirk Blaine: Thank you so much for having us today. Excited to be here.
Miller: So, Kirk, first can you describe what a smallmouth bass looks like and acts like?
Blaine: Yeah, so a smallmouth bass is, I guess you could say it ranges anything from real small to medium sized fish, up to like 14 [to] 16 inches in length, kind of round in size. It is a very aggressive feeder in our waterways of Oregon. It’s non-native, and invasive to the moving waters of our state. So it showed up there out of either people planting it there or in the Umpqua system, specifically. It was the ‘64 flood that washed it out of ranchers ponds. So they have made their way into our moving waters of the state on their own.
Miller: Liz, what effects do smallmouth bass have on local ecosystems and local waterways?
Liz Perkin: They’re what we call a piscivorous fish, so they eat other fish. That’s one of the most direct things we’re concerned about with their behavior is when we have the juvenile, the young salmon smolts out migrating in rivers, we do see those smallmouth going after those juvenile salmon and eating a lot of them. They can also compete for space. So bass, smallmouth are definitely a warmer water fish. They prefer waters that are a little bit warmer than our native fish, especially salmon and steelhead, but they still, they don’t really like hot water. So in some places, where we’ve seen mainstream river temperatures increasing a lot, especially post 2020 fires, we’re actually starting to see those smallmouth using thermal refuge. That’s a place where the temperature is a little bit lower, maybe there’s some groundwater coming in – those places are really critical for juvenile salmon and trout and steelhead to use during those warm periods. But we’re actually seeing bass start to move into those areas and they pretty much eat almost any species they can fit in their mouth. So, yeah, they’ll eat a lot of fish, but they will also eat crayfish, insects, and so compete with the native species for those resources too.
Miller: Kirk where can smallmouth be found these days in Oregon?
Blaine: They’re in multiple different watersheds. So, in my region down here, the main place is the Umpqua River systems, both the south and the mainstem Umpqua. They can also be found in warm water or still water environments as well. So some of the watersheds such as Galesville Reservoir, a 10-mile reservoir down there. But up north, Liz has multiple different watersheds that they’re actually on up north as well. So the John Day River, the Molalla, the Willamette are to name a few.
Miller: Kirk, you mentioned that in some parts, in Southern Oregon, you can directly attribute smallmouth now to the huge floods, and storms from 1964, and fish coming from rancher’s ponds and going into the river. Are smallmouth still intentionally introduced in parts of Oregon?
Blaine: Well, there’s reason to believe that they were somehow introduced into the Coquille system shortly after they were found to be fun to catch in the Umpqua system. And that’s led to what’s caused the decline to fall Chinook salmon in the Coquille River system, as well as some of the other native fish as well. It’s unknown. My hope is that no one is actively relocating those fish into other waters of the state right now. And that’s part of our goal here, is just helping to educate folks on the impacts of these fish cause, the importance of our native fish and keeping those fish where they belong rather than transplanting them into different watersheds.
Miller: Kirk, you’ve done “bass bash” for a couple years now. How did these events start?
Blaine: Yeah, it was just a thought of mine, sitting around. I love to fish, obviously. So I thought, what can we all do? What can anglers and other folks that are interested in making a difference for our native fish do to help support a native population? And with that, I thought we can all go out and catch a bunch of fish, remove them from the system and help spread the word about the impacts that these non-native invasive fish are causing to our salmon. With that, I decided to schedule a little bit of a gathering on the banks of the mainstem Umpqua River. That was obviously three years ago now and it was small, but we had about 35 folks that came out that day. We removed probably around 300 fish.
Since that day, I’ve just had a vision of it growing further and further, and here we are today. We have a large registration list for this year. Liz is doing her own and we’re doing it on the same day, which is amazing to see the interest and the reach that we’ve had in order to help folks learn more about what these non-native invasives are doing to our native fish populations.
Miller: What exactly happens at a “bass bash”?
Blaine: For the Umpqua event, we have a camp spot reserved for folks so they can come out the night before. We’ll gather together that morning at the campground in the pavilion. I’ll give fishing instructions to folks on where they can go fish, whether they’re bank fishing or float fishing. We’ll help organize some shuttles for folks to float down certain sections of the river and get back up to their cars and take out. After everyone fishes all day, they keep their entire catch, as there’s no bag limit. Folks do need to have an Oregon state fishing license and we really encourage folks to read the regulations before they go out on those watersheds. But they keep every fish they have and we bring them back.
We’ll have filet stations set up for folks to either filet their own fish or we’ll have folks that will filet their fish for them. With that, we’ll clean, process the meat, and all the excess stuff, we’ll donate to the local gardens. We’ll process the good fish, the clean fish and we’ll go ahead and fry it up that night for fish tacos. I’ll be sharing a little bit about the education of what’s going on here today or the Umpqua “bass bash,” a little bit what I’ve shared with you all today and then we’ll have a wonderful meal of fish tacos. So it’s a lot of fun. But I’ll let Liz share a little bit about how Molalla is gonna take it.
Miller: Liz, is the Molalla “bass bash” gonna be different?
Perkin: It is going to be a little bit different, partly just the nature of the two locations. So, Kirk’s location, I was there last year. It’s in a really beautiful spot, pretty far away from most settlements, but the Molalla bash will be happening in the town of Canby, which is actually my hometown I grew up in. We’ll be based at Canby Community Park, which is pretty much in town on the river, so it’s convenient. There won’t be any camping, but I have organized a couple of people to come out and give fishing demonstrations, so I think it’s a really nice event for people who have maybe never been fishing before. They’ll get a little bit of help getting going and it’s so close to Portland that it’s pretty convenient for a lot of different people.
People are welcome to come any time during the day. We’re gonna get started at 10 a.m. And similarly, we’re gonna have people go out in the watershed, catch as many bass as they can and bring them back. We’ll have the same thing, filet stations set up. We’ll be cooking them up, having some fish tacos. And we’re also gonna be talking about some of the work I’m leading, some pretty big restoration projects in the Upper Molalla River watershed. I’ll be describing some of that work. And Molalla River Watch – that is our local Watershed Council – will also be there and they’ll be giving some background about the work that they’re doing in the watershed too.
Miller: Liz, it seems it’s not just to have a one day increase in bass takes, it’s to build awareness of this issue. Do you find that having an event like this could lead to more people becoming anglers, or is it more just a kind of celebration for folks who already like to fish?
Perkin: Oh, from what I’ve seen from the registration, it’s definitely bringing people out and getting them into angling who have maybe never been fishing before. I’ve already gotten people sending me emails saying, “Hey, I’m really looking forward to this. I’ve never been fishing before. What kind of gear do I need to buy? Help me out, give me some advice.” That’s really exciting to see, just because I got my start in fish conservation. I grew up fishing in the Molalla River, fishing the Nestucca, the Deschutes.
I think Kirk had a similar story where, when you go fishing, especially as a kid and you have a different, close connection to the watershed and it really motivates you to care about these places and to maybe get engaged in different ways. And it’s just fun, I think, to think about getting more families out on the water, more people who maybe haven’t felt welcome to angling, providing those opportunities and providing a good, welcoming community and a fun event where they’re gonna catch fish. They’re gonna have a good time. It just seems like a great way to bring people into fishing and fish conservation too.
Miller: Kirk, as you say, they’re going to catch fish. I mean, is it fair to say there are so many of these smallmouth bass that it’s more or less a guarantee that you will catch them?
Blaine: Yeah. I mean there are hundreds, if not hundreds of thousands of these fish just swimming throughout the Umpqua River. There are times that it’s difficult to hook up with a fish, but the chances are that you will catch a fish. I mean, we’re going to be harvesting hopefully around 500 fish, if not more in total, between all the participants this week, this Saturday. So, yeah, it’s almost a guarantee, but it is fishing at the same time. So, yeah, we’ll put it that way.
Miller: I mean, the flip side of that near guarantee is it says something about the scale of the problem. How do you think about that scale in the face of a couple one day events here and there?
Blaine: Yeah, I think that’s a good point to make. It is important that folks feel welcome and do go out and participate with this and remove these invasive species whenever they can, whenever they’re out fishing on the water. And we’re working with fisheries managers to find a solution to this problem, whether or not it’s removing the fish like they do on the Coquille River by electroshocking. But the reality is, they are a limiting factor to our native fish species that we all love, salmon and steelhead. And we do need to look for solutions that we can make and find in order to solve that problem.
So like you said, we do need to encourage folks to go out there, not just during the “bass bash,” but multiple times throughout the season, remove those fish, they are game fish. So you must use them. Donating to your local garden, a local school garden or any of that choice, would be a great use of those fish. Not only for removing them from the ecosystem that they’re dampening for our salmon and steelhead, but also for our local school gardens or your local school garden, and that sort of thing.
Miller: So, Liz, you’re calling your event on Saturday the “First Annual Bass Bash,” a phrase that I always loved because it implies the hopes for the future that the first thing will become not the last. Is that the plan that this is going to happen every year from now on?
Perkin: Yeah, absolutely. That is the plan and kind of as Kirk alluded to earlier, when he mentioned that there’s a number of rivers in my Northern Oregon region that have bass, I’m really hopeful to expand these out. And if there are people out there who would like to help get similar days started on maybe their home river, like the lower Deschutes, the John Day is a really big one. But also the Santiam, basically any of the tributaries, major tributaries, the Willamette, especially the lower end of those, the downstream end of those tributaries. They all have a lot of bass and our hope here is, yeah, get people out, get people excited. We’ve had such an overwhelming show of interest and support for this first annual that I’m really excited for what that means for the future and future events.
Miller: Liz and Kirk, thanks very much.
Perkin / Blaine: Thank you for having us.
Miller: Liz Perkin is a Northern Oregon coordinator for the Native Fish Society. Kirk Blaine is a Southern Oregon coordinator. They joined us to talk about the problems that invasive smallmouth bass pose for native fish in Oregon, and the two “bass bashes” that are happening this weekend, one on the Umpqua River, one on the Molalla.
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