Bass regs change on Lake Cammack, Lake Holt

Biologists urge anglers to keep more small fish

The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission has implemented a new black bass regulation for two Piedmont lakes effective Aug. 1.

Anglers fishing for largemouth bass at Lake Cammack in Alamance County and Lake Holt in Granville County can now keep up to 10 fish per day with no minimum size limit. But only two bass may be greater than 14 inches.

The previous regulation at Cammack and Holt allowed anglers to harvest five fish 14 inches or larger daily with the exception that two fish could be less than 14 inches. Fisheries biologists proposed eliminating the minimum size limit and increasing the daily creel limit for largemouth bass in these lakes to encourage harvest of fish less than 14 inches.

Harvesting more bass less than 14 inches reduces competition among fish and allows the remaining fish to grow bigger, faster.

“Both Lake Cammack and Lake Holt largemouth bass populations are overcrowded, so increasing harvest will reduce competition for bait fish among the remaining bass and allow them to grow larger,” said Corey Oakley, a fisheries biologist for the Commission. “It will also help maintain a healthier, more-balanced population of largemouth bass.

“Angler harvest is the most-effective management tool to enhance a largemouth bass fishery. In fact, most largemouth bass fisheries would benefit from legal harvest. The new size and creel limits at lakes Cammack and Holt are unique because those systems have an overabundance of largemouth bass between 10 and 14 inches.”