Over the last few years, Volunteer anglers have been on both sides of the fence when it comes to finding common ground with fi sheries biologists.

From striper controversies to smallmouth bass size limits — we all don’t see eye-to-eye. But sometimes, that common ground can be found —even if it’s on the water.

Guide Jim Duckworth has been on a hardcore daylight pattern for Cordell Hull and Center Hill stripers of late, and he’s had the experience of sharing the action with a few of the state’s top fisheries biologists. The on the water gathering works twofold — the guide gets to share quality fishing in return for quality fisheries knowledge.

For Duckworth, the offer to share his boat with Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency biologists was in a nutshell — an opportunity to gain knowledge.

What he does for a living is based on complete knowledge, and Duckworth thinks being in a boat with the chief of fisheries, his assistant and the reservoir coordinator, is the best education he can get.

“They know everything I need to know to make my job easier and to help me explain to customers in layman’s terms what’s going on and what the fish are supposed to be doing,” says Duckworth.

On a recent trip with Bill Reeves, chief of fisheries, and Tim Churchill, the state’s reservoir coordinator, Duckworth had a pattern for rockfish going that helped both sides of the issues share knowledge.

The pattern was simple enough with big stripers tearing up the surface. The trio was fishing the rip-rap right below the Cordell Hull Dam with a Matzuo Spit and Sputter equipped with an oversized Daiichi bleeding bait treble on the front of the lure.

Starting right at the boils next to the rip-rap and drifting down about 200 yards then pulling up and doing it again while working the lure with rapid hard jerks all the way to the boat doesn’t necessarily require a fisheries degree but experience does help.

Duckworth describes fishing with biologists like being in your favorite class in school with fishing combined. At the end of the day, he says his knowledge is always bettered.

Duckworth doesn’t even mind taking the younger folks in the Agency that Reeves likes to expose to fishing to “get the bug” in them, said the seasoned guide. He thinks this makes them better fisheries biologists and helps them to more easily relate to fishermen.

Most anglers will be happy to know even biologists hate it when all you catch are those fish right under the size limit.

Duckworth and Reeves developed this relationship of meeting on the water last year and in their trips, Duckworth thinks he’s had a little influence on the biologists as well.

Through their smallmouth outings on Priest, Duckworth recalls that Reeves realized the smallmouth population on Priest was very poor.

About nine months later, in the spring of this year — smallmouth were stocked in Priest for the first time ever and more are planned.

The veteran guide also has some input on sauger and delayed mortality, which he says at this time is still inconclusive. Personally, Duckworth says he’s proud of the guys at the TWRA because of the job they do when you consider at times their hands are politically tied.

Bill Reeves says when this fishing relationship first started last year, Duckworth made it clear he wanted it to be a sharing effort. He would teach them how to be better fishermen, and the biologists would provide him with information on his favorite species —research, studies, and surveys. That’s a pretty decent trade-off from both standpoints.

When you can mix business with pleasure and still gain knowledge, you’ve developed some kind of equilibrium. Reeves sums it up as a busman’s holiday. While the biologists as well as the guide could call this research, both parties are on their own
time and off the clock in this cooperative effort.

“I know we have become better fishermen; hopefully he has gained some insight into our biological world as well,” concludes Reeves. “While fishing we have talked about such issues as quality smallmouth bass management, guide licensing, bass and sauger stocking, and striper thermal refuges.”

An even greater benefit than just an individual trip experience is the fishing reports that Duckworth provides the TWRA that they can relate to stocking or management efforts.

Reeves notes that guides like Duckworth are on the water almost every day of the year. They see changes in fish abundance and sizes, particularly sauger, crappie and black bass that give biologists insight into the progress, or lack thereof, progress they are having with a management or stocking strategy on a particular lake and species.

The latest rockfish outing isn’t something Reeves will soon forget. He says there cannot be many things more exciting in life than fishing topwater for stripers, particularly if they are running five to eight-pounds and thick as fleas. If you’re wondering, even biologists, regardless of their knowledge — do miss strikes and do catch fish. For Tim Churchill, getting in the boat with a guide wasn’t just because he wanted to share knowledge — he says even fisheries biologists like to fish.

He says guides know how to fish well and they learn a lot when they’re out there. Under their trade-off agreement, Churchill says everything related to fisheries management comes up when they’re in Duckworth’s boat. Duckworth is eager to know what the biologists are up to, and Churchill says they’re eager for him to know it so he can tell his clients.

“I think both guides and biologists are amazed at what shared knowledge we have,” adds Churchill.

“Both of us think we know a little about the other's vocation, but there really is a lot of overlap.” The “hands on” environment allows the biologists to use their knowledge about fish habits but skill definitely and equally comes into play. Churchill acknowledges that guides are certainly better than most biologists at knowing where fish are at particular times of the year. On the flipside, he supposes he would have some advantage with all this “fancy book learnin” if he were better at feeling strikes or casting where he wanted to.

Can a biologist make a better guide or vice-versa? Churchill answers with a yes and a no. He’s not sure he can make someone who fishes for a living better at fishing. But he can give some pointers on releasing fish alive or explaining the biological basis for what the guide sees on the lake.

Churchill thinks what Duckworth gains from the Agency is a biological and sociological basis for fisheries management decisions that affect his livelihood -- and his ability to talk to clients intelligently about fishing has got to be good for business.

Churchill describes his fishing outings with Duckworth as mostly an opportunity for catching fish, improving fishing skills, and hanging out with a friend. Being off the clock when fishing with him makes the trips personal enjoyment, adds Churchill and the biologists gain a lot from Duckworth on public perception and viewpoint.