A slot limit -- the one on Smith is 13 to 16 inches -- allows anglers to keep small fish and large fish and save the ones in the middle. That allows those middle-sized fish to grow a little quicker when the competition from smaller fish is reduced.

"The average percentage of bass harvested in Alabama is less than 5 percent," Abernathy reported. "Our anglers just don't keep bass. But we've got that percentage up to 12 percent on Smith and I think you can see the results."

Smith will never produce bass like those that a fertile lake such as Guntersville fosters, but, as this program shows, fishing can be improved vastly by proper management.

If you fish Smith, remember that it's a deep, clear lake where finesse fishing with shaky-head worms can pay big dividends.

"It's sort of where they invented that kind of fishing," Abernathy said. "They do well with topwaters at times there too, and I'm told they have a tremendous night bite."

According to Abernathy, what's happening at Smith shows the importance of good data and good management. He also credits the B.A.I.T. report program with helping fisheries managers gather that data for making good decisions about our state's bass fishing.

Finally, Abernathy would like to have as many participating tournaments as possible in the program, and encourages lots more anglers to get involved in the program in 2009.

LAKES THAT HAVE DECLINED
Just as the quality of fishing is on the rise in some locations around the state, it has also declined in some places.

The places in decline in the 2007 B.A.I.T. report included some big names from past years -- Eufaula and Millers Ferry. And Abernathy is predicting that another lake that has been doing well in the rankings in recent years -- Mitchell Lake -- will decline in the near future. "Water quality has declined on the Chattahoochee," he said in talking of Eufaula, "and that's a factor that generally causes the fishing to decline."

That region of the state has been in the grip of drought conditions lately. Future studies will likely look at the impact of drought on fish in places like Eufaula, said Abernathy.

In 2007, Eufaula ranked No. 15 out of 22 reservoirs rated for overall quality in the B.A.I.T. report.

Millers Ferry, another lake that has long tended to garner high ratings, fell to No. 19 out of 22 in overall quality for 2007. Abernathy's not sure about the circumstances that led to that demotion, but he noted that having only a handful of tournaments on a lake could, if those competitions were especially good or especially bad, skew results in a comparative ranking.

Millers Ferry had only 10 B.A.I.T. reports turned in during 2007, compared to 47 for Guntersville. The B.A.I.T. requires at least five tournaments for a body of water to be included in the rankings.

"We feel good about the picture we're getting from this data when we have a lot of tournaments on a water," Abernathy said.

While Mitchell has ranked very high lately -- No. 5 in overall quality in 2007 -- Abernathy feels that soon, possibly this year, that's likely to end. "We knew we had a very good year-class of bass from 2001 that have been moving through the population at Mitchell the last few years," he noted. "The high ranking there the last couple of years has just been a function of that year-class moving up. But one year-class can't last forever, and we look for the quality to decline in the coming year."