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The Fishery of a Missouri Ozark Stream, Big Piney River, and the Effects of Stocking Fingerling Smallmouth Bass
Author(s) -
Funk John L.,
Fleener George G.
Publication year - 1974
Publication title -
transactions of the american fisheries society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.696
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1548-8659
pISSN - 0002-8487
DOI - 10.1577/1548-8659(1974)103<757:tfoamo>2.0.co;2
Subject(s) - fishery , bass (fish) , stocking , sucker , minnow , fishing , electrofishing , biology , fish <actinopterygii> , zoology
Abstract Over 92,000 marked fingerling smallmouth bass were stocked in Big Piney River, 1952‐1955. An estimated 63,600 smallmouth bass were caught between 1953, when the first stocked fish entered the creel, and 1958 when no more marked fish were caught. Of that number, not more than 2,100 were stocked fish. This is a little more than 3% of all the bass caught and a little more than 2% return of stocked fish. Seventy species of fish were collected between 1951 and 1958 with electric shockers, hoopnets, and seines. Golden redhorse, rock bass, black redhorse, northern hog sucker, smallmouth bass and longear sunfish made up 80% of the total weight. The Ozark minnow, bleeding shiner, northern studfish, stoneroller, and bluntnose minnow were the most important forage species. This species composition is representative of Ozark headwater streams. Mean annual catch rates ranged from 35.2 to 134.9 kg/10 shocker hr of which 2.3 to 13.6 kg/10 shocker hr was bass. Big Piney River is subject to flash floods with crests up to 6 m above base level. A drought which caused cessation of flooding permitted a record year‐class of smallmouth bass to be produced in 1952. This large year‐class contributed substantially to the fishery but complicated interpretation of the stocking data. Fishing pressure measured by a creel census varied from 130 to 275 hr/ha per yr. Annual yield of fish ranged from 9.0 to 29.8 kg/ha of which 2.1 to 6.0 kg/ha were smallmouth bass. Each year longear sunfish, rock bass, green sunfish, and smallmouth bass made up about 90% of the catch. Less than 5% of the smallmouth bass caught were more than 5 years old. Virtual populations of smallmouth bass varied from 5,600 (1950) to 24,600 (1952) fish. There appeared to be a direct correlation between the number of young bass surviving the first summer and the number of fish the year‐class contributed to the creel. Big Piney River yielded a greater quantity of fish to the fisherman than most other warmwater streams, many trout streams, and some warmwater lakes and reservoirs. The quality of the fishery declined under continued fishing pressure of over 250 hr/ha per yr.