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Home Range, Spawning Migrations, and Homing of Radio‐Tagged Florida Largemouth Bass in Two Central Florida Lakes
Author(s) -
Mesing Charles L.,
Wicker Anton M.
Publication year - 1986
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(1986)115<286:hrsmah>2.0.co;2
Subject(s) - micropterus , bass (fish) , fishery , biology , electrofishing , population , habitat , home range , geography , stocking , homing (biology) , ecology , fish <actinopterygii> , demography , sociology
Home range areas of largemouth bass Micropterus salmoides floridanus in two central Florida lakes varied from 0.01 to 5.16 hectares, and maximum home range dimensions ranged from 50 to 2,364 m, based on 2,047 radio locations of 22 fish from August 1979 to May 1981. Greatest average daily movements occurred during June, May, and February; the smallest were in August. Several largemouth bass migrated during the spawning season as far as 3 km from their home ranges to wave‐protected sites within canals. Largemouth bass were often located in small areas of their home range and occupied panic grasses Panicum spp., stands of cattails Typha sp., and spatterdock Nuphar luteum more often than other available vegetation types and open water. A segment of the largemouth bass population remained offshore: 36% of the tagged fish were at least 10 m from shore 25% of the time. Studies such as this should facilitate identification of habitat use by fish, projection of realistic harvest rates, and formulation of predator stocking policies and fishing regulations.