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Movement of Largemouth Bass in Northern Chesapeake Bay: Relevance to Sportfishing Tournaments
Author(s) -
RichardsonHeft Carol A.,
Heft Alan A.,
Fewlass Leon,
Brandt Stephen B.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
north american journal of fisheries management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.587
H-Index - 72
eISSN - 1548-8675
pISSN - 0275-5947
DOI - 10.1577/1548-8675(2000)020<0493:molbin>2.3.co;2
Subject(s) - bass (fish) , fishery , chesapeake bay , electrofishing , tidewater , shore , micropterus , bay , environmental science , geography , estuary , biology , fish <actinopterygii> , physical geography , archaeology , glacier
Largemouth bass Micropterus salmoides have been displaced as far as 50 km from where they were caught in Chesapeake Bay tidewater angling tournaments. Two concerns are whether largemouth bass return to capture areas or whether they stockpile at tournament release sites. To answer these questions, movements of 82 largemouth bass tagged with radio transmitters and 146 largemouth bass tagged with streamer tags were observed during 1991–1995. Fish were collected by boat electrofishing near two disparate tournament weigh‐in stations on the eastern and western shores of northern Chesapeake Bay. Some largemouth bass (43 radio‐tagged, 58 streamer‐tagged) were displaced 15–21 km to the other station; controls (39 radio‐tagged, 88 streamer‐tagged) were released where they were caught. Movement patterns were similar for displaced largemouth bass: 43% from the Susquehanna River (western shore) and 33% from the Northeast River (eastern shore) exhibited directed movement towards initial capture areas by returning to their original capture areas. Among the controls, only 4% of Susquehanna River and 6% of Northeast River fish traveled to the opposite shore, demonstrating that return movement was not random. For displaced bass that returned to original capture areas, those released in the spring tended to return within 3 months, whereas bass released in the fall returned within 7–12 months. For both groups, this typically occurred when water temperatures were between 12.0°C and 22.5°C. Most radio‐tagged largemouth bass (64%) were located more than 0.5 km from their release sites (i.e., the designated stockpiling zone) 7 d after release. The final located positions for radio‐tagged largemouth bass averaged 9.6 km from the release sites, and 95% were at least 0.5 km from the release sites. Results from our study demonstrate that displaced largemouth bass tend to return to their capture areas and that short‐term stockpiling of largemouth bass at tournament release areas was possible, but that long term stockpiling did not occur.