Allen A. Forshage

Faced with declining license sales in the last quarter of the twentieth century, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department recognized that it needed to take a new approach to traditional fisheries management. Research, fishery surveys, and fish stocking were no longer enough. Education and outreach were also needed to help sustain the high quality of Texas recreational sport fishing in the new millennium by maintaining the existing customerbase while building interest in fishing among a population that was increasingly urban, multi-ethnic and exposed to a wide variety of potential recreational...

Infonnation from applications to 2 angler recognition programs administered by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department were analyzed to determine changes in the number and weight of fish submitted each year. Frequent increases in largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) (5 in a 6-year time span), striped bass (Morone saxatilis) (9 in a 14-year time span), and hybrid striped bass (M. chrysops X M. saxatilis) (7 in 8-year time span) state records were documented. Significant annual increases in mean weight of largemouth bass (4.0 kg in 1974 to >5.0 kg in 1986 and 1987) and smallmouth bass...

Natural reproduction of hybrid striped bass (Marone chrysops x M.saxatiUs) was documented in Lake Palestine, Texas. Electrophoresis and isoelectric focusing analysis indicated 29% of the sampled Marone spp. were non F-l hybrids. These individuals apparently resulted when F-l hybrids reproduced with white bass and/or F-l hybrids. Age analysis revealed the non F-l hybrids were from years when hybrid striped bass were not stocked.

Florida largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides floridanus) have been stocked extensively into Texas reservoirs containing the northern largemouth bass (M. s. salmoides) subspecies, and knowledge of the genetic make-up of these potentially intergraded populations is important to their continued management. Bass populations from 19 such reservoirs were analyzed by electrophoretic determination of individual fish genotypes. As measured by variation at 3 loci, intergradation ranged from 2% to 92%. Variations in percent intergradation among reservoirs were related to individual reservoir...