Use of a Nursery Pond to Establish Smallmouth Bass in Beaver Reservoir, Arkansas
Production of smallmouth bass (Micropterus dolomieu) in 11 -ha Beaver Nursery Pond was estimated from 1990 to 1994 to determine numbers of fish stocked in Beaver Reservoir. In 1990, 2 rapid population sampling methods, seining a known area and SCUBA transects, were tested against a Petersen mark-and-recapture estimate. Both sampling methods provided population estimates that did not differ significantly from mark-and-recapture values, but both generated greater confidence intervals. Annual production in the nursery pond by late June varied between 57,000 and 164,733 fish/year, with a mean...
