John Dennis

Sub-adult channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus) are stocked into community fishing lakes in Texas to provide anglers with the opportunity to catch fish close to home. Survival of these stocked fish is unknown, and this study was initiated to provide some information and guidance for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department channel catfish stocking program. This study was conducted on 20 lakes in Texas between 0.4 and 4.0 ha with 10 located in urban environments and the other 10 in rural locations. Lakes were stocked one time with adipose fin-clipped channel catfish and surveyed monthly with...

At Amistad Reservoir, Texas, the National Park Service (NPS) built a 46-m long release tube for convenient return of tournament-caught largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) to the reservoir following weigh-in. Several members of the public raised concerns to NPS that use of the tube might have been leading to increased tournament-associated mortality. We simulated two largemouth bass tournaments in August 2006 and March 2007 using volunteer anglers to compare six-day delayed mortality between fish returned to the reservoir via the tube and other methods. In summer, delayed mortality...