T. J. Timmons

The commercial trotline fishery on the Kentucky portions of Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley was evaluated by a telephone survey, an onboard survey, and from market data. Results indicate that the telephone survey was a reliable source of economic information based on high correlations (r ≥ 0.89) of effort and harvest data among the 3 data sets. Data obtained from the onboard survey overestimated economic impact of the fishery because of bias toward full-time fishermen. However, the onboard survey did yield accurate species composition information. Thirty-five percent of the respondents in...

The spawning season and length at maturity were determined for female blue catfish in Kentucky Lake, Kentucky-Tennessee, where this species is commercially harvested. A gonosomatic index (GSI) was determined from 581 females of 3 length categories: 400-499 mm, 500-599 mm, 2:600 mm. The mean GSI for fish in the largest length category peaked at 3.72% during 1 May-15 May, when water temperature was 20.5° C, and rapidly dropped to 0.21% during 1 June-15 June. Spawning activity in 1986 peaked between 15 May and 15 June. Contributions to reproduction by fish <600 mm were clearly minimal....