Journal of the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies

The greatest concentrations of fishermen on Kentucky's state-owned lakes have been observed to occur during the first week following the opening of these lakes to fishing. To measure the impact of this surge of fishermen on an unsuspecting fish population, an opening week creel census and tagging study was conducted on 3 dissimilar state-owned lakes. In each lake bass were caught by angling and tagged. Tag returns were remarkably similar: 27%, 30.9%, and 27.5%. Evidence seemed to indicate strap jaw tags adversely affected the growth of tagged bass. In the creel census 70% of the largemouth bass Micropterus salmoides, caught in the first week from the 3 lakes were taken in the first 30 hours. The data indicates largemouth bass have a capacity for learning. The bluegill, Lepomis macrochirus, catch was small. A different opening date is recommended.

Plans for a fall and winter drawdown (1955-56) were carried out on Nimrod, a turbid, flood control lake. The surface acreage was reduced from approximately 3,600 acres to 700 acres. Commercial fishermen removed over 200,000 pounds of rough fish most of which were smallmouth buffalo. Following the drawdown and subsequent filling, the water cleared up and remained clear. An increase in the number and size of young black bass and white bass was recorded with a resultant decrease in the number of young channel catfish, carp, drum and buffalo. Larger numbers of young sunfish and minnows were noted. The fish population, as tabulated by weight, showed a marked change in that the edible forage species (buffalo, drum, etc.) were reduced approximately one-half and the non edible forage species (shad, minnows, etc.) were increased approximately three times. Boat dock operators reported improved sport fishing, especially for small white crappie.

Commercial fishing experiments with 1 1/4- to 1 5/8-inch-bar mesh trammel nets were conducted in fourteen tidal streams of Alabama during 1953 and 1954. The primary objective of these studies was to determine the percentages of the various species of fish taken with small mesh trammel nets in the tidal streams during the months of October through March. A total of 26 sets with trammel nets were made in the streams studied. A total of 65,839 fish, turtles and crabs weighing 56,129.01 pounds was caught during the period of the experiments. Freshwater game fish which included crappie, bluegill, shellcracker, largemouth bass, pickerel, warmouth and yellow bass made up 0.75 percent of this total weight. Speckled trout comprised 3.21 percent and all other commercial and rough species made up 96.04 percent of the total weight.

Although the literature shows several instances where warmwater fishes have been affected by recognizable disease organisms, the problem of warmwater fish diseases has received little notice by investigators. Evidence collected in fish cultural activity at the Marion, Alabama, Station indicates that disease may be an important factor in the successful propagation of bluegill fingerlings and also to some extent in that of largemouth black bass. A case of gill disease among blugills is described and other evidence regarding unexplained mortality among both bluegills and largemouth black bass is discussed. The need for a comprehensive study of the problem of warmwater fish diseases is emphasized.