Largemouth Bass Hatching Success and First-Winter Survival in Two Illinois Reservoirs

Abstract

Water level regimes affected periodicity of hatching success of largemouth bass Micropterus salmoides in two central Illinois reservoirs, Carlyle Lake and Lake Shelbyville. Periodicity of hatching success was determined from daily rings on otoliths of young-of-the-year largemouth bass collected each July during 1988-1990. Hatching success was disrupted during rapid water level rises and drops. Peak hatching success occurred when water levels were relatively stable. No relationship existed between timing of peak hatching success and abundance or sizes attained in first year. Little evidence was found for size-related winter mortality. Largemouth bass recruitment was considerably higher in high-water years than in low-water years, and appeared to be unrelated to water level fluctuations during the spawning season. However, we suggest that water-levelinfluenced hatching disruptions could be critical to year-class strength if water levels were to fluctuate over most of the spawning season.

Cold, Northern Winters: The Importance of Temperature to Overwinter Mortality of Age-0 White Crappies

“…Probably for these reasons, size-dependent winter starvation has been documented for many taxa, both in field sampling (Miranda and Hubbard 1994a;Post et al 1998;Sutton and Ney 2001) and in pond and laboratory experiments (Oliver et al 1979;Post and Evans 1989;Ludsin and DeVries 1997;Schultz et al 1998). However, size-dependent overwinter mortality is not always documented in field sampling (see Kohler et al 1993;Jackson and Noble 2000) or in laboratory, outdoor pool, or pond experiments (Toneys and Coble 1979;Isely 1981;Garvey et al 1998;Jonas and Wahl 1998). Whether sizedependent overwinter mortality occurs probably depends on a suite of factors, including energy depletion, predation, and latitude (see Garvey et al 1998).…”

Mortalité hivernale de l'éperlan arc-en-ciel d'eau douce /

“…For example, for the largemouth bass, Kohler et al (1993) and Toneys and Coble (1979) did not found evidence of size-related winter mortality in Oklahoma, Illinois and Wisconsin lakes and reservoirs. Also, Jackson and Noble (1999) had not found any total length frequency difference between one year fish catch during spring, and fish catch during the previous autumn.…”

Ecological impacts of winter water level drawdowns on lake littoral zones: a review

“…Impacts are most extreme when regulated water levels are unnaturally low before and during spawning Noble 2002, 2005;Kahl et al 2008), and during YOY hatching, such that there is limited habitat availability and suitability (Gafny et al 1992;Wilcox and Meeker 1992), strongly impacting recruitment and year-class strength (Kohler et al 1993;Neal et al 2001;Ozen and Noble 2005). Regulated water level fluctuations (e.g., rises and recessions) during spawning can negatively affect juvenile fish densities (Miranda and Lowery 2007), partly due to the loss of physical structural complexity (Neal et al 2001).…”