Initial Predation of Stocked Fingerling Largemouth Bass in a Texas Reservoir and Implications for Improving Stocking Efficiency

Abstract We assessed the importance of initial predation as a source of mortality of stocked fingerling Florida largemouth bass Micropterus salmoides floridanus (30–46 mm total length). Florida largemouth bass were tagged with coded wire tags and stocked (3,000 fish/site) at six sites in Elm Creek Embayment of O. H. Ivie Reservoir, Texas—the location of an earlier study in which the immediate mortality of stocked fish was found to be highly variable. Stocked fish were eaten by at least five species of predators that varied widely in size. Ninety-three percent of the stocked fish recovered from predator stomachs were consumed by juvenile and adult largemouth bass M. salmoides and smallmouth bass M. dolomieu. Assuming a capture efficiency of 8% for our predator sampling, losses of stocked fish to predation were as high as 27.5% within 12 h of stocking, and losses generally increased with predator density. In comparison, the mortality of stocked fish held in predator-free enclosures was only 3.5% at 84 h pos...

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