Movements of tournament displaced Smallmouth Bass in eastern Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River
Connor W Elliott, Patrick H Wolf, Alexander J Row, Mark S Ridgway, Bruce L TuftsAbstract
Objective
Black bass Micropterus spp. competitive angling tournaments are becoming increasingly prevalent on water bodies at the scale of the Laurentian Great Lakes. Anglers in these events routinely capture and displace fish up to 200 km. While tournament displacement has been studied on smaller water bodies, the ability of Smallmouth Bass M. dolomieu to respond to displacement at the extent of the Great Lakes is largely unknown. We used a combination of externally tagged tournament fish and experimentally displaced fish to examine their ability to return to their initial capture locations.
Methods
T-bar tags were externally affixed to 307 control fish and 4,698 fish that were released from tournaments in eastern Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River. Recaptures of tagged fish were recorded for 10 years. An additional 40 Smallmouth Bass were captured and implanted with acoustic transmitters to track their movements for 2 years after being displaced 15, 30, 60, and 100 km.
Results
Control fish moved significantly less (0 km) and were recaptured significantly sooner (24 d) than tournament-displaced fish (14 km and 346 d). Of the experimentally displaced fish that survived, 100, 50, 25, and 0% returned to their initial capture locations after being displaced 15, 30, 60, and 100 km, respectively.
Conclusion
Both tagging methods that were used in this study indicated that Smallmouth Bass in this system respond well to displacement up to 15 km. As displacement distance increased beyond 15 km, the probability of fish returning to their initial capture locations was reduced to zero. The results of this study are useful to tournament organizers and fisheries managers seeking to reduce long term adverse effects of these events in the Great Lakes.