Importance of Body Size to the Recruitment Process in Largemouth Bass Populations

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Abstract
Results of pond studies indicated that the number of young‐of‐the‐year (age‐0) largemouth bass Micropterus salmoides that grow to 15 cm or longer depends on the presence of suitable prey such as bluegills Lepomis macrochirus and gizzard shad Dorosoma cepedianum. Prey availability, which influences growth and length distributions of young largemouth bass, may be a major determinant of recruitment to adult stock. On the premise that large age‐0 fish have lower mortality rates than small members of the same cohort, we applied a model of size structure to the problem of forecasting eventual recruitment from cohorts of young largemouth bass. The model confirmed that length distributions of age‐0 fish can have important influences on subsequent recruitment; good first‐summer growth may mitigate, in part, such detrimental events as water‐level fluctuations. The model may be a more refined predictor of recruitment than density of age‐0 fish. Received March 20, 1984 Accepted February 23, 1985