Movement of Black Crappies and Bluegills among Interconnected Lakes in Minnesota

Abstract

The movement of fish among interconnected lakes has been documented for highly mobile species; however, little information is available for black crappie Pomoxis nigromaculatus and bluegill Lepomis macrochirus. We assessed emigration of black crappies from 4 lakes and bluegills from 2 lakes within a chain of 16 lakes in west-central Minnesota by comparing the proportion of angler returns of T-bar anchor tags reported from lakes other than the one in which the fish were tagged. Over a 3-year period, black crappie angler tag returns from nonorigin lakes ranged from 6% to 23% in the four lakes. Annual emigration rates of black crappies ranged from 0% to 92%. For bluegills, the 3-year emigration rate was 9% from Le Homme Dieu Lake and 14% from Victoria Lake, with annual rates ranging from 3% to 36%. We found no evidence that the size of bluegills or black crappies at tagging affected the likelihood of emigration and no evidence that movement upstream or downstream was preferred. Fisheries managers should not consider bluegill and especially black crappie populations in connected lakes to be isolated.