Movement and Use of Backwater Habitats by Largemouth Bass and White Crappie in Demopolis Reservoir, Alabama

ABSTRACT

Demopolis Reservoir is a short-retention mainstream jmpoundment where sedimentation over the past 50 years has caused separation of some backwater coves that were historically connected to the reservoir during normal water level periods. Radio tagged largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) and white crappie (Pomoxis annularis) were monitored over a 140 to 200 day period in 2002 and 2003 to determine movements into and out of two backwater coves. Considerable movement of largemouth bass and white crappie into and out of the two coves occurred but generally appeared random and unrelated to water level fluctuations or the cove in which they were tagged. The number of movements into or out of the coves in which fish were tagged was not related to the directional change in water levels between consecutive tracking events for either species in either year, as fish moved into and out of coves under conditions of both rising and falling water levels. Both largemouth bass and white crappie were associated with flooded trees and other inundated terrestrial vegetation when water levels were high in both years.