Factors Influencing Recruitment of Crappies in Chautauqua Lake, New York

Abstract

Black crappies Pomoxis nigromaculatus and white crappies P. annularis were introduced to Chautauqua Lake from Sodus Bay of Lake Ontario (New York) in the late 1920s to establish a recreational fishery. The abundance of both species rapidly increased, and an intensive recreational fishery developed. Anecdotal accounts from the recreational fishery and catches in pound nets indicate that both species remained at high levels of abundance until the 1970s. However, the catch of age-2 crappies in gill-net samples has declined since 1978. Index trawling from 1978 to 1999 indicated that the year-class strength of black and white crappies was synchronized and fixed between fall of age 0 and fall of age 1. Age-0 crappie abundance was positively associated with the biomass of walleye prey (yellow perch Perca flavescens, sunfish Lepomis spp., and white perch Morone americana) and negatively associated with that of walleye Stizostedion vitreum, showing that availability of alternative prey affects walleye predation on crappies. The mortality of crappies from fall of age 0 to fall of age 1 was not related to winter severity, predation, or prey abundance. Low abundance of age-2 crappies and the lack of any significant relation between the adult stock and age-0 abundance showed that the recreational fishery or transfers of adult crappies from Chautauqua Lake were unlikely causes for poor recruitment to the crappie populations.