NEWS RELEASE

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission

May 5, 2000

CONTACT: Charlie Mesing (850) 487-1644

FWC EXPERIMENTS WITH STOCKING LARGEMOUTH BASS ON LAKE TALQUIN

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) is conducting an experimental largemouth bass stocking program on Lake Talquin, an 8,000-acre man-made reservoir near Tallahassee.

The agency plans to stock 80,000 to 100,000 3- to 4-inch largemouth bass fingerlings this spring to help increase Talquin's bass population between drawdowns. During April and early May, nearly 70,000 bass have been released into the lake.

Because Talquin's water levels are stabilized, it requires drawdowns every seven to 10 years to mimic high and low water conditions found in natural lakes. Past drawdowns in 1984, 1991 and 1998 have proved beneficial, but short-lived because the lake's vegetation disappears after one year.

"Without abundant vegetation to provide bass cover and food, only a few will survive their first year," said Charlie Mesing, a freshwater fisheries biologist with the FWC. "Talquin has limited aquatic vegetation to provide habitat for young bass because of its depth, turbidity and lack of water fluctuations."

The FWC has experimented with stocking largemouth bass in the past with no substantial success because its fish hatcheries did not have the technology to produce larger fingerlings. Recently, however, the agency's hatcheries have developed the technology to raise larger numbers of larger-sized bass.

Mesing said the size of the bass fingerlings is important, because the fish must be large enough to feed on shad larvae, the primary forage in Talquin. If they were any smaller, they would not survive due to the lack of vegetation for cover and food.

After bass hatch, they feed on microscopic zooplankton, switch to insects and finally to fish. Producing larger bass in the hatchery allows biologists to bypass the critical stages of feeding on zooplankton and insects.

"Timing is also important because largemouth bass must be large enough at stocking to feed on the shad before the shad grow too large to eat," Mesing said. "Generally, the threadfin shad spawn on Talquin occurs during May. Newly hatched shad are less than 0.4 inches in length and can be easily eaten by 3- to 4-inch bass."

Stocking largemouth bass is only one part of the Lake Talquin management plan. In addition, the FWC is reducing the bass harvest and will evaluate the potential to increase the amount of aquatic vegetation during non-drawdown years.

"Bass stocking can't produce the numbers of fish that a drawdown does," Mesing said. "It can allow expanded time between drawdowns."

The FWC is increasing the minimum size limit for largemouth bass from 14 inches to 18 inches starting July 1. This will reduce the harvest of bass less than 18 inches and should protect the stocked fish for four to five years.

"Our plan is to continue experimental stocking for the next two years to determine if the numbers, size and date of stocking are sufficient to increase the bass population between drawdown years," Mesing said.