Growth Data on Sport Fishes in Twelve Lakes in Kansas FRANK B

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Growth Data on Sport Fishes in Twelve Lakes in Kansas FRANK B. CROSS, JAMES E. DEACON, and CLAUD M. WARD This paper presents data on the growth-rates of nine kinds of game fish collected from 1952 to 1956 inclusive from twelve of the more important lakes in Kansas: Crawford County State Lake number 2 (= Farlington); Gardner Lake, Johnson County; Lone Star Lake, Douglas County; Prairie Lake, Jackson County; Leavenworth County State Lake (= Tonganoxie); Lake Wabaunsee, Wabaunsee County; Wyandotte County Lake; Herington Lake, Dickinson County; Nemaha County State Lake; Ottawa County State Lake; Cedar Bluff Reservoir, Trego County; and Kanopolis Reservoir, Ellsworth County.

Fish were obtained by personnel of the State Biological Survey, especially Mr. W. J. Davis, by means of gill nets (3/4-inch to 2-inch mesh, bar measure), hoop- and fyke-nets (1-inch mesh, bar measure), and rotenone. Most fish from Lone Star Lake were collected with hook- and-line by Mr. J. S. Carey.

A scale-reader similar to that described by Van Oosten, Deason, and Jobes (Jour. du Conseil 9[2] :241-248, 1934) was used to ascertain ages of the fish. The ages assigned in Table I represent the number of growing seasons completed. Total lengths at the time of capture were used for fishes that were taken from November 1 to June 1 inclusive; these fish were considered to be in an interphase between growing seasons. For fish that were caught in the period June 1 to November 1, the total length was calculated to the last annulus by direct proportion, using scale- measurements that were made when the scales were read.

Farlington, Gardner, Lone Star, Prairie, Tonganoxie, Wabaunsee, and Wyandotte lakes are comparatively deep and clear, whereas Hering- ton, Nemaha, and Ottawa lakes are shallow and usually turbid. Cedar Bluff and Kanopolis, which are large flood-control reservoirs on the Smoky Hill River, have much greater maximum depths than other lakes listed, but also have large areas of shallow water. Their turbidity is variable.

Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science, Vol. 62, No. 2, 1959.

[162] Growth of Sport Fish in Kansas Lakes 163

The numbers of fish listed in Table I do not indicate the abundance of each species in the different lakes. More time was spent in sampling some lakes than others, and many more fish were caught in most of the lakes than were used to ascertain growth-rates. The predominant species in each lake were as follows: Farlington—bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus), largemouth bass ( Micropterus salmoides), white crappie (Pomoxis an- nularis), channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus); Gardner— white crappie, bluegill, black bullhead (Ictalurus melas), golden shiner ( Notemigonus crysoleucas); Lone Star—bluegill, largemouth bass, white crappie; Prairie—white crappie, channel catfish, bluegill; Tonganoxie—white crappie, bluegill, largemouth bass, carp (Cyprinus carpio); Wabaunsee- white crappie, drum (Aplodinotus grunniens), common sucker (Ciiro7to- mus commersonnii), bluegill, channel catfish; Wyandotte—white crappie, black bullhead, bluegill; Herington—carp; Nemaha—river carpsucker (Carpiodes carpio), white crappie, channel catfish; Ottawa—white crappie, channel catfish, carp.

Centrarchids [largemouth bass, bluegill, green sunfish (Lepomis cyanellus), longear sunfish (Lepomis megalotis), warmouth (Chaeno- bryttus gulosus), white crappie, and black crappie (Pomoxis nigroma- culatus)] were much more abundant in the seven "clear" lakes than in the three "turbid" lakes or the two flood-control reservoirs. Carp, carpsucker, and channel catfish were more abundant in the turbid lakes than in the clear lakes, although channel catfish were moderately common in Farlington, Prairie, and Wabaunsee lakes because of frequent stocking with adults of that species (Davis, Misc. Publ. No. 21, Univ. Kansas Mus. Nat. Hist., 1959).

Few species were taken in sufficient numbers from both "clear" and "turbid" lakes to permit meaningful comparisons between growth-rates in the two habitats. Drum grew more rapidly in clear lakes than in turbid lakes or flood-control reservoirs, and were most abundant in one of the clear lakes (Wabaunsee). That lake supports unusually large numbers of mayflies, fingernail clams and crayfish. The growth-rate of white crappie was almost the same in clear and turbid waters, but the species was more abundant in the clear lakes. The most rapid growth by white crappie was made in a turbid lake (Nemaha) at a time when that lake supported few crappie (1954); more recently, Ward has found that crappie have increased greatly in Nemaha Lake and the growth- rate has become much slower than shown in Table I. 164 Transactions Kansas Academy of Science

Table 1. Average total-length in inches, at end of each season of growth, for nine kinds of fish in lakes in Kansas. The number of fish of each age is in parentheses. Fish were obtained from 1952 through 1956.

Lake 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Largemouth bass Farlington 4.7 (28) 7.0 (16) 11.0 (11) 12.7 (16) 15.5 ( 2) 20.0 ( 1) ...... Gardner 5.1 ( 4) 9.4 (26) 12.3 ( 2) 14.1 ( 2) 18.0 ( 1) 20.2 ( 2) 19.0 ( 1) ...... Lone Star 6.9 ( 4) 9.9 (11) 12.0 ( 9) 16.3 ( 1) 19.0 ( 1) ------Prairie 5.1 ( 2) 8.1 ( 1) 19.0 ( 1) ------Tonganoxie 4.8 (22) 11.2 ( 2) 13.9 ( I) 18.4 ( 1) ...... Wabaunsee 5.8 ( 6) 12.1 ( 4) 15.1 ( 3) 16.7 ( 1) - - - - 21.1 ( 1) 22.5 ( 1) Wyandotte 4.3 ( 2) 13.1 ( 2) 17.8 ( 1)

Green sunfish Farlington 3.6 ( 3) 4.8 ( 4) 5.9 ( 7) 6.2 ( 4) 7.4 ( 1) ------

Bluegill sunfish Farlington 2.7 (20) 4.5 (23) 5.8 (54) 6.6 (36) 7.0 (16) 7.4 ( 1) ------Gardner 3.8 ( 3) 5.7 (14) 6.7 (11) 7.2 ( 4) - - - - Lone Star 6.7 ( 5) 7.5 (31) 7.6 (11) - - - - Prairie 3.2 ( 2) 4.2 (11) 5.6 ( 6) 5.8 ( 3) Tonganoxie 2.4 ( 6) 4.4 (20) 5.6 (21) 6.2 ( 8) - - - - Wyandotte 2.8 ( 9) 5.1 ( 9) 6.8 ( 5) ...... Herington 5.0 (18) ......

Longear sunfish Farlington 3.1 (14) 4.4 (13) 4.7 ( 1) - - - -

White crappie Farlington 2.6 (11) 7.1 (21) 8.8 ( 8) 15.5 ( 1) 14-8 ( 1) ...... Gardner 3.6 (23) 7.4 ( 2) 8.0 ( 6) 9.5 ( 1) 10.8 ( 1) 13.0 ( 1) ...... Prairie 2.5 (24) 5.7 (43) 7.4 (20) - - - 12.9 ( 1) ...... Tonganoxie 2.7 (19) 4.8 (37) 6.6 (60) ...... Wabaunsee 4.1 ( 3) 5.0 (117) 7.6 (27) 11.6 ( 2) ...... - -14.4 ( 2) ------Wyandotte 3.5 (74) 6.8 (60) 7.6 (70) ...... Herington 4.7 ( 2) 6.5 ( 9) ...... Nemaha 3.8 ( 9) 9.3 ( 3) 11.7 ( 3) ...... Ottawa 3.1 ( 3) 5.8 (37) ...... Cedar Bluff 2.4 ( 1) 8.9 ( 1) Kanopolis 3.1 (22) 6.4 (11) ......

Black crappie Farlington 3.5 (17) 7.1 (14) 10.6 ( I) ...... Prairie 2.6 ( 2) 5.0 ( 6) 7.3 ( 4) Wyandotte 3.6 (36) 8.0 (38) 8.6 ( 2) ...... Herington 6.2 (19) ......

White bass Cedar Bluff 5.1 (31) 5.6 ( 2) ...... , Kanopolis 5.0 (22) 7.0 ( 3) ......

Walleye Cedar Bluff 5.5 ( 6) 9.1 (11) Kanopolis 12.6 ( 7) 15.7 ( 3) ------Drum Farlington 12.1 ( 6) 15.5 ( 5) 16.9 ( 1) ...... Wabaunsee 5.8 ( 8) 9.4 (32) 12.2 (45) 13.4 ( 1) ...... Wyandotte 5.9 ( 4) ...... 13.7 ( 1) 14.8 ( 1) - - - - Herington 4.3 ( 5) 4.8 (12) 4.7 ( 1) 6.8 ( 2) - - - - Nemaha 2.6 (24) - - - - Ottawa 6.2 ( 2) 8.5 ( 2) 9.2 ( 1) Cedar Bluff 5.0 (15) 6.9 ( 2) ------Kanopolis 4.1 ( 5) 6.7 ( ... 7) ......

-State Biological Survey, University of Kansas, Lawrence.