The Status of the Smallmouth Bass Recreational Fishery in Lake Nipissing George E. Morgan Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry North Bay August 2020 i August 2020 ©2020, Queen’s Printer for Ontario Printed in Ontario, Canada This publication was produced by: Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry North Bay District Office 3301 Trout Lake Road North Bay, Ontario P1A 4L7 Online link to report can be found at: https://www.ontario.ca/page/fisheries-management-zone-11-fmz-11 This document is for fisheries research purposes and does not represent the policy or opinion of the Government of Ontario. Some of the information in this document may not be compatible with assistive technologies. If you need any of the information in an alternate format, please contact 1-705-475-5502 This technical report should be cited as follows: Morgan, G.E. 2020. The status of the Smallmouth Bass fishery in Lake Nipissing. Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, North Bay, Ontario. 56pp. Cette publication hautement spécialisée n’est disponible qu’en anglais en vertu du Règlement 411/97, Cette publication hautement spécialisée (The status of the Smallmouth Bass recreational fishery in Lake Nipissing) n'est disponible qu'en anglais conformément au Règlement 671/92, selon lequel il n’est pas obligatoire de la traduire en vertu de la Loi sur les services en français. Pour obtenir des renseignements en français, veuillez communiquer avec le ministère des Richesses naturelles et des Forêts au 1-705-475-5502. This highly specialized publication (The status of the Smallmouth Bass fishery in Lake Nipissing) is available in English only in accordance with Regulation 671/92, which exempts it from translation under the French Language Services Act. To obtain information in French, please contact the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry at 1-705-475-5502. ii Table of Contents List of Tables………….…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. ii List of Figures……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. iii Appendices……………….…………………………………………………………………….………………………………………………………………… v Executive Summary….………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. vi Introduction……………….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 1 Methods………………….………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 2 Study area…………….………..…….……………………………………………………………………………………………….. 2 Open water creel survey……..…..………………………………………………………………………………………..….. 2 Ice out trap netting…………………….……………………………….…………………………………………………………. 4 Fall Walleye index netting……………..………………………………………………………………………………………. 5 Data analysis………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 6 Results…………………….………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 7 Open water creel surveys………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 7 Angling effort………………………………………………………………………………….. 7 Catch composition………….………………………………………………………………. 9 Catch………………………………………………………………………………………………. 10 Angler success……………….……………………………………………………………….. 11 Harvest………………………….……………………………………………………………….. 12 Index netting surveys………….…………………………………………………………………………………………......... 15 Abundance………………….……………………………………………………............... 15 Growth and Condition………………………………………………………............... 17 Maturation…………………….…………………………………………………............... 21 Mortality…………………….….…………………………………………………............... 23 Discussion……………….………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 24 Summary………………….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 28 References……………….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 29 Acknowledgements….………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 31 Appendices……………….………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 32 iii List of Tables Table 1. Lake Nipissing Smallmouth Bass von Bertalanffy growth parameters from fish captured during the 2000 to 2016 ice out trap netting projects and 1998 to 2019 fall Walleye index netting projects. Page 17 Table 2. Predicted Lake Nipissing Smallmouth Bass total length-at-age (mm) estimated from the von Bertalanffy growth models in Table 1 for ice out trap netting, fall Walleye index netting, and broad-scale monitoring programs. Page 19 Table 3. Condition (total length-weight regression of log10 transformed data) of male and female Lake Nipissing Smallmouth Bass captured during the 1998 to 2019 fall Walleye index netting projects. Page 19 Table 4. Weight-at-length (grams and millimetres, respectively) calculated using the Lake Nipissing Smallmouth Bass length-weight regression models in Table 3. Page 21 Table 5. Lake Nipissing male and female Smallmouth Bass maturity schedules by size (left) and age (right). Page 23 Table 6. Estimated Lake Nipissing adult Smallmouth Bass mortality rates (Z≥Age 5, A≥Age 5, and u≥Age 5) from fish captured during the 2000 to 2016 ice out trap netting projects, 1998 to 2019 fall Walleye index netting projects, and 2014 to 2019 open water creel surveys. Page 23 Table 7: Comparison of Smallmouth Bass fishery performance metrics from the Lake Simcoe and Lake Nipissing 2014 to 2018 open water creel surveys. Page 25 Table 8: Comparison of Smallmouth Bass fishery performance metrics from before (2009 to 2013) and after (2015 to 2019) changing the opening date of the Bass season (i.e., one week earlier) on Lake Nipissing. Page 26 ii List of Figures Figure 1. Lake Nipissing open water creel survey sampling sectors. Page 4 Figure 2. Lake Nipissing 1990 to 2019 open water creel fishing effort (angler-hours) for anglers fishing for any species (total) and only those targeting Smallmouth Bass (Significant trend line (LOESS regression) for total effort time series also plotted). Page 8 Figure 3. Lake Nipissing open water creel percentage effort contribution (by angler-hours) for anglers targeting Smallmouth Bass for the period 1990 to 2019 (Significant trend lines (LOESS regression) for time series also plotted). Page 8 Figure 4. Lake Nipissing open water creel percentage catch composition (by number) of the top four species for the period 1990 to 2019. Page 9 Figure 5. Lake Nipissing 1990 to 2019 open water creel percentage catch composition (by number) of the top four species by year (Significant trend lines (LOESS regression) for Walleye, Yellow Perch, and Smallmouth Bass time series also plotted). Page 10 Figure 6. Lake Nipissing 1990 to 2019 open water creel Smallmouth Bass catch (Significant trend line (LOESS regression) for Smallmouth Bass 2010 to 2019 time series also plotted). Page 10 Figure 7. Lake Nipissing 1990 to 2019 open water creel percentage of the Smallmouth Bass catch by anglers who identified themselves as targeting this species. Page 11 Figure 8. Lake Nipissing 1990 to 2019 open water creel success rate (number of Smallmouth Bass caught∙angler- hour-1) for all anglers (top panel) and for anglers targeting Smallmouth Bass (bottom panel) (Significant trend line (LOESS regression) for all angler success rate 1990 to 2019 time series also plotted). Page 12 Figure 9. Lake Nipissing 1990 to 2019 open water creel Smallmouth Bass harvest (Significant trend line (LOESS regression) for Smallmouth Bass 1990 to 1999 time series also plotted). Page 13 Figure 10. Lake Nipissing 1990 to 2019 open water creel Smallmouth Bass proportion of the number caught that were harvested (kept) by anglers (Significant trend line (LOESS regression) for Smallmouth Bass 1990 to 2019 time series also plotted). Page 13 Figure 11. Lake Nipissing size (top panel) and age (bottom panel) distribution of Smallmouth Bass harvested by anglers from 2010 to 2019 for length and 2014 to 2019 for age interpretation. Page 14 Figure 12. Lake Nipissing Smallmouth Bass relative abundance (top panel — average number of Smallmouth Bass caught∙net-1 ±95% confidence limits) and proportion of nets that caught at least one Smallmouth Bass (bottom panel) from 1998 to 2019 fall Walleye index netting surveys (Significant trend lines (LOESS regression) for Smallmouth Bass 1998 to 2019 time series also plotted). Page 16 Figure 13. Smallmouth Bass relative abundance (average number of Smallmouth Bass caught∙net-1 ±95% confidence limits) for Lake Nipissing 1998 to 2019, Fisheries Management Zone 11 (FMZ 11) lakes (excluding Lake Nipissing) 1996 to 2002, and all fall Walleye index netting surveys (All FWINs) conducted in Ontario from 1996 to 2002. Page 17 iii List of Figures (continued) Figure 14. Growth curves for Lake Nipissing Smallmouth Bass from ice out trap netting (IOTN) and fall Walleye index netting (FWIN) programs (all years pooled by program type), and pooled samples from cycle 2 and cycle 3 broad-scale monitoring program (BsM) in Fisheries Management Zone 11 (FMZ 11). The BsM data excluded any sampled Smallmouth Bass from Lake Nipissing. BsM von Bertalanffy growth parameters: Cycle 2 — Linf = 510.0 (9.5, 491.4 to 528.6), k = 0.164 (0.006, 0.152 to 0.176), n = 543; Cycle 3 — Linf = 481.7 (1.2, 473.4 to 489.9), k = 0.188 (0.004, 0.181 to 0.196), n = 949) [Estimate (Standard Error, Lower and Upper 95% Confidence Limits), Sample Size]. Page 18 Figure 15. Observed (+) and predicted weight trajectory (line) for total length of Lake Nipissing male and female Smallmouth Bass captured during the fall Walleye index netting projects 1998 to 2019. Page 20 Figure 16. Size (top panel) and age (bottom panel) maturity ogives for Lake Nipissing male and female Smallmouth Bass captured during the fall Walleye index netting projects 1998 to 2019. Page 22 iv Appendices Appendix 1: Lake Nipissing recreational fishing effort and Smallmouth Bass catch, harvest,