Characterizing Black Bass Relative Abundance and Stock Densities in New York Lakes

The last comprehensive report on the status of black bass in New York State was published in 1986.  In this study, we assess the current statewide status of largemouth (LMB) and smallmouth (SMB) bass populations in New York lakes.  We queried collection records from 1988 to 2011 to characterize relative abundance (catch per hour of boat-electroshocking), proportional stock densities (PSD), and relative stock densities (RSD).  Of the 232 lakes with boat-electrofishing effort, LMB were collected in 209 and SMB in 116.  Overall mean ± 2SE relative abundance for LMB and SMB was 35.93 ± 5.07 and 7.88 ± 2.16.  PSD and RSD were summarized in lakes where at least 50 individual fish were collected.  Overall mean PSD was 51.57 ± 3.93 for LMB (N=133) and 47.36 ± 6.59 for SMB (N=47).  Mean RSD-Preferred was 19.57 ± 2.59 (LMB) and 24.92 ± 5.34 (SMB).  Mean RSD-Memorable was 0.79 ± 0.24 (LMB) and 8.32 ± 2.70 (SMB).  Mean RSD-Trophy was 0.00 ± 0.00 (LMB) and 0.22 ± 0.18 (SMB).  Because the positioning of these lakes within the landscape may explain variation in population metrics, in the future, we will statistically relate these and other metrics to environmental variables from multiple spatial scales.