Seasonal Distribution and Length-Weight Relationship of Game Species in Lake Asejire, Nigeria

Lake Asejire, Nigeria is under the tropical rain forest with two distinctive dry (5 months) and wet (7 months) seasons. Commercial fishing activities are all year round on the main lake, recreational fishing is still at its infancy.

Fish species in Lake Asejire were sampled for 24 months using experimental gill nets. Ten species of 7 families representing 30.57% of the total biomass were identified as suitable for games on the lake. Prominent species were: Channa obscura (Channidae), Hydrocynus vittatus and Alestes macrolepidotus (Characidae); Hepsetus odoe (Hepsetidae); Chrysichthys nigrodigitatus (Bagridae); Lates niloticus (Centropomidae) and Schlibe mystus (Schlibeidae).

Species were distributed through the wet and dry seasons, with higher number in dry seasons. C. nigrodigitatus was the most abundant 61.97 ± 4% of total biomass per season, H. odoe (0.34%) and C. gariepinus (0.19%) were the least in dry seasons. H. bidorsalis was the least in the wet seasons.

The length–weight relationships determined using the logarithm transformation of regression equation W = al^b showed significant relationships for all the species (p<0.05)

Correlation(r) and regression coefficient values ranged between 0.27 and 0.4 in H. odoe to 1.0 and 2.34 in L. niloticus. The species show allometric growth.