Assessment of Channel Catfish Population Dynamics and Tandem Hoop Nets As a Standard Sampling Method in Tennessee Reservoirs

Catfish are important components of recreational and commercial fisheries in several Tennessee reservoirs. In 2014, catfish were the third most pursued recreational species in the state behind black bass and crappie. However, catfish have received scant attention because they were not classified as sport fish until 2007. The lack of knowledge regarding catfish populations in Tennessee reservoirs and how to effectively sample them presents many research opportunities. Tandem hoop netting (160 series) was conducted in three large reservoirs across several seasons in 2015 and more than 3,600 Channel Catfish were collected. Catch per unit effort was consistently high (27.5-38.6 fish/series) in all study lakes during spring sampling, but varied during summer (8.1-45.9 fish/series) and fall (8.6-37.4 fish/series) sampling. Population dynamics are being compared within and among three study reservoirs. Kentucky Lake and Chickamauga Lake support the two largest catfish fisheries in Tennessee, whereas Fort Loudoun Lake is a system where fishing mortality is much lower relative to other Tennessee reservoirs because of a fish consumption advisory and commercial fishing ban. These data are being used to model the response of Channel Catfish populations to different management scenarios and to assess the potential for growth and recruitment overfishing in these systems.