Title
Home range, spawning migrations, and homing of radio-tagged Florida largemouth bass in two central Florida lakes
Publication Date
1986
Keywords
spawning, migration, homing, Florida, bass, canal, offshore
Journal or Book Title
Transactions of the American Fisheries Society
Abstract
Home range areas of largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides floridanus) in twocentral Florida lakes varied from 0.01 to 5.16 hectares, and maximum home range dimensionsranged from 50 to 2,364 m, based on 2,047 radio locations of 22 fish from August 1979 to May1981. Greatest average daily movements occurred during June, May and February: the smallestwere in August. Several largemouth bass migrated during the spawning season as far as 3 kmfrom their home ranges to wave-protected sites within canals. Largemouth bass were often located in small areas of their home range and occupied panic grasses (Panicum spp.), stands ofcattails (Typha sp.), and spatterdock (Nuphar luteum) more often than other available vegetationtypes and open water. A segment of the largemouth bass population remained offshore: 36% ofthe tagged fish were at least 10 m from shore 25% of the time.
Pages
286-295
Volume
115