TPWD 1958 F-2-R-5 #422: Resurvey of the Waters of Region 6-B: Job Completion Report

"T" \ JOB COMPLETION REPORT 5 Investigations Project State of TEXAS Project Noo F2R5 Name: Fisheries Investigations and Surveys of the Waters of Region mB, Job Noe B—2O Title: Resurve of the waters of Region 6-Bo Period Covered; July 1, 1957 through January 312 1958 ABSTRACT: The year 1957 was one of severe flooding on many of the waters Of Central Texaso For this reason it was deemed desirable to determine the status of the fish populations of several of the major streams and lakes previously studied under Project F-2~B° The waters resurveyed were Lakes Inks and Travis and the Lampasas, San Gabriel and San Saba Riverso In all cases it was found that flooding had to some degree affected the fish pOpw ulations of the waters studiedo In Lake Inks, youngwofwthe-year largemouth base were found to be quite scarce but young white bass and channel catfish appear to be quite abundant, In Lake Travis, young largemouth bass are more abundant than they have been in years, also the result of the flooding, Stream populations, thoughpundoubtedly affected by flooding, were recovering and expanding fairly rapidlyo The dominant species of previous survey work remained the ,ngminant species in the 1957 resur'veyso Some items of interest are the appearance of the banded tetra, Astayanax fasciatus in the Lampasas River, the appearance of the yellowbreast sunfish, Lepomis auritus, in the San Gabriel River (undoubtedly the result of state fish hatchery stocking; and the drastic reduction in the abundance of longear sunfish, Lepomis megalotis, in the San Gabriel Rivera The gizzard shad, Dorosoma cepedianum, which was quite abundant in the upper San Saba River apparently was adversly affected by turbid flood waters and is now quite scarce, It is recommended that extensive numbers of largemouth bass fry be stocked in Lake Inks to offset the apparent destruction of the spawn of the species in 19570 All told, however, the flooding in 1957 of the waters resurveyed by project personnel had no serious detrimental effect on the fish populations contained therein although some habitat destruction due to scouring did occur, OBJECTIVES 2 To determine the present status of waters and fish populations which have been previously surveyed in Project FmEmR, PROCEDURE: Collections of fish samples were obtained principally through the use of small meshed seines and standard, experimental type, gill nets, The experimental gill net consists of five sections of mesh sizes ranging from oneminch square mesh to three inches square mesh in onemhalf inch intervals, Each section of webbing is twentymfive feet long and eight feet deep, With_the exception of the work done on Lake Inks, all seine and net collections were taken at random, from various habitats, Seine and net collections of fish specimens from Lake Inks were obtained from long established collection stations: Seined specimens were preserved, as usual, in ten percent formalin solution and taken to the regional fishery laboratory for identification and counting, Gill netted specimens were identified, weighed, measured and examined for stage of sexual development in the field° These data were recorded on standard data sheets and later consolidated, The waters worked by resurvey crews included Lakes Inks and Travis and the Lampasas, San Gabriel and San Babe Rivers: DISCUSSIONS AND FINDINGS: Lake Inks -In August, 1957 a field trip was made to Lake Inks for the purpose of obtaining data on the present status of the fish population, and to inspect the lake for regrowth of submergent and emergent vegetation. Seine and net collections of fish specimens were obtained from the collection stations used during the initial survey, A second collecting trip was made to Inks Lake during December, 1957 to take seine samples of shoreline species, The results of all of these collections are presented in .Tables 1 and 2, ' It had been rumored by many people that the severe flooding of Inks Lake during 1957 had not only destroyed almost all of the aquatic vegetation but had also destroyed most of the spawn of the largemouth bass and that the youngmofwthewyear of this species in Inks Lake were all but non—existent in the fall of 1957, This was considered a possibility since 1,282,000 acre feet of water had flooded through the lake during the months of April and May, In order to check this, seine collections were taken in August and December, Though the results of the seine collections cannot be considered conclusive, it would appear that youngwofmthemyear largemouth bass were extremely scarce during the time of the collections, By way of comparison, in August, 1955, 265 seined specimens were cola lected and of these 17 were largemouth bass fingerlings and yearlings: Similarly, of the 30 specimens taken from these same stations in August of 1956, 3 were young large- mouth basso However, in August of 1957, only 3 of the 1,122 specimens taken were young largemouth basso This seems to indicate that the relative abundance of young of this species has declined, possibly as a result of the flood of 1957, For this reason it is considered advisable to stock as many largemouth bass fry as can be_obtained from nearby state and/or federal fish hatcheries during the coming fry stocking season, Preferably, it would be desirable to stock these fry at the earliest possible date in order for them to take advantage of the full length of the 1958 growing seasono Net samples of fish taken from Lake Inks during the month of August indicate that either longnose gar and channel catfish were more numerous than they were in 1955 and 1956, or that they were much more active._ Out of 520 fish taken in the eight simultaneous net sets, longnose gar accounted for 51, or 9.80 percent of the total, and channel cat- fish accounted for 92, 17,69 percent of the total, Of the total weight of the netted fish, longnose gar comprised 5ho26 percent and channel catfish acmprised 15:10 percentc Reports from camp operators suggest that fishing for catfish and white bass is better than it has been for a number of years in Inks Lake. This probably is due to the apparent increase in their relative abundance and the decrease in the total amount of cover in the lake. This increase in relative abundance is evidenced by the proportion of the total netted fish in the August net sample composed of channel catfisho Overall it appears as if the ratio of predator fish to forage and rough fish is relatively well balanced at this time° Predators, including gars, catfish, white bass, crappie, sunfishes, and drum comprised approximately #7 percent of the total number of fish netted in the August, 1957 collections, Forage and rough fish combined and includ» ing_gizzard shad, smallmouth buffalo, river carpsuckers, and carp accounted for the other 53 percent: By weight, the ratio is very much more in favor of the predator species, 77 percent being predators and only 23 percent being forage and rough fish species: Essentially it can be said that the fish population in Inks Lake at the present time appears to be in excellent conditiono The only apparent exception to this assumption“ seems to be in the scarcity of young largemouth basso This can probably be overcome with wholesale stocking of bass fry during the 1958 stocking season: Lake Travis Lake Travis was subjected to a severe water level fluctuation of some 35 feet during 1957: Heavy spring rains brought the water level from an elevation of 670 feet above seamlevel to a record level of 707 feeto The fluctuation occurred during spring and early summer and coincided with the spawning season of many fish species in Lake Travis: Apparently the rising water level was not detrimental to game fish spawn since large numbers of young game fish were taken in specimen collections by Game and Fish Commission personnel during the summer and fall of 1957: In addition, anglers on Lake Travis caught untold numbers of young largemouth black and white bass during the same periodo Twelve seine collections and eighteen gill net collections were made at random durm ing the resurvey, A total of h,h30 individuals were taken in seines and war in the net collections, The results of these collections are given in Tables 3 and a, The gizzard shed was the most abundant species taken in the seine co lecti accounting for SHOOE percent of total numberso The largemcuth.black bass made up l2th0 percent of the total and was the second most abundant All other species ins eluding sunfish and the Cyprinids or minnows and shiners, accounted for less than A percent of the total seine collections, in the netting collee+ions rough fi" dominated the collections, making up 59,26 percent of total netted specimens and 71,6h percent of the total weight, The white bass was the most abundant game fish taken in the net collections with l9o73 percent of the total number taken and 130h9 percent of the total weight, . Throughout 1956 Lake Tr.avis was clear and relrtfiveiy infertileo However, during the resurvey period the lake had a desirable bloom of unicellular algae and had changed from a sterile clear color to a rich, fertile green color, With the increased fertility and excellent l957 spawn of game fish species, fishing should be above average during 1958o Lampasas River Because of flooding conditions during the spring of 1957, it was considered advisable to recheck a number of stations on the Lampasas River to see what effect flood waters had had on the fish population in this stream, For this purpose a field trip was made to four stations on the Lampasas during September, The results of the seining collections are presented in Table-5o it was found that, regardless of the tremendous amount of flood water which passed through the Lampasas River, the dominant, or rather most abundant, species found in 1953 were again the most abundant species in 1957, however, only l9 of the 32 species found in 1953 were collected in 1957, This is probably accounted for in the fact that the very limited study made in 1957 could not possibly produce the same thorough results obtained in the earlier study but was intended only to discover any drastic changes which might have occurred as a result of the floodo Perhaps the most interesting discovery resulting from the 1957 study was the appearm ance of the banded tetra, Astayanax fasciatus, in the Lampasas River, This sub tropical species has, so far as is known, not been reported from this stream prior to this writing, Field observations of young channel catfish indicate an increase in this species in the rivero Similarly, largemouth base were seen in greater numbers than they were collected and it appears as if this species as well as the catfish were not too drasticm ally reduced in numbers by the flood waters: It is recommended, however, that substantial numbers of both these species be stocked at various places in the river to help in the rebuilding of good sport fishery in the Lampasas River, San Gabriel_River The San Gabriel River, like the‘lampasas, suffered from extremely heavy flooding during the spring of 1957, Because of this it was felt necessary to determine how seriously the fish population had been affectedo For this reason a number of the origins“ survey collection stations were revisited and seine collections of fish specimens were jbtained. The results of these collections are presented in Table 6. The stations revisited during the summer of 1957 were primarily in Williamson County, the portion of the stream which was most seriously flooded. The most significant difference between the earlier collections made in 1953 and those made in 1957 was the drastic reduction in the relative abundance of longear sun- fish, Lepomis megslotis. 'This species dropped from 22 percent of the specimens collected in 1953 to only 0.05 percent of those taken in 1957. This would appear to indicate that the longear sunfish was seriously affected by flooding conditions. Similarly the central stoneroller, Campostoma anomalum, appears to have been drastically reduced in relative abundance. In the 1953 collections they comprised 1h percent of the total specimens whereas they composed only 0.19 percent of the 1957 collection. Conversely, the yellowbreast sunfish, Lepomis auritus, which was not collected in 1953 comprised 3.55 percent of the specimens taken in 1957. These Specimens were un- doubtedly planted by state fish hatchery personnel. ';A species which one would have expected to have been very seriously affected by flood— ing conditions is the orangethroat darter, Etheostoma spectabile. However, this fish species remains present in relatively large numbers. The two dominant notropid species remain, as would be expected, the redhorse Shiner, Notropis lutrensis, and the spottail Shiner, Notropis venustus. San Saba River Five stations on the upper San Saba River in Menard and Schleicher Counties were checked with seines in an effort to determine the effects of severe spring flooding on the fish population. The seine collections were made in November, 1957, at which time the volume of flow was only slightly greater than during the 1956m1957 survey period. (Job B-lT, Project Fm2-R-hfi. The results of the seine collection are given in Table 7. Submerged aquatic vegetation including Chara sp,, Myriophyllum sp,, and Potomogeton §E.'was sparse in the headwaters of the river, evidently reduced appreciably by swift waters and high turbidity. The most abundant fish species found in the seine collection was the spottail Shiner, making up over 63 percent of the total numbers taken. The redhorse shiner and the parrot minnow were second in abundance, each accounting for 11 percent of the total. Sunfish, including the redear, longear, green, and bluegill comprised 9 percent of the total numbers and were the only game species taken in the collections. Although too few collections were made for accurate comparison with the previous extended inventory, it appears that the fish population is substantially the same as found during the initial survey. The only noticeable exception was the absence of gizzard shad in the collections.’ Although taken in large numbers from every station on the upper San Saba River during the l956~57 inventory, this species was not taken in any collection during the resurvey. High turbidity and radical temperature changes as a result of the heavy rains may have caused heavy mortality to this susceptible species. \ Prepared by: Kenneth Co Jurgens Approved by: 2?; gm v/i’D/é/ Project Leader and Chief Aquatic Biologist John Ea Tilton ' Assistant Project Leader Date: April 25 1958 edeo H. 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