TPWD 1958 F-4-R-5 #420: Resurvey of Lakes Possum Kingdom and Mountain Creek, together with the Leon, Bosrue, and Brazos Rivers and their Watersheds Located Within Region 4-B

--- Page 1 --- Report of Fisheries Investigations Resurvey of Lakes Possum Kingdom and Mountain Creek, together with the Leon, Bosrue, and Brazos Rivers and their Watersheds Located Within Region 4-B by Leonard D. Lamb Project Leader Dingell-Johnson Project F-4-R-5, Job B-21 November 1, 1957 - October 31, 1958 H. D. Dodgen - Executive Secretary Texas Game and Fish Commission Austin, Texas Marion Toole William H. Brown and Kenneth Jurgens Coordinator Assistant Coordinators --- Page 3 --- SEGMENT COMPLETION REPORT State of TEXAS Project No. PAR | Name: Fisheries Investigations and Surveys of the Waters of eae a -B. Job No. B-21 Title: Resurvey of Lakes Fossum Kingdom and Mountain Creek, together with the Leon, Boscue, and Brazos Rivers and their Watersheds located “we bie in Region EB. ~ 7 Period Covered: November 1, 1957 through October 31, 1958 OBJECTIVES ; To bring up to date the data collected on these waters during the past segments and provide data for use in the recommendations for fishing regulations. ABSTRACT: The majority of the time allocated to this job was renuired by ¢ kill of shad in Possum Kinsdom Lake since nettins both before and aft to determine the effectiveness of the kill. he selective er was needed Seine and net collections recovered 26 species representing 9 families and 17 genera with the seine samples dominated by blacktail shiner and the net samples dominated by gizzard shad. The catch of shad after the selective kill was larger than immediately before the kill indicating that the net method of sampling is unreliable except when a long period of netting is used. PROCEDURE: The proposed procedure for this job included net and seine checks of the B Leon and Boscue rivers as well as Lakes Mountain Creek and Possum Kinedom. High water delayed the stream work and the selective kill of shad in Poesia Kingdom Lake recuired the use of the time allocated to this job so that this report is concerned only with Possum Kingdom Lake where an intensive inventory was made te determine the status of the eizzard shad immediately before and after the selective kill. a Net checks were made during April and May as a part of the recheck and on July 29 through 31, an attempt was made to cover the entire lake with a net and seine check. This coverage extended from Neely's slough, near the dam, to Carter Island near the confluence of Rock Creek and the Brazos River. This net check was repeated on August 26 through 28, when the nets were set at the same locations as in the July check. --- Page 4 --- RESULIS : The check list of species from Possum Kingdom contains 38 species representing 12 families and 23 genera (Table 1). The seine and net collections made during this recheck took 26 species representing 9 families and 17 genera. The collections made at sixteen seine stations included sixteen species of which the blacktail shiner (Notropis venustus) was the most numerous with 169 specimens followed by bluegill sunfish, the parrot minnow, and the plains red shiner with 57, 46, and 41 respectively. Plains red shiner (Notropis lutrensis) and blacktail shiner (Notropis venustus) appeared in seine samples from 10 of the 16 stations with bluegill sunfish (Lepomis macrochirus) found at 9 stations. The gill net collections for April were dominated by longnose gar (Lepisosteus osseus) and gizzard shad (Dorosoma cepedianum) with 48.17 and 38.22 percent respec- tively. The May netting produced fewer gar but the catch of shad increased to h6.21 percent. The net collections of July and August showed a reduction in the percentage of shad with a rise in the percentage of almost all other species. The gill net catch of shad in July was somewhat less than that of August despite the selective kill of shad that was attempted on August 6, 1958. This appears to point up the fact that net samplin; is to be considered only as an indication of a trend since there are so many variables involved in netting. CONCLUSIONS : The results of netting both before and after the selective kill indicate that the larger shad were not eliminated in sufficient number for effective control. This may be due to the chemical used being of insufficient strength to accomplish the intended objective since other jobs of this nature have been successful. The taking of shad in large numbers points up the need for a repetition of this work with chemicals of standard strength in an effort to attain a suitable control of gizzard shad. , Prepared by_ Leonard D. Lamb Approved by_” ATI Apr aA Project Leader Director Inland Fisheries Division Date December 9, 1958 --- Page 5 --- Table 1. Checklist of Fishes from Possum Kingdom Lake, October 31, 1958 en a A | ee et aN at nant tN eet ee eee teen ceene coon SCIENTIFIC NAME platostomus Broce os Tetioous budalus qoxos cone congestum Cyprinus 3 carpio Notropis oxyrhynchus Notropis brazosens is Notropis fumeus Notropis umbratilis Notropis venustu Notropis lutrensis Notropis deliciosus. Notropis atrocaudalis Pimephales vi ilex Opsopoeodus aniline ctalurus punctatus ctalurus natalis — Pylodictus _olivar: ris. Gambusia affinis Roccus “chrysops Nicropterus “pun ie Bs Chaenobryttus 1 Lepomis cyanellus, Lepomis punctatus Lepomis microlophus Lepomis macrochirus Lepomis auritus Lepomis Ambloplites rupestris Pomoxis annulari Pomoxis nig nigromacclatus Percina caprodes Aplodinotus grunniens Astyanax fasc ciatus *Mugil cephalus — *Note- This species is a marine form that has pr dealers. 1, 1953 through COMMON NAME shortnose gar Spotted sar Longnose gar @izzard shad river carpsucker suallmouth buffalo sray redhorse Huropean carp sharpnose shiner Brazos river shiner riboon shiner amen i spottail shiner parrot minnow pusnose minnow channel catfish yellow bullhead Tlathead catfish blackstripe topminnow moscuitofish white bass spotted bass Larsemouth bass warmnouth sreen sunfish spotted sunfish redear sunfish GSluesill sunfish yellowbelly sunfish lon;ear sunfish rock bass white crappie black crappie Logperch Freshwater drum Rio Grande tetra striped mullet --- Page 6 --- 4, Table 2. Species of Fishes collected by Seining, from Possum Kingdom Lake, by Number of each species taken at each seine station, July 29 and 30, 1958. SEINE STATIONS SPECIES 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ll 12 13 «#1 = 15 16 TOTALS _ ng gn te Longnose gar 1 L Gizzard shad 5 5 Sharpnose shiner A, ds 1 3 Brazos River shiner le 12 Blacktail shiner 13 29 47 8 he 7 i 8 i 13 169 Plains red shiner 4 5 1 1 12 1 2 10 4 1 WL Parrot minnow pees 8 5 2 19 46 Pugnose minnow 2 16 18 Blackstripe topminnow iL ag Mosouitofish 29 3 1 1 34 Largemouth bass 2 6 1 1 8 1 6 25 Green sunfish 1 de 2 Redear sunfish 3 1 h Bluegill sunfish 3 1 12 5 3 3 t 22 1 a Yellowbelly sunfish 2] aL 5 1 1 1 11 Logperch 1 1. TOTALS 13 3 30 U7 23 “G6 37 37 25 2 18 19 +61 18 20 31 ~~ T30 rm eccamthmmbs ahhat e lm:baat alh ti ieRe : aat, --- Page 7 --- Table 3. Results of Gill Netting in Possum Kingdom Lake, April ee, 1958 - August 31, 195%. Month ~~ April May July August Totals Species No. % No. % No. % No. % No. % Spotted gar 5 1.31 8 3.03 4 0.7 14 2.5 31 1.75 Longnose gar 184 48.17 36 13.63 26 5 35 6.4 281 15.88 Gizzard shad 146 =. 38,22 122 46.21 174 30.3 202 36.8 644 36.38 Smallmouth buffalo 8 2.10 2 0.76 51 8.9 WL 7.5 103 5.82 River carpsucker 1 0.38 h6 8.0 ho 7.3 87 4.92 Texas gray redhorse 1 0.2 1 0.61 Carp 1 0.26 1 0.38 4 0.7 3 0.5 9 0.51 Channel catfish 8 2.10 5 1.89 35 6.1 59 10.7 107 6.04 Flathead catfish iF 0.7 4 0.22 White bass 2 0.52 a 0.76 11 2.0 22 Tine) 37 2.09 Spotted bass 1 0.2 1 0.06 Largemouth bass 2 0.52 15 2.6 15 237 32 1.81 Rock bass 1 0.2 1 0.06 Green sunfish 2 0.3 2 O.4 4 0.22 Redear sunfish 7 1.83 60 22.73 15 2.6 7 1.3 89 5.03 Yellowbelly sunfish 1 0.2 1 0.06 Bluegill sunfish 16 4.18 26 9.85 140 ah 61 11.1 23 13.°73 Longear sunfish 2 0.3 1 0.2 3 0.17 White crappie 3 0.79 1 0.38 39 6.8 h5 8.2 88 4.97 Drum h 0.7 4 0.22 TOTALS 3682 100.00 100.00 57 0.0 549 1,770 100.00 een