Download or read book Identifying White Bass Natal Origins and Quantifying Walleye and White Bass Stock Contribution in Lake McConaughy Nebraska written by Garrett Rowles and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lake McConaughy is a socioeconomically important reservoir in Nebraska that provides a diversity of sport fishing opportunities. Stocking of White Bass and Walleye has occurred in Lake McConaughy since 1993 and 1943, respectively. Despite stocking efforts, White Bass relative abundances have been consistently below desired sampling levels and relative abundances of Walleye have declined but remain above the desired sampling objective. This study was designed to identify natal origins and quantify the contribution of hatchery-produced White Bass using otolith microchemistry and to quantify the contribution of hatchery-produced Walleye to the age-0 population. The first objective of this study was to identify spatially distinct and temporally stable microelements in Lake McConaughy, the North Platte River, and a tributary of the North Platte River to later us in identifying natal origins of White Bass. Elemental ratios of Sr:Ca, Ba:Ca, Mg:Ca, and Mn:Ca were found to be spatially distinct between types of location (i.e. "river," "tributary," or "reservoir"), but not between individual sites. All elemental ratios except for Mg:Ca were found to be temporally stable. The second objective was to quantify the contribution of hatchery-produced White Bass and identify natal origins of White Bass. White Bass were collected from the North Platte state fish hatchery and from cages placed in Lake McConaughy and the North Platte River to obtain known location elemental signatures. K nearest neighbor analysis identified 60 and 76% of collected age-0 White Bass as naturally-produced in 2017 and 2018, respectively. Finally, this study aimed to quantify the contribution of hatchery-produced Walleye in Lake McConaughy. Age-0 Walleye were collected from Lake McConaughy from 2016 - 2018 and otoliths were examined for OTC marks. Hatchery-produced age-0 Walleye comprised 88 - 96% of all age-0 Walleye collected each year. Additionally, mean total length of hatchery-produced age-0 Walleye was larger than that of naturally-produced age-0 Walleye.