An Assessment of the Warmwater Fish Community in Black Lake, October 1999

Black Lake was surveyed by a threeâ€"person crew on October 4-7, 1999. Multiple gear types (electrofishing, gill nets, and fyke nets) were utilized to reduce the sampling bias associated with each sampling method. In all, twelve species of fish were sampled from Black Lake. Numerically, yellow perch and rainbow trout were the most abundant species comprising 64.0 and 12.9% of the sample, respectively. However, rainbow trout and carp constituted the majority of the biomass at 47.8 and 24.7%, respectively. Other species encountered during the survey included bluegill, black crappie, largemouth bass, sculpin spp., rock bass, smallmouth bass, brown bullhead, pumpkinseed, and chinook. Overall, the quality of the warmwater fish populations in Black Lake is poor. Densities of warmwater fish were either low (i.e., black crappie and smallmouth bass) or when numerous were dominated by smaller fish (i.e., yellow perch, bluegill, and largemouth bass). Except for yellow perch, all warmwater fish exhibited good condition, however most species were slow growing. The hatchery rainbow trout plants appear to be fairing well. The majority of the trout encountered during the survey ranged between 200-250 mm with a few large fish around 400-500 mm. Our management options for Black Lake include changing the current bass regulation to the proposed slot limit regulation (five fish limit, 12-17â€"inch slot, no more than one fish over 17 inches) and to conduct a creel survey to assess the impact harvest has on the warmwater fish community.