Exploitation of an estuarine largemouth bass population in Northwest Florida

Electrofishing catch rates, access point creel surveys, and a reward tagging program were used to estimate total and age-specific annual mortality and exploitation rates of the adult (ages 2 through 5) largemouth bass population in the Escambia River delta. This system had no size restrictions on black bass during the thirty years preceding this study. Total annual mortality for all age groups combined averaged 71 percent over a three-year period. Average age-specific total annual mortality rates ranged from 58 percent to 83 percent for three and five year old fish, respectively. Exploitation of individual age groups varied from a low of 28 percent for two year olds, an age at which only a portion of the cohort had recruited to the fishery, to 51 percent for age-4 bass. Angling had the greatest impact on age-3 largemouth bass. An exploitation rate of 48 percent accounted for 82 percent of the total annual mortality of this age-group.