NEW: Annual Report - George Mason University

F. Adult and juvenile fishes
Trawls
Trawls for fishes were made at three stations in 2003: Stations 10, 7, and 9 (Figure 1).
Beginning on March 27, trawl samples were collected on fourteen dates, with the last one
on December 10. The total of 42 trawls collected 2,274 individuals, with representatives of
25 species. The list of species and the number of individuals of each species caught are
presented in Table 4.
White perch were the most common catch (30.3% of the total), followed, in rank, by
blueback herring (23.2%), channel cat (9.8%), bay anchovy (9.1%), alewife (4.3%), blue
cat (4.3%), hogchoker (4.1%), spottail shiner (3.8%), brown bullhead (2.9%), tessellated
darter (2.6%), hickory shad (2.1%), pumpkinseed (1.1%), and banded killifish (1.0%). A
new species for the trawl catch was the silverjaw minnow.
The numbers of each species collected on each date are shown in Table 5A and Table 5B.
White perch juveniles and adults, that were spawned in 2002 and earlier years, were caught
in abundance at Station 9 in April 10. A similar collection of older and larger-sized white
perch were caught at Station 7 on June 12 and at both Station 7 and Station 9 on June 26.
Newly transformed young-of-the-year (YOY) white perch spawned in 2003 first appeared
in the trawl catch on June 12 at Station 10 when only one was caught, and then on June 26
at Station 10, when 31 individuals were caught. On July 7 two were caught at Station 9 and
one at Station 7. On July 24, 12 were caught at Station 7 and two at Station 9. On August
21, seven YOY white perch were collected at Station 7, and six were taken at Station 9.
One was caught on September 22 at Station 10, and 13 probable YOY were caught at
Station 9 on October 9. On November 24, a final 22 probable YOY were collected at
Station 9. A total of only 98 individuals were caught. This is a very low annual catch of
newly spawned white perch.
Newly spawned juvenile blueback herring began to be caught in large numbers on June 26
at Station 10 and continued to be caught through September 22 at Stations 7 and 10.
Alewife young-of-the-year appeared on June 12 and were caught as late as October 9, but
never in large numbers. It is difficult to distinguish hickory shad juveniles from alewife
juveniles and blueback herring juveniles, and, thus, the identifications of all the alewife
juveniles in this study are not certain, but most are probably correctly identified. Their
catch totaled 47 YOY individuals. Bay anchovy juveniles from the 2003 spawning began to
move into the Cove area in abundance in late August and remained numerous at Station 7
through September. Channel cat juveniles and adults were caught regularly at Station 9 in
the channel, with most abundant catches in March, June, and November and December.
Blue cat were most abundant on August 21. Brown bullhead were abundant in the trawl at
Station 9 on June 26. Hogchoker were taken in the channel throughout the season, but
larger numbers were caught on May 29 (all young juveniles) and September 22 (perhaps
the same age cohort). Pumpkinseed and tessellated darter were fairly common from May
29 through July 7. One older juvenile and two YOY juvenile striped bass were caught.
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