Too good to give up… bluegills ( Lepomis macrochirus ) come back to baited hooks in catch and release fishing trials

Too good to give up… bluegills ( Lepomis macrochirus ) come back to baited hooks in catch and release fishing trials

Bluegills (Lepomis macrochirus), commonly found in lakes and ponds, are a species of fish often targeted for recreational catch and release (C&R) fishing. C&R fishing has been found to increase physiological stress in the fish that are caught, and, therefore, I hypothesize that fish who experience C&R fishing trials will become averse to the baited hook. Seven C&R trials were conducted per day, for ten days consecutively for the experimental group, and on the tenth day only for the control group. There was no significant difference found between the control and experimental groups’ time to the bait, how often they were caught and released, took the hook, and took the bait off of the hook. However, over the course of the trials, the experimental group showed a statistically significant decrease in the time to bait and how often they took the hook and the bait. Findings indicate that an increase in exposure to C&R fishing will increase the fishes’ likelihood of pursuing the bait quickly, while simultaneously decreasing the potential that the fish will get hooked or take the bait.

Allison K. Puckett

bio capstone research poster sp23 akp 05.01.23.pdf

Repository Submission Date: 5/1/2023 2:54:00 PM
Poster Presentation Date: 5/4/2023

Dr. Amanda Rollins, PhD. (Biology - Wilmington College)

All Rights Reserved

.PDF

English

Student Research Poster - .PDF Format