A Typology of Fisheries in Large Reservoirs of the United States

Abstract

Recreational fishery harvests were classified in 349 reservoirs larger than 200 ha distributed throughout the contiguous United States. Harvest occurred in all reservoirs and averaged 13.4 kg/ha each year; average harvest was highest for trouts and centrarchids, and lowest for pikes. Centrarchids and ictalurids were harvested in 80% or more of the study reservoirs, temperate basses and percids in about 50%, trouts in more than 35%, pikes in 25%, and salmons in less than 10%. Fish harvests exhibited marked spatial patterns, allowing identification of nine distinct types of reservoirs; three types occurred in the west, four in mid-continent, and two in the east. The reservoir types differed significantly with respect to harvest levels and composition, fishing effort, and physicochemical characteristics. Variability in harvest was attributed to zoogeography and reservoir physicochemical characteristics. This typology can serve as a conceptual model to guide certain aspects of reservoir research and management, organize accumulated knowledge about reservoir fisheries, and generate hypotheses about causal processes behind fisheries patterns, particularly in reservoirs of different types but having similar geographic distribution.