Environmental Factors Influencing Summer Angler Effort on the Jordan Dam Tailwater, Alabama

Abstract

Abstract The Coosa River below Jordan Dam, Alabama, supports a multispecies, warmwater, tailwater fishery. A principal concern has focused on maintaining sufficient flow to protect this fishery while simultaneously allowing substantial portions of water to be diverted from Jordan Lake through a new hydroelectric facility, from which the water is returned via a canal to the Coosa River 21 km below Jordan Dam, thus bypassing the Jordan Dam tailwater. To identify management options for the tailwater fishery during early and late summer fishing seasons, multipleregression models were generated with streamflow and climatic variables. In downstream reaches of the tailwater, water temperature and streamflow were the most important independent variables during early and late summer, respectively. The two most important variables identified for the stilling basin during these two seasons were secchi disc visibility and barometric pressure. In all reaches, angler effort was positively correlated with wind velocity ...