Mike Leonard

Graduate Research Assistant
Department of Fisheries & Allied Aquacultures
Auburn University
203 Swingle Hall
Auburn, AL 36849
leonadm@auburn.edu

Current Research:

Interactions between channel catfish and other sport fishes in Alabama's State Pubic Fishing Lakes

    My research is focused on the potential impacts of channel catfish stockings into small (50-150 acre) impoundments.  I am examining how channel catfish might negatively influence other sportfish populations in these systems through competition and predation.  Channel catfish and bluegill, two highly preferred fish targeted by anglers, rely heavily on macroinvertebrates as a food source, and in systems where these prey are limiting catfish may compete with bluegill, causing poorer condition and/or lower abundance of both species.  This competition with bluegill may have an indirect influence on other piscivores, such as largemouth bass, by reducing the amount of prey available to them.  Further complicating these interactions is the ontogenetic shift in prey selectivity found in channel catfish; as catfish get larger they become increasingly piscivorous, consuming mostly bluegill in small impoundments.  I am attempting to investigate the extent to which channel catfish may compete with other sportfish in Alabama's State Public Fishing Lakes by sampling across several lakes with different catfish stocking rates and abundances.  I will examine various sportfish population parameters to determine if and to what extent catfish abundance may negatively affect other sportfish, as well as incorporate bioenergetics modeling to estimate the consumptive demand of sportfish in these systems.

    -Advisors: Dennis DeVries and Rusty Wright


Links:

• Alabama's State Public Fishing Lakes

• Auburn University Department of Fisheries and Allied Aquacultures

• William W. Ireland Center for Fisheries Research
   

• Field Pictures