Movements of Channel and Flathead Catfish between the Missouri River and a Tributary, Perche Creek

Abstract

The lower segments of tributary streams provide the only remaining backwater habitat for much of the lower Missouri River. We describe the movements of adult channel catfish Ictalurus punctatus between a 13‐km segment of the Missouri River and a tributary, Perche Creek, that enters the river in this segment to determine the extent to which river‐dwelling fish use the tributary habitats. We used mark‐recapture techniques to describe movements offish larger than 250 mm in total length between these habitats during a 22‐month period. Most fish (59%) initially caught, recaptured, or both in the Missouri River moved into or out of Perche Creek, and most of these transient fish (72%) used the lower 8 km of the tributary. The tributary population was made up predominantly of resident fish (79%), which were initially caught and recaptured in Perche Creek. Channel catfish moved greater distances in the spring than in the fall and were more likely to move upstream in the spring and downstream in the fall. Fish shorter than 250 mm were more abundant in the river than in the creek and made up 45 and 35% of the catches in each area, respectively. Furthermore, of the fish longer than 280 mm, a greater proportion of the fish resident in the river (44%) than in the creek (33%) were longer than 380 mm. More fish longer than 380 mm moved from the creek to the river (44%) than from the river to the creek (26%). Thus, the tributary habitat was used most frequently by fish 280–380 mm long. Flathead catfish Pylodictis olivaris were much less abundant in the creek than in the river and did not provide sufficient sample sizes to evaluate movement patterns. However, based on abundances in our catches, the proportion of river flathead catfish using the creek was much lower than for channel catfish. Most of the few flathead catfish found in the creek were longer than 280 mm.

Forensic reconstruction ofIctalurus punctatusinvasion routes using on-line fishermen records

“…Several studies show that channel catfish have a great dispersal ability: its movement ranges from 0.3 to 1.4 km/day in ponds (Ziebell, 1973), while reported downstream and upstream movements in the Minnesota river were 219 km/year and 124 km/year, respectively (Hubley Jr., 1963). The maximum distance moved by specimens of I. punctatus in rivers were 74 km downstream in 45 days (McCammon, 1956), and 469 km upstream in 72 days (Dames et al, 1989). Data gathered in this study indicate that reservoirs may provide particularly suitable habitats for catfish populations, since most of the channel catfish records available online were from reservoirs (88%).…”

Tributaries influence recruitment of fish in large rivers

“…This study examines nearly 40 years of young-of-year (yoy) paddlefish recruitment data to investigate the hypothesis that tributaries influence mainstem fish population dynamics. Several studies have shown a high degree of interconnectedness between mainstem and tributary fish populations such as channel catfish Ictalurus punctatus (Dames et al 1989), blue sucker Cycleptus elongatus (Neely et al in press), paddlefish (Firehammer & Scarnecchia 2006) and pallid sturgeon Scaphirhynchus albus (Snook et al 2002). Three multiple regression models using natural-log transformed catch per unit effort (log cpue) as the response variable were created using (1) Missouri River-only flow variables, (2) Niobrara River-only flow variables and (3) Missouri River and Niobrara River flow variables.…”

Fish Passage in a Western Iowa Stream Modified by Grade Control Structures

“…Previous studies indicate that channel catfish migrate downstream from tributaries to larger rivers during the autumn, move upstream from larger rivers to tributaries during the spring, and have relatively small home ranges within summer months (Dames et al 1989;Pellett et al 1998). Sakaris et al (2005) found that brown bullhead A. nebulosus travel upstream during the spring after an increase in water temperature and have relatively small home ranges (,0.5 km) during the summer.…”