Population size and recruitment of smallmouth bass in Calumet Harbor of Lake Michigan

We estimated the population size of 200mm and larger smallmouth bass in Cal umet Harbor on Lake Michigan in 1998 and 1999 using electrofishing along th e shoreline and mark and recapture techniques. Electrofishing at other loca tions along the Illinois shoreline produced no marked fish, indicating that fish were not moving along the shoreline and out of the sampling area. The size of the electrofishing samples did vary with season and fewer fish wer e caught in July and August, suggesting that they did move into deeper wate r. On the basis of the difference between the Petersen and Schnabel methods , mortality of fish was small. The maximum likelihood measurements of popul ation size were 1042 for 1998 and 1227 for 1999 and recruitment of fish les s than 200mm for 1999 was 75%.