Older Projects

In October 2010, AES provided electrofishing services on the Alabama River to collect six largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) and six spotted bass (Micropterus punctulatus), each ranging from 13 to 18 inches in length. The fish were collected from two locations—three to five miles and nine to twelve miles downstream of the International Paper Riverdale outfall. Following collection, the fish were transferred to Barry A. Vittor & Associates, Inc. for further testing.

In 2019, AES conducted a comprehensive analysis of over 10 lakes within Orange County Parks to develop strategies for enhancing fisheries and increasing their value to local anglers. Due to the scale of the project, and the fixed budget, recommendations were made to allocate resources most effectively and prioritize ponds that were more heavily visited fishing destinations for local anglers. Our recommendations included fish surveys, habitat improvements, feeding plans, aeration solutions, and stocking plans to create high-quality bass fisheries while supporting catfish and trout populations. This tailored approach ensures these lakes continue to provide exceptional fishing opportunities for the community regardless of what type of angler wished to visit the ponds.

In 2017, we conducted an electrofishing survey on over 3500 acres of water at Lake Parrish to determine the best course of action required to improve the fishery and provide a better fishing opportunity for anglers while meeting the goals and budget set forth by Florida Power and Light. Although the project scale was large, we managed to complete electrofishing efforts in only three days to deliver a timely turnaround on the final report. The plan developed used unique approaches, keeping the size of the lake and the client’s objectives in mind. We created a robust lake improvement plan that primarily focused on habitat enhancement and shad stocking, along with recommendations for harvest strategies. These strategies were designed to be implemented over several years to align with the proposed budget and ensure that management efforts generated the greatest benefit to the fishery. Likewise, our plans were accompanied by some additional recommendations regarding the size of the lake. We recommended fishing tournaments targeting species that were overabundant and placing additional stress on the bass population in the pond. With the scale of the lake in mind, it was important to devise unique harvest strategies to supplement and increase the impact of traditional electrofishing harvests.

Completed in 2022, this project was intended to replicate the results found in a 2017 survey of the same pond to determine whether the fishery had changed and if so, how both the aquatic vegetation and the Largemouth Bass (Micropterus salmoides) growth had been affected by the lack of management actions taken on the lake. In total, this project covered a body of water roughly 108 acres in size and consisted of the use of an electrofishing survey to capture and measure fish for growth, and a dragged rack to collect SAV for sampling. A subset of bass was collected and aged to determine growth rate compared to age.

Since no historical data other than the survey conducted in 2017 was available, this project would be beneficial to further understanding the bass population in the lake and providing management guidance to improve the lake as a recreational fishing lake.

18 transects were selected and electrofished to collect a sample of the species available as well as the relative weight of each bass collected. Afterwards, the lake bottom was raked in 5 transects to gain a sample of the SAV present.

The data was compiled and analyzed to find that the fishery had declined significantly since the study in 2017, likely due to changing conditions regarding the SAV growth and the decreased effectiveness of grass carp at regulating this growth. Water quality data collected also supported this result and further explained the decline of the lake. Visibility was extremely high, especially for the present water temperature, which indicated a lack of plankton growth and therefore a lack of nutrients for juvenile fish. This would reduce recruitment of crucial forage fish and lead to the decline of the bass population. This analysis would explain the low bass relative weight measured in the lake.

Through this rigorous analysis, we were able to develop an effective management plan that would not only help control and reduce the SAV that has a hand in the decline of the fishery, but also restore the plentiful forage base through fish stocking plans, fertilizer application, and habitat improvements.

A 9-lake survey across 8 days, this project was unique not only in the quantity of lakes to be sampled but also in the species of fish recorded in many of the samples. Due to the brackish water in many of the sampled lakes, there were several unique fish sampled including Mullet, Tarpon, Snook, Inland Silverside, Spot Fish, Sheepshead, Drum and more.

Creating management plans and recommendations for these lakes required significant research, as brackish environments are not as easily managed as their freshwater counterparts both due to the extremely diverse species composition that they contain as well as the difficulty sourcing forage fish. Supplemental forage stocking is one of the most beneficial aspects of an effective management plan but can often become prohibitively expensive when the required forage becomes difficult to source.

For this reason, we developed a plan to best spread resources across the ponds, encouraging supplemental forage stocking in freshwater ponds while brackish ponds were supplemented with fish feeding plans and additional features such as improved aeration and habitat to facilitate growth of the existing forage base.

Through the implementation of designed habitat and fish stocking plans, the lake saw bass stocked as fingerlings grow to over 8 lb in under three years. Fish growth on the one- and two-year time scale was equally as impressive, with many fish maintaining relative weights over 135%