Daniel P. Michaelson, Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, 2744 Lake Road, Prestonsburg, KY 40653

Abstract. Smith Mountain Lake, Virginia supports a successful put-grow-take striped bass Morone saxatilis fishery. Empirical analysis of striped bass stocking has shown an inverse relationship between number of fingerling striped bass stocked and survival to age 1. Predation mortality by largemouth bass Micropterus salmoides was considered as one source of poor first year survival of striped bass in Penhook and Waterwheel stocking coves at Smith Mountain Lake. It was necessary to estimate largemouth bass population size, diet composition, and daily consumption (bioenergetic modeling) to determine the total number of striped bass lost to predation. Diet analysis revealed that age-0 striped bass made up a maximum of 2.5% of largemouth bass diets in the month following stocking; adult alewives constituted more than 60% by weight. The estimated number of striped bass lost was only 360 (0.1%) in 1994 and 3,062 (1.2%) in 1995. Bioenergetics simulations demonstrated that predation could become significant in the unlikely event that the contribution of striped bass to largemouth bass diets increased to 10% or more. Based on results from diet analysis and a prey preference laboratory study, alewives appear to buffer predation of age-0 striped bass during the month after stocking. In 1994 and 1995, largemouth bass predation did not result in substantial mortality of stocked fingerling striped bass.