North American Journal of Fisheries Management 24:1025–1030, 2004 q Copyright by the American Fisheries Society 2004 Relationship between Lake-Record Weights of Fishes and Reservoir Area and Growing Season

Abstract.—We used information from an angler rec-ognition program to assess the relationship between lake-record weights of freshwater fishes captured by Texas anglers and two predictors of fish production and growth: reservoir surface area and growing-season length. The lake-record weights of two species, large-mouth bass Micropterus salmoides and flathead catfish Pylodictis olivaris, were directly related to the logarithm of surface area. The record weights of all species studied were unrelated to growing-season length. Regardless of the statistical significance of individual correlations, there was a significant excess of positive correlations across all species between lake-record weights of fish and log surface area. This indicates the presence of a general relationship between the record weights of fish and reservoir area. Our results suggest that record weights of fish may be constrained by reservoir surface area. The goal of fishery management is to provide opportunities for quality recreational fishing (Driver and Cooksey 1980). To achieve this goal, fisheries must be managed to produce a variety of experiences or ‘‘products’ ’ (Driver 1985) because anglers differ in their species preferences (Spencer 1993; Wilde and Ditton 2000), interest in har-vesting or releasing captured fish (Fedler and Dit