Sampling of the offshore fry fish communities of reservoirs by trawls

The offshore area of six Czech reservoirs was sampled by pelagic fry trawl in late summer in 2003-2005. In Římov, Želivka, Vrané and Slapy reservoirs cyprinids dominated in offshore area. The main species here were roach, bream and bleak. In Lipno and Nýrsko reservoirs percids dominated in offshore area (Lipno-pikeperch, Nýrsko-perch). Trawling in offshore areas revealed that almost all 0+ fish were caught in the surface stratum (0-3m depth). In reservoirs where percids and cyprinids occured together, cyprinids dominated in 0-3m depth while percids usually prevailed in catches of 0+ fish from 3-6m depth. In ordinary canyon-shaped reservoir like Římov and Želivka the 0+ fish abundance decreased from the upstream end toward the dam, so the biggest abundance was in tributary area. In cascade reservoirs like Slapy and Vrané, the offshore area in tributary is almost without fish. The peak of abundance is more downstream and from this place, the trend is similiar to non-cascade reservoirs