The Warmwater Fish Community of Duck Lake, Grays Harbor County 1999-2004

Duck Lake was surveyed in spring 1999, fall 2002, and spring 2004 by three-person teams using multiple gear types (electrofishing, gill netting, and fyke netting.) Twelve species were represented: largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides), bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus), yellow perch (Perca flavens), black crappie (Pomoxis nigromaculatus), rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), coho salmon (O. kisutch), grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella), peamouth chub (Mylocheilus caurinus), threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus), sculpin (Cottidae), brown bullhead (Ameiurus nebulosus) and northern pikeminnow (Ptychocheilus oregonensis). Comparing the results of the three surveys reveals a warmwater population undergoing change. Yellow perch were introduced to Duck Lake sometime between 1999 and 2002, and by 2004 had become the most abundant species in our sample. During the same period largemouth bass have been dominated by a series of consecutive large year classes, 1994-1997, that were 7-10 years of age as of the 2004 survey. Coincidental with these two change, bluegill abundance declined 97.8% from 1999 to 2004.