The Effect of Catch-and-Release Angling on the Parental Care Behavior of Male Smallmouth Bass

Abstract Parental investment theory predicts that parents should adjust the level of care given to offspring relative to brood size and stage of brood development. This variation in parental care results from a trade-off between the reproductive value of the current brood and the reproductive return that the parent can expect to receive from future broods. Our study, carried out in Charleston Lake, Ontario, Canada, examined how handling stress and brood predation associated with catch-and-release angling influenced parental care behaviors and, ultimately, nest abandonment decisions of male smallmouth bass Micropterus dolomieu. Individuals were divided into six treatment groups: two different controls (n = 10 and 11) and four test groups that were either angled and then released (n = 11), had broods reduced manually to simulate predation (n = 12), received a combination of angling and brood reduction (n = 10), or had their brood size augmented through the manual addition of larvae (n = 10). Exposing the fi...