Moore High School Science Department, Moore, Oklahoma 73160
The yellow bass has been reported only once in Oklahoma. It was first taken by A. D. Aldrich (circa 1937) from a small oxbow lake (Vann's Lake) 8 miles north of Muskogee near the Verdigris River in Wagoner County (1), and listed as Morone interrupta Gill by C. L. Hubbs in a manuscript list (1941) of Oklahoma fishes. Vann's Lake became completely dry during the summers of 1954 and 1955. One specimen, taken by G. E. Hall on 2 June, 1950, from Vann's Lake is catalogued as UOMZ 26257 the University of Oklahoma, Norman. Carl D. Riggs collected 3 specimens (UOMZ 26390) from an oxbow lake northwest of the Dekalb Ferry in McCurtain County in 1951. Robison, Moore and Miller indicated the yellow bass as a rare species in Oklahoma (2), but erred in indicating its presence in Muskogee County. The same error appears in Miller and Robison (3). There are no known records of yellow bass from Muskogee County. Except for undocumented angler's reports of specimens caught in Red River oxbows, the above-mentioned records constitute the known distribution of the species in Oklahoma.
On 21 October 1977, the authors and a class of Moore High School science students took the first documented specimens from an Oklahoma stream, using a 1-inch-mesh, 4 × 50-ft gill net, set across the mouth of Little Pine Creek (S25 T5S R2E) where it enters Little River 2 miles below the Pine Creek Reservoir in McCurtain County. The specimens (129 and 131 mm SL), identified by Jimmie Pigg and confirmed by Dr. Loren Hill, were catalogued as number 196 and placed in the Oklahoma Department of Health fish collections in Oklahoma City.
On 7 June 1978, J. Pigg, D. Young and S. Watkins, a survey team from the Oklahoma Department of Health, collected three additional specimens (134, 142 and 148 mm SL) using a 1-inch-mesh, 4 × 50-ft gill net set across the mouth of Lukfata Creek (S14 T7S R24E) where it enters Little River north of Idabel on HW 70. These specimens were also catalogued into the Department of Health collection as number 231.
Fourteen additional specimens (91 - 108 mm SL) were collected by Dr. Clark Hubbs and the ichthyology class from the University of Oklahoma Biological Station on 20 June 1978 from the mouth of Lukfata Creek, using a 12-ft minnow seine. These specimens were placed in the U.O.B.S. fish collection.
1. G. A. MOORE, Proc. Okla. Acad. Sci. 53: 1-26 (1973).
2. H. W. ROBISON, G. A. MOORE and R. J. MILLER, Proc. Okla. Acad. Sci. 54: 139-146 (1973).
3. R. J. MILLER and H. W. ROBISON, The Fishes of Oklahoma. Okla. State. Univ. Press, Okla. State Univ. Mus. Natur. and Cult. Hist. Natur. Hist. Ser. No. 1, 1973, I-XXI, 1-246.