Age and Size of Spotted Gar (Lepisosteus oculatus) from Lake Thunderbird Reservoir in Central Oklahoma

Abstract

We report the body size and population age structure of Spotted Gar from the Lake Thunderbird reservoir, OK. We collected 90 Spotted Gars ranging between 348 – 846 mm total length, and aged gars by examining annuli from the sagittal otoliths. Annuli were counted on both browned and not browned sagittal otoliths to compare the efficacy of both methods. Gars ranged between 1 and 14 years old, and percent agreement of age within one year between readers was comparable for both the browned and not browned otoliths. Back-calculated growth indicated that Spotted Gar grow quickly during the first year of life, and approach maximum size by year 4.