8083

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 8083
• Author: Gerhardt, D. R. and W. A. Hubert
• Title: Effect of Cheese Bait on Seasonal Catches of Channel Catfish in Hoop Nets
• USFW Year: 1989
• USFW - Doc Type: North American Journal of Fisheries Management
• Copyright Material: YES

378

MANAGEMENT BRIEFS

TABLE I. - Mean catch per net-day of channel catfish in baited and unbaited hoop nets during the spawning period
(June 4-30) and postspawning period (July I-August 15) in the Powder River, Wyoming-Montana, 1987. Asterisks
denote significant differences between catches in baited and unbaited nets at P < 0.05* or P < 0.01** (loglO
transformations).

Hoop-net catch for period indicated

Spawning Postspawning
Total length Baited Unbaited Baited Unbaited
(mm) Mean SE Mean SE Mean SE Mean SE
:S 300 0.32 0.06 0.28 0.07 0.47 0.08 0.28 0,06*
>300 0.43 0.09 0.57 0.14 0.38 0.06 0.15 0,03**
All fish 0.75 0.13 0.85 0,18 0.85 0.13 0.43 0.08**

suspended in the center of the compartment at the
cod end.
Spawning and postspawning periods were de-
termined from catches of drifting channel catfish
larvae near the mouth of Crazy Woman Creek
during summer 1986 and 1987 (unpublished data).
From data on the occurrence and size of channel
catfish larvae in our samples, we differentiated pe-
riods of spawning (June 4-30) and postspawning
(July I-August 15) for the hoop-net sampling. We
also distinguished sexually mature channel catfish
(> 300 mm in total length) from immature fish
(::;300 mm) in the catches. We compared catch
rates (fish/net-day) in paired nets (baited versus
unbaited) over all sampling locations, using a paired
t-test with a 10glO(catch rate + I) transformation
(Sokal and Rohlf 1969). Significance was deter-
mined at P ::; 0.05.
The catch of channel catfish in baited and un-
baited nets did not differ for either mature (> 300
mm) or immature (::;300 mm) fish (62 net pairs
for each size-class) during the spawning period
(Table 1). During the postspawning period, how-
ever, the catch was greater in baited than in un-
baited nets for both size-classes of fish (78 net pairs
for each size-class). Our data for the postspawning
period were similar to those of Mayhew (1973),
who associated cheese bait with higher catch rates
of channel catfish, but our results differed for the
spawning period. Channel catfish catches may not
be improved by cheese bait during the spawning
period because the fish are moving (Humphries
1965; T. D. Pellett and D. Fago, Wisconsin De-
partment of Natural Resources, unpublished),
searching for spawning cavities (Canfield 1947;
Clemmens and Sneed 1957), or being attracted by
pheromones released by captured fish in the nets
(Timms and KJeerekoper 1972), all of which would
tend to enhance the catch rate in hoop nets. Our
results showed that baiting of hoop nets with cheese

doubled catch rates after spawning, but did not
improve catch rates during the spawning period.
Acknowledgments. - We thank R. Sanchez and
J. Smith for field assistance, and T. Boland, J.
Mayhew, R. McDowell, A. Stewart, P. Thiel, and
R. Wiley for manuscript reviews. The work was
funded by the National Marine Fisheries Service
and the Wyoming Game and Fish Department.

References

Canfield, H. L. 1947. Artificial propagation of those
channel cats. Progressive Fish-Culturist 9:27-30.
Carter, E. R. 1954. An evaluation of nine types of
commercial fishing gear in Kentucky Lake. Trans-
actions of the Kentucky Academy of Science 15:56-
80.
Clemens, H. P., and K. E. Sneed. 1957. The spawning
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U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Special Scientific Re-
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Funk, J. L. 1957. Relative efficiency and selectivity of
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lctalurus lacustris punctatus, in the Savannah River
operations area. U.S. Atomic Energy Commission
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Mayhew, J. 1972. Some biological characteristics of a
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harvest. Iowa Conservation Commission Technical
Series 72-2.

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