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Hubert and Patton: Fish Catches with Hoop Nets 9 Wyoming, with identical nets (Smith 1988, Smith and Hubert 1989, Gerhardt and Hubert 1989) and in Pool 13 (Pierce et al. 1981) of tbe Mississippi River with other hoop net designs. Catch rates in the Laramie River were lower than those observed in the Platte River with 2-mm-mesh hoop nets, but similar to catches with 32- and 38-mm-mesh nets (Holland and Peters 1992). Catch rates in the Laramie River downstream from Grayrocks Dam were similar to those upstream from Grayrocks Reservoir in 1989 and 1991 with D nets (Hubert and O'Shea 1991). The accumu- lated evidence from these studies suggests that the density of fish in the Laramie River is low compared to the Powder, Mississippi, and North Platte rivers. The nets used in this study were not baited. Other studies indicate that the use of bait can increase catch rates for some species (Mayhew 1973, Pierce et al. 1981) during some times of the year (Gerhardt and Hubert 1989). However, bait may serve as a deterrent to the capture of some fishes (Pierce et al. 1981). It is likely that the use of bait would have enhanced catches of common carp and channel catfish in the Laramie River, but it could have reducOO1he catch of other species such as northern redhorse (Pierce et al. 1981). \ Smaller sizes of common carp, northern redhorse, white suckers, and small- mouth bass seemed to be captured by D nets than round nets. The wider array of lengths sampled by D nets should make more fish in the populations vulnerable to capture and lead to a higher catch rate. However, a significantly greater catch rate with D nets was not observed for any of these species. Comparisons among studies using hoop nets are difficult because of differ- ences in net designs and use of bait This study affirms the conclusion of Holland and Peters (1992) that sampling gear used in comparative surveys should be standardized so that sampling variability introduced by the gear itself is minimized. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We thank S. Bomgardner, D. Brown, A. Duncan, R. Gipson, W. LaVoie, M. McKinstry, and B. Patterson for assistance in the field; D. Miller, M. Oberholtzer, M. Snigg, and R. Wiley for information and guidance; and C. Alexander, T. Annear, · D. Coble, E. Peters, E. Rockwell, anaR. Wiley for review of the manuscript. The project was funded by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. LITERATURE CITED Analytical Software. 1990. STATISTIX 3.1 manual. St. Paul, Minnesota. Annear, T. C. 1992. Shovelnose sturgeon investigations; summary report 1983- 191. Fish Div. Adm. Rep. IF-3091-17-9001. Wyoming Game and Fish Department, Cheyenne. Carter, E. R. 1954. An evaluation of nine types of commercial fishing gear in Kentucky Lake. Trans. Ky. Acad. Sci. 15:56-80.