370 



FISHERY BULLETIN OF THE FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



Table 4. — The catch of yellow perch per unit of fishing 

 effort of 5 gears in Saginaw Bay over the period 1929-55 



[The units of effort are: Small-mesh gill nets, lift of 1,000 linear foot; pound, 

 shallow trap, and fyke nets, lift of 1 net; seines, 1 haul of a 100-rod seine] 



1 Based on limited data In some years; no usable data in a few years. 



upward trend of abundance was more than coun- 

 terbalanced, so that the annual production con- 

 tinued to be low. The relatively high catches of 

 1943 and 1948 were mainly due to high abundance 

 and a slight increase in fishing intensity in these 

 two years. 



Catch by Gear 



The trap net is the principal gear for catching 

 yellow perch in Saginaw Bay (75.9 percent of the 

 yellow-perch catch by trap nets; table 5). Second 

 to this gear, the fyke net contributed 10.5 percent 

 to the commercial yield. All other gears (small- 



mesh gill nets, pound nets, seines, * * " 

 tributed a minor percentage of the catch. 



' ) con- 



Seasonal Distribution of the Catch 



The seasonal production of Saginaw Bay yel- 

 low perch (table 6; fig. 4) is concentrated in the 

 fall; 75 percent of the catch is made in Septem- 

 ber, October, and November. The peak was 

 reached in October (207,425 pounds; 42.9 percent 

 of average annual total). Then followed Novem- 

 ber (91,867 pounds, 19.0 percent) and September 

 (63,214 pounds, 13.1 percent). The catch in the 



Table 6. — Average monthly commercial production (pounds) 

 of Saginaw Bay yellow perch in 1929-55 



1 Includes catches made by: Large-mesh gill nets, deep trap nets, spears, set-hooks, and handlines. 

 ture is unknown. 



Includes also a small poundage for which gear of cap- 



