332 
area, he makes preparations to lay out the 
seine. A seine haul of 200 or 300 yards 
can usually be completed within a couple 
of hours. Handling a big catch in a large 
seine may require several days. 
The survey crew made 25 seine hauls 
in the Mississippi River between Win- 
field, Missouri, and Cordova, Illinois. 
These hauls were made with 100-, 150-, 
and 200-yard seines of l-inch square mesh. 
Time and personnel limited the seining 
operations to one mesh size. 
A summary of the survey seine hauls is 
given in table 3. Commercial and preda- 
tory fishes represented 89.3 per cent of the 
total weight of all fishes taken with the 
seine. Sport fishes occurred regularly in 
the hauls; they represented 11.7 per cent 
of the total numbers and 3.3 per cent of 
the total weight of fish in the seine hauls. 
I-tinois NATURAL History SuRVEY BULLETIN 
Vol. 26, Art. 4 
Crappies made up 82.1 per cent of the 
number of sport fishes. Only insignificant 
numbers of other sport species were taken 
in the seines. 
A seine is an efficient fishing device 
when operated by experienced commercial 
fishermen. Commercial seines are of 
larger mesh sizes than the seines employed 
in the survey. Fishermen generally try to 
use seines selectively by making hauls in 
waters they believe are being used by 
species they desire. The commercial hauls 
usually are made for carp, buftfalofishes, 
freshwater drums, and paddlefish. How- 
ever, fishermen using commercial seines 
frequently catch only a few carp and buf- 
falofishes in a haul and many gizzard 
shads and gars. 
The seine is an important commercial 
fishing device on the Mississippi River 
Table 3.—Composition of catches made with l-inch-mesh 100-yard, 150-yard, and 200-yard 
seines in fisheries survey of the Mississippi River between Winfield, Missouri, and Cordova, 
Illinois, 1944 and 1946. 
Kinp oF Fisu 
CoMMERCIAL 
SBOE ai cron: sa ones xiv .c 4 ind see eae VE 
DigeGH URIO oe co eon be eee eet 
Smallimontiepuialos: oe se i nce ceca es 
15) rea a) TT Ea pee RR aN An ce es 
Pariletigth co eet es coe Sete ke oe ee: 
Mebarntiel: cabnsitectee ic oa os ce ee 
Bipe Catnsh soo tee 2s oc toate eee 
Blaehead catnsns site Greist 
RURECRIE MENA feiss suk eh SN ote ote 
SUCCES, Peer So oe ato ND eaters ateae ae 
Beesiiwater crits Osco ies. cee ate ee 
WROTOLSE tii F ad bv Live ie end oe aie 
NU LGERCIANID Nc. ety ioe Osis teesierie eerie, 
Bldclsicrappie a aia a er ese as nee 
Peter ek, steers Gc Ph ke eee ae 
LOW SU ALIEY C5, stad tn rage pte ee alee 
jh) (tol Cae RN ee a iat a ee eae teen Ge ae 
NUIPE CD ASS Het cee tN EL ihr on ee 
PRNOW DASE ciel acc telee te Somers sais maeeTS 
RNOLD ARLEE os etc Patel air Wiceastics da ea 
DHGEEMOSO aise wets: cehre ly ah ee tae wt cro eines 
WOTOSE Mattes: . pale oo Ss. ocx ed aa oie 
ESWALIIE eee rah ce cies cos sina este aeets 
RZ ZAC SMA ees Ws de alsin aicdiees, ual ee. 
MMOGHEYE, GOICV ere er emt cis oo ta 2 vee 
SALDLORAL Ori MMe Re RS BS as vec div Sues uns 
NuMBER OF | OF TOTAL WEIGHT, Pena 
Fish TAKEN | NuMBER Pounps ww o“™ 
TAKEN = 
96 6.5 221.54 16.8 
16 ils) 26.63 2.0 
50 3.4 25.16 1.9 
1 0.1 5.93 0.4 
51 3.4 139.80 10.6 
121 8.2 48 .56 Rie 
27 1.8 17.04, 133 
1 0.1 0.19 _ 
148 10.0 96.05 ia 
1 0.1 1.68 0.1 
88 6.0 29.78 Die 
600 40.7 612.36 46.3 
114 7.8 24.96 1.9 
28 1.9 5.16 0.4 
Z 0.1 0.24 — 
oD 0.1 1.99 0.1 
6 0.4 5.16 0.4 
16 1.1 5.02 0.4 
5 0.3 0.83 0.1 
173 11.7 43 36 38 
391 26.6 416.06 31.5 
71 4.8 134.73 10.2 
6 0.4 17.93 1.3 
468 31.8 568.72 43.0 
181 We 85.06 6.4 
51 3.5 12.58 1.0 
232 15.8 97 .64. 7.4 
1,473 100.0 1,322.08 100.0 
Per Cent 
