July, 1955 
StarRRETT & BARNICKOL: COMMERCIAL FISHING DEVICES 
349 
Table 17.—Composition of catches of commercial-sized or desirable-sized fish taken in 
l-inch-mesh hoop nets and 1-inch-mesh wing nets, both types without leads, in fisheries survey 
of the Mississippi River between Burlington and Dubuque, Iowa, 1946. 
1-Incn-Mesu Hoop Nets 1-INcH-Mesu Winco Nets 
(105.97 Net-Days) (855.86 Net-Days) C 
HI- 
Kinp oF Fisu SQUARE 
Pounds Number Pounds Number VALUE 
per Number per per Number per 
Net-Day Net-Day | Net-Day Net-Day 
Ia. ; Saas 0.48 9 0.08 1.10 238 0.28 WSn65 
Bigmouth buffalo. .. = 0 — 0.04 13 0.02 — 
Smallmouth buffalo. 0 os 0.04 16 0.02 — 
Freshwater drum.... 0.34 32 0.30 0.23 210 0.25 1 22 
Channel catfish. .... 0.10 Ss = | 0208 0.10 53 0.06 0.28 
Flathead catfish..... 0.16 5 0.05 0.27 42 0.05 0.06 
ia —- 1 0.009 — 97 0.11 9.97* 
White crappie...... = 9 ORS = 1,228 1.43 133.34* 
Black crappie... .. .- — 6 0.06 — 560 0.65 lye 
* Denotes a significant difference, in numbers of commercial-sized or desirable-sized fish taken, between the two 
types of nets at 0.05 level with 1 degree of freedom. 
Table 18.—Size ranges and means of the total lengths of fish taken in 1-inch-me 
nets and in l-inch-mesh wing nets, both types without leads, in fisheries survey of the 
sh hoop 
Missis- 
sippi River between Eurlington and Dubuque, Iowa, 1946. 
| 
1-Incu-Mesu Hoop Nets 1-IncH-Mesu Wine Nets 
Be: fain | ace Sg UN as a ee | 
SA |Z | 3s Z of | 2 5 | 
KinpD oF FisH ae les Be bp ye ate ee | g =|° 
lIs°Slsglisca| & EBoleosuaise| § Seles a 
O-su)28| os Se |eecnies| .5| ag iss gall Pea 
eae eet | vce ee aes SS), 4 0) 84% | oo oes Sesion < 
0 V5),55| Qo Ng SL |o 85/54 / 8a ASST IS =e ee 
Meat ay} nd |nOMWES RI Ad| So |) Me MAAR! & 
etree i. 100.0} 9} 21.83/17.2-26.0) 2.97) 78.5| 303 17.55| 4.7-30.0/4.85|} 51} 4.162* 
Bigmouth buf- | 
lose... a 0 39.4 33) 13.48) 4.5-19.6)3.67) — — 
Smallmouth | 
Buttalo.. ... OZONE) 75 17920=1359)-2509l- — 5-8i 277 9.21/ 4.1-18.43.46} 40) 2.892* 
Freshwater drum) 49.2) 65] 10.03) 4.9-17.7| 3.74 33.2) 632] 8.79] 4.0-18.62.93] 202] 2.593* 
Channel catfish..) 12.9} 62) 9.15} 3.5-18.5| 3.62) 5.7] 936) 9.44! 2.7-30.1/2.21] 240] 0.623 
Flathead catfish.| 11.4) 44) 13.20) 4.4-21.0) 4.46) 23.5} 179] 15.39) 5.6-37.6/5.30| 88] 2.807* 
Bluegill.........| 50.0) 2] 6.00) 5.0- 6.8} 1.41) 34.4; 282) 5.99) 3.0— 8.4/1.33) 23] 0.010 
White crappie...| 64.3} 14) 7.54) 4.7-12.4) 2.21) 48.8/2,514) 7.36) 2.9-13.2/2.30| 187} 0.304 
Black crappie. . | 66-7). 9) 7-83) 4.3—-9-7|.2702 41.7)1,343 7.03) 3.0-14.0/2.14) 109) 1.183 
i 
* Denotes a significant difference, in 
freedom indicated. 
figs. 11 and 12. Of the total number of 
fishes taken with the 214-inch-mesh wing 
nets, sport fishes comprised only 2.4 per 
cent in 1944 and 1.9 per cent in 1946, 
table 14. The number of sport fishes per 
net-day taken with 214-inch-mesh wing 
nets amounted to 0.06 fish in 1944 and 
0.02 fish in 1946, table 5. Crappies com- 
prised most of the sport fish catch. The 
eight crappies taken in the 214-inch-mesh 
wing nets in 1946 were all of desirable or 
sizes of fish taken, between the two types of nets at 0.05 
level for degrees of 
usable sizes; of the more than 3,800 crap- 
pies taken in the l-inch-mesh wing nets 
(without leads) in the same year, less 
than 50 per cent were of usable sizes, 
table 16. 
Very few predatory and forage fishes, 
per net-day, were taken in the 214-inch- 
mesh wing nets, table 5. The catch in 
these nets consisted largely of carp, buf- 
falofishes, carpsuckers, and freshwater 
drums. Thompson (1925:431) states that 
