July, 1955 
by swimming toward the deep water, they 
hit the net. 
The trammel net can be fished select- 
ively for commercial species by a fisher- 
man familiar with the habits of these 
fishes. Carp and buffalofishes tend to 
school in large numbers when spawning or 
feeding. These fishes ripple the surface of 
the water or stir up the bottom, revealing 
their presence to the commercial fisher- 
man searching for signs of fish activity. 
If the fisherman believes there are quite a 
few fish of a desired species present, he 
proceeds to set his trammel net around 
them. On three occasions, selective net- 
ting for one or two commercial species 
was done by the survey crew. The catches 
made in these sets are listed in table 25. 
Carp and buffalofishes dominated these 
catches. No sport fish was taken in these 
sets. Trammel net catches taken by com- 
mercial fishermen and examined by the 
\ 
STARRETT & BARNICKOL: COMMERCIAL FISHING DEVICES 
359 
writers have been found to contain largely 
carp and buffalofishes. 
Commercial fishes, most of them carp 
and buffalofishes, dominated the 116 test 
sets made in 1944 and 1946 with trammel 
nets, table 26. The trammel net seems 
to be a very inefficient method for taking 
catfish. Only three channel catfish and 
two flathead catfish were netted in the 
116 sets. 
Bowfins and gars were caught regularly 
in the sets. These fishes are sold com- 
mercially in some areas along the river. 
More than 90 per cent of the carp, big- 
mouth buffalos, and freshwater drums 
taken in 73 sets of trammel nets in 1946 
were of commercial sizes, table 27. 
Sport fishermen have long believed and 
argued that the trammel net is a destroyer 
of sport fishes. Their belief probably has 
been influential in outlawing the use of 
the trammel net in most midwestern wa- 
Wh 
NSS 
AN 
é x 
\\ 
Fig. 14.—A pocketed fish in a trammel net. The inner net forming the pocket around the 
fish hangs over the cord of one of the exterior nets. 
