INTRODUCTION 



This report presents a summary of data collected in 1996 during segment 8 of 

 federal aid project F-101-R, The Long-term Illinois River Fish Population Monitoring 

 Program, Previous summaries of the long-term data set, begun in 1957, were given 

 by Sparks and Starrett (1975), Sparks (1977), Sparks and Lerczak (1993), Lerczak 

 and Sparks (1994), and Lerczak et ah (1994). The annual reports for project 

 F-101-R will continue to build on previously collected data with major analyses of the 

 long-term data set scheduled for the five-year project report at the end of segment 

 10. The format used in this report is patterned after previous annual reports of this 

 project (Lerczak et al 1 993, 1 994, 1 995, and 1 996) to allow for easy comparisons of 

 data among years Data analyses are more limited in scope for this report due to the 

 departure of the project manager Tom Lerczak and the resulting increased workload 

 associated with acquiring and training new staff. 



STUDY AREA AND METHODS 



Twenty-six fish sampling sites were at fixed locations along the Illinois 

 WatenA/ay as defined by Sparks and Starrett (1975 347) and Lerczak et al (1994:9) 

 (Table 1 ) Twenty-four of the sites were along the Illinois River, with two additional 

 sites on the lower Des Plaines River, which along with the Illinois River is part of the 

 Illinois WatenA'ay. One additional site was on the Mississippi River (Figure 1). 

 Seventeen of the sites were in side channels, the rest of the sites were in other 

 habitats, including the mam channel border, or in a combination of habitat types (see 



