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AUTHORS. Eric C. Hine, Cassi Moody-Carpenter, Scott Meiners - Eastern Illinois University; Zachary Mitchell, Texas State University; Robert E. Colombo, Eastern Illinois University
ABSTRACT. The Lower Wabash River (LWR), which forms the southeastern border of Illinois with Indiana, is a completely free-flowing river that supports a robust commercial and sport fishery. Illinois’ Long-Term Electrofishing Program (LTEF) monitors fish populations through daytime sampling from June through October annually. Collection of species that are more active during non-summer seasons and nighttime hours may be limited by LTEF protocol. To address these limitations, we implemented multi-season, night time pulsed-DC electrofishing starting Fall 2016. Nighttime electrofishing data were compared to daytime electrofishing data from 2014-2015. Preliminary analysis show that we collected a higher catch per unit of effort (CPUE; fish per hour) during our Fall, Winter, and Spring night-electrofishing than during day-electrofishing efforts. Although differences in overall mean (±SE) CPUE between methods were not significant (123.4 ± 15.2 for night; 85 ± 15 for day; p>0.05), we observed significant differences between fish families, such as Cyprinidae (24.2 ± 3.3 for night; 5.4 ± 1.3 for day; p
