Standardizing a Multi-Gear Approach for Sampling Ohio River Catfishes

There is a lack of basic demographic information on catfishes in many U.S. rivers resulting from inadequate data and sampling. Standardized sampling methods used to assess catfish populations are well developed for lentic systems; they are less developed in lotic systems and development of standardized sampling methods is necessary to analyze population characteristics of catfishes in the Ohio River. Many gear types can be used to sample populations of catfish in riverine systems; catchability does not remain constant throughout the age distribution within an individual gear type , and a multi-gear approach may be  essential to representatively sample  catfish populations in the Ohio River. The objective of this study was to develop a standardized sampling protocol for catfishes in the Ohio River. Catfishes were sampled from May-October 2012-2014 using electrofishing, trot lines, and hoop nets. We found that trot lining was among the most effective gears for sampling blue and channel catfish >300 mm total length (TL). DC electrofishing at 15 pps was most effective for sampling small catfish <300 mm TL, whereas 60 pps was most effective for channel catfish 300-600 mm TL.  Hoop nets and low-pulse DC electrofishing both collected broad size ranges of flathead catfish.