GALEN D. JONS, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, P.O. Box 116, Mathis, Texas 78368, USA

Catfish rank second in popularity among Texas anglers. Hoop nets have been traditionally used to collect catfishes in lotic systems. However, catch may be seasonally biased toward periods when fish movement is greatest. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department biologists conduct river fishery surveys during summer months when flows are typically low. Although blue catfish Ictalurus furcatus are predominant in the south Texas coastal plains region, baited hoop net catch rates are typically low. Recently, low-frequency electrofishing has been employed to collect flathead catfish Pylodictis olivaris in the southeastern U.S. We compared baited hoop nets with electrofishing to determine if the latter could provide population characteristics data for blue catfish. Catfish were collected from two south Texas rivers using baited hoop nets and electrofishing in July and August, 1995 and 1996. Preliminary analyses indicate that electrofishing required 3.3 man-hours of effort to collect 30 stock-size (300 mm) fish, while nets required 170.0 man-hours of effort. One hundred seventeen catfish were collected by electrofishing, ranging in size from 45 to 775 mm. Only two fish, 320 and 398 mm in length, were collected with nets. Low-frequency electrofishing appears to hold promise as an efficient sampling method for collecting blue catfish in southern rivers.