Catfish Sampling Techniques: Where We Are Now and Where We Should Go

We review the peer-reviewed literature regarding sampling of the three most commonly managed ictalurids: Channel Catfish, Blue Catfish, and Flathead Catfish. For each species, we summarize what is known about data quality (accuracy and precision) and sampling efficiency of the most commonly used gears for surveying these species. We identify research needs and provide information to guide gear selection based on different sampling objectives. To rank gear-specific sampling efficiency (catch/h and catch/person-h), we report median catch rates and the interpolated 25th and 75th percentiles of published means. We also describe the accuracy of relative abundance and size-related metrics for each gear. For Channel Catfish, tandem baited hoop nets provide the most efficient (1124 fish/net/tandem set, 20-60 fish/person-h) and accurate samples. Low-frequency electrofishing provides the most efficient samples of Blue Catfish (23-373 fish/h, 2.1-11.3 fish/person-h) and Flathead Catfish (19-62 fish/h, 2.1-2.5 fish/person-h) and the most accurate samples of Blue Catfish. No accuracy studies exist for Flathead Catfish. Other gears examined for each species may also be useful for some sampling objectives; however, most are inefficient or lack accuracy.