USGS Home
Contact USGS
Search USGS

Fish Reports

2002 Report

Pool 26, Upper Mississippi River 2002 Fish Collection Summary

This report is a bullet summary of the Long Term Resource Monitoring Program's (LTRMP) fish collection efforts conducted by the Great Rivers Field Station on Pool 26, Upper Mississippi River during 2002. Information on changes in fish catch over all years can be obtained from the Graphical Fish Database Browser.

• 272 fish collections were conducted using six gear types (Table 2.4).

• Low water levels resulted in one missed day electrofishing site in period 2. One large and one small hoop nets were also missed in period 2 (apparently run over by boats). Two extra sites were sampled: One extra fyke net was set in period 1 and one extra small hoop net was set in period 3 (Table 2.4; Figure 1.4).

• Of the 272 fish collections, 260 were from randomly selected sites. Twelve collections were made at fixed sites.

• Main channel border, unstructured; side channel border; and contiguous backwater, shoreline strata received the most sampling effort (Table 2.4).

• 47,820 fish were collected representing 59 species and 2 hybrids (Table 3.4). This total includes 391 unidentified buffalo (Ictiobus spp.) less than 100 mm long, 214 unidentified Lepomis spp. less than 30 mm long, 3 unidentified Centrarchids (Centrarchidae) less than 20 mm long, and 10 unidentified larval fish less than 20 mm long.

• The LTRMP species total for Pool 26 before the 2002 season was 90; no new species were collected in the 2002 season (Table 3.4).

• No species were collected that are Illinois-listed endangered species (Table 3.4).

• No species were collected that are Illinois-listed threatened species (Table 3.4).

• Other species that were collected and are noted as uncommon, rare, or probably strays from tributaries (Pitlo et al. 1995) in Pool 26 were central stoneroller, freckled madtom, grass pickerel, logperch, mud darter, redear sunfish, smallmouth bass, Mississippi silvery minnow, and grass carp were listed as rare and uncommon, respectively by Pitlo et al. (1995), but LTRMP collections in Pool 26 since 1995 suggest that they may no longer be uncommon (Table 3.4).

• Mean catch-per-unit-effort and standard error for fish collected by gears using stratified random (Tables 4.4-11.4) and fixed-site sampling (Table 21.4) for each stratum are shown.

• Length distributions for selected species of fish are shown in Figures 2.4 to19.4.