We electrofish small blackwater coastal plain streams in South
     Carolina and use dip nets during electofishing to scoop up fish.  The
     fish are then placed in a bucket of water or larger floatable
     container we carry/float with us.  We do not use a block seine but I
     understand it is useful for catching what you miss.  It seems to me
     that just using a block seine would be harmful to the fish - I imagine
     stronger currents in your area and suspect the fish would forcefully
     float into the net and be compressed as more fish are caught.  I would
     suggest using both a dip net to catch what you can and the block seine
     to get what you miss.  I also suspect you have some large sized fish -
     using a larger floating container would allow you to hold larger fish
     but you would probably need an individual just to manage the larger
     container.

     Any other thoughts?

     Hope this helps!

     [log in to unmask]


______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Re: Electrofishing methods
Author:  [log in to unmask] at Mailhub
Date:    4/30/97 11:19 AM


Sorry, no experience with that technique in question but with respect to
electrofishing vs other techniques, I fished yellow perch in a Manitoulin
Island lake and trapped-netted and tagged several thousand in the late
1960s. A hundred or so fish were electrofished, dipped with a net and
tagged and these were the only fish ever seen alive again. It was a
shallow lake and most of the others were seen as corpses.

cheers,

William Allison (Bill)