Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center
Pool 4, Upper Mississippi River 2005 Fish Collection Summary
This report is a bullet summary of the Long Term Resource Monitoring Program's fish collection efforts conducted by the Lake City Field Station on Pool 4, Upper Mississippi River during 2005. Information on changes in fish catch over all years can be obtained from the Graphical Fish Database Browser.
- 158 fish collections were conducted using six gear types (Table
2.1), with 136 from randomly selected sites and 22 from fixed sites.
- Side channel borders, backwaters, and main channel borders received the most sampling effort (Table 2.1).
- Gear allocations among strata were the same for both sampling periods except for a variation between strata for mini fyke net during period two.
- In 2005,
water levels were higher than normal during mid-May through late June (typically when flood waters recede). Water levels from early July through mid-September were significantly lower than normal, but considerably higher than normal during late September through early November. Sampling was delayed during this high water period. Sampling resumed after water levels receded (Figure 1.1).
- 11,648 fish representing 60 species and 2 hybrids were collected (Table
3.1). Historical fish distribution for the Upper Mississippi River (Pitlo et al. 1995) documents 99 fish species from Pool 4. To date the Lake City Field Station has collected a total of 89 species and 5 hybrids.
- The three fish species with the highest total catch were 5,007 emerald shiners, 2,014 bluegill, and 721 gizzard shad (Table 3.1).
- Thirty-seven pugnose minnows, seven shovelnose sturgeon, two lake sturgeon, and one blue sucker—all Minnesota species of special concern—were collected (Table
3.1).
- Mean catch-per-unit-effort and standard error for fish collected
by the LTRMP using stratified random and fixed-site sampling for each
stratum are shown in Pool
4 tables. Length distributions for selected species of fish are
shown in Figures 1 to
17.
Content manager: Jennie
Sauer
Page Last Modified: April 17, 2018