Hi everyone!

I am starting to get some field sampling schedules together regarding our electroshocking in southwest Washington. The survey time is the last two weeks in April - the first two weeks in June.

I am getting such a huge jump because April and May are completely booked with kid's fishing derbies down here and I want to gather a contact list so I do not have to do it later.

If you are interested in assisting with an electroshocking survey in Region 5 (Clark, Cowlitz, Klickitat, Lewis and Skamania counties) please contact me at kelsyslk@dfw.wa.gov or at 360-906-6706 so I can get some contact info.

We have a huge list of lakes that we will be doing so if you have a specific lake you are interested in let me know that too.

stace

Hi Stace. Just wondering if electro-shocking hurts the fishing that much? Don't they just do a small section for a sampling or do thay close the whole lake off? A curious mind wants to know......

Robert

bigb8bigfish,

I am not a biologist but have volunteered alot on the electro fishing surveys.
As long as the amperage is adjusted properly there is little risk to the fish. They are stunned,netted,then put in a sizable livewell. at the end of the collection process they are anestisized it five gallon bucket full of water using for the most part CO2 ran through an aquarium bubbler. Once anesnitized they are weighed measured and There stomachs get pumped with water to force out what they have been eating. The contents are put in plastic containers and labeled for identifacation later. The fish are the put back in the livewell and released once the have recuperated.

The amperage can be tricky to set properly because the ph and content of the water can effect conductivity. also , sunfish species seem more resistant than trout to electric shock. sometimes the amperage will be to high and kill the trout but this is normally easy to identify and easy to correct. Few fish are lost, and those are usually because of handling, one of the more common mistakes is punching holes in the fishes stomach and making a water balloon while trying to flush the stomach with water. Some fish have items that are hard to retrieve like crawdads. In that case they use tongs and reach into the fishes stomach to pull out the contents, some fish were lost in that process too.

they do not close the lake for this they just warn nearby boaters especially aluminum ones ha ha


As far as fishing goes repeated visit from the electro boat definetly affects fishing success in a negative way.

thanx mpts101. Have seen e'm perform this on the columbia and being a larger body of water figure shouldn't have too much effect on the fish. Usually about that time of the season I generally take the family to one or all the mentioned places......just curious and thanx again for the info.

Sorry I missed your post earlier!

The only fish that really get affected are kokanee and grass carp. When sampling for these fish we have to be EXTREMELY careful as far as the amount of power we put out.

The larger the fish the more they are affected. I have seen 4 ft. sturgeon shoot out in front of the boat and the little ones just scoot off.

The idea is, once you hit a pool of fish you back off the power (electricity generated) and just start scooping fish as fast as you can. We sample all fish so that makes it easier for the people netting.

If a lake is medium to small in size (say, like Kress Lake, Klinepond Pond) the whole shoreline can be done in one night. If the lake is larger (Mineral, Lacamas, Sacajwea) then we do random sections and will do one or two nights.

For my surveys we don't use CO2 or any anestisizing, which makes it MUCH more difficult to handle the fish. Especially the larger ones. Some bios are now saying that CO2 is not good for the fish and we can't use clove oil or MS 222, so I am not sure what direction they are going to go in if any.

It'd be nice to be able to use something for the stomach sampling part. Fish get stressed when you stick the nozzle down their throat and there is a lot of loss due to inexperience of using this method.

Generally there aren't many fish lost. If one touches one of the rays, it may get a black mark across it's back.

stace