Abstract

<em>Abstract.-</em>Little published information exists on the utility of tournament and anglercatch data for assessing sizes and numbers of channel catfish <em>Ictalurus punctatus</em>. We compared channel catfish caught concurrently from May-August 2006 by small tournament anglers, creel-surveyed anglers, and soybean-baited tandem hoop nets (nets) in Lake Manawa, an 800 ac urban lake in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Mean total length of channel catfish caught was lowest in the nets, intermediate for creel-surveyed anglers, and highest for tournament anglers. Tournament anglers selected against small channel catfish (i.e., RSD S-Q: 11-16 in), selected for intermediate-sized channel catfish (RSD Q-P: 16-24 in), and caught similar proportions of large channel catfish (RSD P-M: 24-28 in) as compared to creel-surveyed anglers. Comparisons of angler and net catch rates by size categories revealed that both tournament and creel-surveyed anglers selected against small channel catfish, but overestimated both intermediate and larger channel catfish. We believe there is some utility and cost-savings benefits associated with using angler-caught channel catfish data for making management decisions, but biases need to be considered and more information on comparisons between angler caught channel catfish and sampling data are warranted.

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