Re: NANFA-- The Great Bluehead Hunt

D. Martin Moore (archimedes_at_master.localink4.com)
Tue, 18 Jan 2000 16:31:32 -0600

> << Good to see you back online! Collecting deep water in swamps is
> difficult.
> One thing I've been thinking about is making a fine-mesh cast net,
> something with about 1/16" inch mesh, about 8ft in diameter, and with
> sufficient weight to counteract the extra drag of the finer mesh. Has
> anyone used such a contraption? I think it would be particularly
> effective for sampling things like Pteronotropis hubbsi/welaka,
> Notropis maculatus, Notropis harperi... and might be the best way to
> survey for Notropis melanostomus populations in Alabama (the real
> reason for the extra-small mesh).

I was hoping BG would chime in here, since he invented the thing,
but he has the best net I have ever seen for sampling without
getting your feet wet. He calls it a "hoop net", which is exactly
what it looks like. It's essentially a fish-sized plankton net, about
2.5 feet in diameter, and 1/8" mesh. You throw it out, let it sink to
the right depth, and then pull it in with a 20' rope. We used it to
get the lone P. hubbsi from water I would never attempt to seine.

Prost,

Martin
------
"Cry to it, nuncle. as the cockney did to the eels when she put
'em i' the paste alive; she knapped 'em o' the coxcombs with a
stick, and cried 'Down wantons, down!'"

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