Efficacy of a Light Attractant for Increasing Trap Net Catches of White Crappies

We evaluated the efficacy of trap nets fitted with a battery‐operated, submersible light in the net mouth in increasing the catch rates of white crappies Pomoxis annularis by comparing the catch rate and size structure of white crappies collected by these nets with those of fish collected by standard (i.e., unlighted) trap nets in six Texas reservoirs. The catch rates of standard (mean = 16.3/net‐night) and lighted trap nets (12.1/net‐night) did not differ significantly. We found no significant difference in the catch of stock‐size white crappies (≥130 mm total length [TL]) by standard (12.7 fish/net‐night) versus lighted trap nets (9.9 fish/net‐night); however, significantly fewer preferred sizes (≥250 mm TL) were taken by lighted (1.9 fish/net‐night) than by standard sets (2.9 fish/net‐night). The length‐frequency distributions of the white crappies collected by each trap net treatment were similar and did not significantly differ in four of the five lakes tested. Our results suggest that trap nets fitted with artificial lights in the net mouth do not effectively increase catch rates for white crappies and may favor the collection of smaller size‐classes than standard trap nets. Received June 24, 2010; accepted February 18, 2011