Comparison of Littoral Fish Assemblages Sampled with a Mini-Fyke Net or with a Combination of Electrofishing and Small-Mesh Seine in Wisconsin Lakes

Mini-fyke nets (MFN) were compared with a combination of electrofishing and a small-mesh seine (ESMS) to assess their relative abilities to describe littoral fish assemblages in 19 Wisconsin lakes (110–2,454 ha). Eighteen locations in each lake were sampled by both sampling methods. Each method missed an average of four species per lake that were collected by the other method. Two-thirds of the species missed were species that were caught at 5% or more of the total stations. Two-thirds of the 55 species that were collected by only one method in a lake were only collected in other lakes by that same method. Monte Carlo simulations of sampling intensity for each sampling method showed that the number of stations needed to miss on average fewer than one species of the total caught by that method was 15 stations for the ESMS and 14 stations for the MFN. A better estimate of species composition was obtained by combining the results from both methods than from the individual estimates of either method.