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I have access to an electrofishing boat that the state uses for its bass surveys of lakes. Our main objective is to better understand the population distribution of bass and forage fish. We want to manage the lake for trophy size bass. I am shooting for +10 lbs.

Does anyone have any procedures for conducting electrofishing surveys?

Here are some of my questions.

What time of year is the best time to conduct electrofishing surveys?
Do you go around the lake one time (12 acre lake, see picture in signature)?
I assume you catch all the species that come up?
What data do you record? I assume length, weight, girth, and species.

Here is some background. The lake is located in North East Oklahoma. Our main objective is to increase the number and size of the big bass, most of our bass our 12” or less. We have not caught many bass in the 1.5 lbs to 3 lbs range. We have caught 19 bass over 3 lbs with a max of 6 lbs 1 oz. The property was previously owned by an older couple that never fished and did not let anyone fish the lake, EVER. They watched it like a hawk.



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I think electrofishing would be a good way to get a better handle on the fish situation in that 12 acres of yours.

Do you have access to an experienced operator as well as the boat? In addition to knowing the ins and outs of getting a good survey, running an electrofishing boat has additional hazards not present in regular boating.

I do know all species do not electrofish equally. IIRC catfish are usually under-represented.


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Ok-12 email me if you like and I can get you our data sheet, years in the making but without proper interpretation of the data it is useless. We are not as scietntifc as in the past b.c confuses clietns but electrofishign in the right hands is abotu as good a tool as a pond manager has. Sounds/looks like a great place.


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From your intitial description of catching a lot of 12" LMB, that would be a tell-tale sign of bass overcrowding and most likely a lack of forage base.

It's been discussed a good bit on the forum, so I'm just summarizing without a lot of detail (as well as guessing on your situation).

If you do an electrofishing survey (safely, or with a pro), you might just want to be removing as many LBM under a certain size limit, as well as any other fish that won't contribute to trophy LMB.

Have you bought Lusk's book, Raising Trophy Bass?


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Copy and Paste did not work so well, emailed to you. Good Luck if you need further advice let me know.
ELECTROFISHING/WATER QUALITY DATA SHEET
Project Name: Electroshock time (secs): Cond.:
Volts: Amps:
Date & Time: Weather Conditions: F
Address: Hardness: Alkalinity:
pH: Visibility:
Email: D.O. at C %
Species Length Number Comments
Reproduction: Poor Good Excellent
BG 3-4”
BG 4-5”
BG 5-7”
BG 7-9”
BG >9”
Reproduction: Poor Good Excellent
RE 3-4”
RE 4-5”
RE 5-7”
RE 7-9”
RE >9”
Reproduction: Poor Good Excellent
LMB 4-8”
LMB 8-10”
LMB 10-12”
LMB 12-14”
LMB 14-18”
Length Weight Wr Length Weight Wr Other Species Length

Fish Codes: LMB-largemouth bass, BG-bluegill, RE-shellcracker, GS-green sunfish, CR-crappie, CC-channel catfish, CM-common carp, MF-mosquitofish, GD-golden shiners, TS-threadfin shad, GZ-gizzard shad, HB-hybrid bream, RB-redbreast, CP-Pickeral, BF-Bowfin, WM-warmouth, BB-Brown Bullhead, YP- yellow perch, SS- sucker, WS- hybrid bass



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When is the best time of year to perform a elctrofishing survey?



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Spring or Fall when surface water temps are 60-80.


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I am planning on getting an electrofishing survey on my lake in Oklahoma. It is located north of Tulsa about 25 miles. Can anyone help in finding someone to perform the survey. References would be great.

I also created a pretty cool excel file for tracking catch info. It will give you % relative weight for bluegill, sunfish, and bass. It will also calculate weight of bass and crappie removed. And will calculate catch rate in bass per angler per hour. If anyone would like it I will email it to them. I will try to figure out how to post an excel file.



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 Originally Posted By: OK 12 Acre Lake
I will try to figure out how to post an excel file.


If you want to convert it into an image file, to be posted like a photo, you can copy the excel data either directly (highlight what you want and right-click to copy it) or indirectly (send the screen image into the buffer with the "Print Screen" button) and paste it into an image manipulation prgram (Microsoft Paint works) and then save it there.


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I am scheduled for a electrofishing survey March 29th. I will post the data, pictures and videos.



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sweet. I would love to have one done on my pond in some ways..in other ways I might not want to see what's in there and the mystery of a lunker or something.

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Who is going to do the electroshock? See if they will give you a ride. It's a blast.


It's not about the fish. It's about the pond. Take care of the pond and the fish will be fine. PB subscriber since before it was in color.

Without a sense of urgency, Nothing ever gets done.

Boy, if I say "sic em", you'd better look for something to bite. Sam Shelley Rancher and Farmer Muleshoe Texas 1892-1985 RIP
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dunnsfishfarm.com is going to do the survey. They said no problem to letting us ride with them. I am looking forward to it.



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Take a lot of pictures please.


Excerpt from Robert Crais' "The Monkey's Raincoat:"
"She took another microscopic bite of her sandwich, then pushed it away. Maybe she absorbed nutrients from her surroundings."

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Number one rule is to stay in the boat. That's also the second and third rule.


It's not about the fish. It's about the pond. Take care of the pond and the fish will be fine. PB subscriber since before it was in color.

Without a sense of urgency, Nothing ever gets done.

Boy, if I say "sic em", you'd better look for something to bite. Sam Shelley Rancher and Farmer Muleshoe Texas 1892-1985 RIP
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I see that 60 deg water temperature is recommended for a Electrofishing survey. Does the water temperature need to be above 60 deg all of the time, or are we ok to do the survey if the water gets to 60 deg during the day. Or does the water temp just need to be 60 deg when the survey is performed. I don't want to waist money on a survey if the water is to cold. I am also concerned that if we wait to long we may get into the spawning season. Any suggestions or testimonials.



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You want it that temp b/c that is when lots of fish come shallow, thus you get more fish at that time of year via electrofishing. If spawning I do not think that is a big deal. We have extremely low mortalities, if you mess up spawn with a few bass might be a good thing. Bluegill will not spawn until mid April or later I would suspect. A good cold snap with night temps of 40's will push bass back deeper this is why except in south GA we usually wait until mid March and really start cranking in April, some of you yankess may not get that temp until June.


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We did our survey last weekend. I am waiting on the report, but we defiantly have a greater then 5 to 1 Redear to LMB ratio. I have graphed my bass fishing data and the survey data. I get a very good correlation between my 2008 fishing data and the 2008 Electrofishing survey. Except the survey sampled the smaller fish that we do not catch.

I think catch data is a good way to keep track of your LMB population and it is a lot cheaper. It is a little work keeping track of everything but in the end I think it is worth it. It was definitely a good experience ridding on the survey boat. But I don't think we will need an additional electrofishing survey for a while.

Here is my 2008 fishing data broken into a 1" distribution.

Here is the 2008 Electrofishing Survey broken into a 1" distribution

Here is my 2008 Relative Weight graph. The 2008 fishing data is the black dots and the 2008 Electrofishinging survey is the red dots.




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Your creel survey looks to track very close to the e-fish results, with the exception of LMB under 10". I think I agree that it is a pretty good measure of the bass population.


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Have you come to any conclusion re the BG/Forage ratio to the predators?


It's not about the fish. It's about the pond. Take care of the pond and the fish will be fine. PB subscriber since before it was in color.

Without a sense of urgency, Nothing ever gets done.

Boy, if I say "sic em", you'd better look for something to bite. Sam Shelley Rancher and Farmer Muleshoe Texas 1892-1985 RIP
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Great graph work OK 12 !!! It will be interesting to see what the written report says and what others here provide. I have a comment but will wait on the others first.

Here is one comment (hint) assuming you don't have the same graphs/info for the BG/RES. See if you think it fits. Slide the scale back 11-12 inches and the numbers match your BG/RES size distribution (not what you catch but what the survey shows). Lots of small 1-3 in BG and not so many 3-5 in BG (another hint).
















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ok 12 looks good 100% agree with you, with good catches records electro will show little 'bout the bass you did not already know. I do like electro for bluegill, how did your bluegill graph out? I look at that sometimes harder than bass b/c it will tell you what is goign on. 9/10 times I can guess really close on bass size distribution and Wr by looking at a graph of bluegill size distribution. IMHO when you hire someone to shock the lake you are paying for the advice they give you, not just the data they collect, so what were recommendations?
Ewest I missed your post, yep agree with your hints.

Last edited by Greg Grimes; 06/10/08 05:51 AM.

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The advice should have provided that you need to harvest some more of the 10-12in size LMB. Was that addressed?
















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Still no report. I was supposed to get it last week. I am starting to wish I would have just used Greg Grimes. We also did not get any length or weight data on the forage fish. I wish we would have. I was the one that drove getting all the lengths and weights of the bass. But then again we only had a little over 200 bass to weigh and measure vs thousands of forage fish. I don’t think we would have got the bass data if I did not say I wanted it and had the scales to do it.

At the beginning we were netting ever fish that came up. This is when we should have got the forage fish data. We had a lot of fish and after filling up the tanks we stopped netting the forage fish and only netted bass. So this first group would not have been a representation of the entire lake but it would have been a size distribution that I think would have represented the lake.

Of course I am an engineer and the more data you have the better. The surveyor did inspect all the fish that we netted and looked for health, parasites, age, etc, but no hard numbers on the forage fish. There was definitely a gap in the 3-5" range with most of the readears being bigger. But there were a lot of them. He verbally recommended that a feeding program was not needed due to the numbers of forage fish. He mentioned something about stocking some coppernose. We did not shock any up.

This is a little off subject but we also had fish that looked like a cross between a readear and a crappie. We only shocked up a few crappie but I know we have a lot more. They were just not up in the shallow water when the survey was performed. We have caught quite a few crappie in the past. We did shock up one that was 2 lbs.

Overall the experience was a good one. We all enjoyed riding the boat and netting the fish. The Surveyor was very nice and did not try to push and lot of products on us; so far, I have not received his report.

If I thought I could make money at it I would love to do these surveys. I find that the answers are always in the numbers. If you collect enough data and the correct data the answer will always show it’s self.

Take for example the bass shock distribution data and my fishing data. I now feel confident that we can represent the bass population with fishing data. I and bet we can do the same for the forage fish. I am thinking about have a yearly fishing day for all the friends and family to come out with the kids and catch forage fish. I bet if you have them catch a few hundred fish you would get your size distribution graphs.

In closing, I am glad I spent the $1000 for the survey. Probable should have used Greg Grimes for a little more money or should have requested more data on the forage fish. All in all it was a good experience.


Last edited by OK 12 Acre Lake; 06/10/08 04:52 PM.


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Ok 12 thanks for the kind words. In your defense I was not 100% sure I was going to MS or not. Turns out I did go on May21 in fact got to have lunch with Eric West. He paid even though I wanted to, nicest guy I have ever met. Anyway your cost would have been about $1,300 b/c another 500 miles to Tulsa. Too bad on not getting the bluegill/redear data. We only weigh a few but do try and get lots of lengths on them. It tells me quite a bit. I would suggest you pull a seine if you know how. This might help give you a better picture of the bluegill, other forage and might indicate if you had a crappie spawn.

Did you pay them? I send an invoice along with the report. Probably bad business on my part not getting the money but it has only burned me once. I do this partly because it motivates me (to do the report more timely), but again I think the report is mainly what your paying for. However with your knowledge I think you learned a lot from seeing the fish. I too run behind on reports and just today finished the clients in MS, so it took nearly three weeks. I hope they get it to you but good to hear they were not overselling. Having said I might have rec. feeding if you wanted larger bluegill to catch and other reasons. Did they conduct water quality analysis? Quite a bit or our reports make mention of water quality, liming, fertilizing, weed control, aeration, dam improvements, etc. not just fish mgmt. Good luck and if ever driving that far wet I will let you know. Thanks for keeping us up to date.


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