Although the 4.9 m trawl is the primary gear used in this sampling programme, alternative gears such as this one are sometimes used when the larger trawl is unfeasible.

A 3.0 m semi-balloon bottom otter trawl (3.81 cm stretch body and 0.84 mm cod mesh) with 30.2 x 60.9 cm trawl boards is an alternative gear that is smaller, yet fished in the same way as the larger gear only by hand and with rope instead of cable.  It is used in shallow and smaller areas that have an even bottom, including bays and small river mouths.  Effort is recorded in minutes trawl was fished and would consist of six 5-minute tows for a total of 30 minutes effort per sampling location.

§         Gear – 4.9 m bottom trawl with a 3.8 cm stretch mesh body, 31.8 mm stretch mesh cod end and a 12.7 mm stretch mesh inner liner to hold small specimens.

§         Locations – Currently we target Ohio sites on Lake Erie at Sandusky, Toledo, Ashtabula, Conneaut, and Cleveland.  Pennsylvania is sampled at Erie and New York is sampled at Buffalo and on Lake Ontario at Rochester.  Sites are surveyed based on preferred ruffe habitat including turbid water, dredged navigation channels, soft substrate, average depth from 3-8 meters.

§         Sample Dates – June and September.

§         Tow Time – Target time is 5-10 minutes per tow, but depends on obstructions, vessel traffic, or number of fish collected.  7 minutes is the minimum tow.  If net is hung up prior to 7 minutes, the tow is repeated unless continual snagging occurs.

§         Vessel – 22' Boston Whaler with twin 115 hp engines.

§         Fish data collected – Length, species.  Ruffe/goby are not released.

§         Other data collected – water temperature (surface and bottom), DO (surface and bottom), secchi, depth recorded every 2 minutes during the tow (mean depth of tow calculated in data summary)