Quantitative sampling of small fishes in dense vegetation: Design and field testing of portable "pop-nets"

Abstract
We report the design, operation and preliminary results obtained using a portable, bottomless, "pop-net" in dense stands of submersed aquatic vegetation (SAV). Effort and time for on-site assembly and operation are minimal as are construction costs. Fish density and biomass values derived from use of pop-net are far greater than those obtained from either haul seining or electrofishing in the same bed. The pop-net design appears especially useful for revealing spatial and temporal patterns of small fish distribution within different SAV species.