Selective dipnetting of largemouth bass during electrofishing

We electrofished 10 north‐central Texas reservoirs from 1987 through 1990 by either dipnetting all electroshocked fish (intensive dipnetting) or selectively dipnetting only fish visually identified as largemouth bass Micropterus salmoides. We compared selected indices of population structure (proportional stock density, relative stock density, and young–adult ratio) and abundance (catch per unit effort) for largemouth bass derived from data obtained with these two dipnetting techniques. No significant differences (P > 0.17) were detected between intensive dipnetting and selective dipnetting for any of these indices of population structure, Similarly, neither the total number of largemouth bass collected per hour nor the number of small largemouth bass (<20 cm total length) collected per hour differed significantly (P > 0.31) between dipnetting techniques.