One by two-inch mesh wire fish traps were fished for 5,135 trap days in Old Hickory Reservoir between August 1, 1963 and June 30, 1964. Of the 2,661 fish caught, 83.2 percent were commercial fish, 16.2 percent were sport fish and 0.6 percent "other" species. Carp (Cyprinus carpio) constituted 61.6 percent of the catch. Crappie (Pomoxis sp.) made up 12.0 percent of the total catch. Deep baited sets had the highest catch rate (1.17 commercial fish per trap day) and also the highest percentage of commercial fish in the catch (98.7 percent). Unbaited traps had the lowest catch rate (0.06 commercial fish per trap day regardless of depth), with 56.5 percent and 76.9 percent of the catch consisting of sport fish in deep and shallow sets, respectively. The average size of the fish caught was small. It was concluded that wire traps could be legalized in Old Hickory Reservoir for local residents to catch fish for home consumption without adversely affecting sport fish populations.
