Attended and Unattended Yo-yo Fishing Catch and Mortality

Yo-yo catch and mortality of caught fish were evaluated at Caddo Lake, Texas, using attended (checked at least once each hour) and unattended fishing techniques. A total of 400 yo-yos (200 attended and 200 unattended) were fished 3,991.75 hours during February and March. Ten species were caught; black crappie (Pomoxis nigromaculatus) and yellow bullhead (Ictalurus natalis) comprised 54% and 20% of the catch, respectively. Catch rates were significantly higher for attended sets (0.12 fish/yo-yo hour) than unattended sets (0.03 fish/yo-yo hour). Unattended sets resulted in high mortality (85% of all fish caught) while no mortality resulted from attended sets.