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Despite being common, low-conductivity (<70 µS/cm), headwater streams are often understudied compared with larger waters that support recreational and commercial fisheries. However, recent conservation efforts that have focused on native, nongame species have created the need to develop and test sampling methods in these habitats. We compared a novel combination of gears (electrofishing coupled with kick-seining) to three-pass electrofishing for sampling fish assemblages in low-conductivity streams. At each site, each method was used to sample separate reaches equal to 35-fold the mean stream width. We compared CPUE and species richness between the two methods and used logistic regression to estimate the probability of capturing a new species on the second and third passes when electrofishing. We calculated the capture probabilities for the most common species encountered using the Carle-Strub depletion method, with the three-pass electrofishing data. When compared with the combination method, three-pass electrofishing resulted in significantly greater CPUE and species richness (0.21 vs. 0.13 fish/m 2 and 7.24 vs. 5.00 species, respectively). There was a 67% probability of capturing a new species on the second pass and 30% probability of capturing a new species on the third pass when using three-pass electrofishing. The capture probabilities ranged from 0.50 to 0.87 for the 13 species examined. The use of kick-seining after a single electrofishing pass provided no benefit compared with additional electrofishing passes. We recommend making at least three passes while electrofishing when estimating relative abundance and species richness in lowconductivity wadeable streams.Fisheries scientists are continuously investigating ways to increase sampling efficiency to best use their time and resources while collecting high-quality data that are necessary to confidently address their research objectives. Sampling effort and gear varies among projects based on the project objectives, habitats being sampled, and target species because all gear types have biases that are associated with certain habitats (e.g., riffles or pools) or groups of fish (e.g., species or size-class; Bonar et al. 2009). Because

Objective: Habitat alteration is the greatest threat to fishes globally, and freshwater fishes are particularly vulnerable to habitat alteration because freshwater ecosystems are more closely integrated with the human landscape than marine ecosystems. Headwater streams comprise the majority of stream length within a watershed and provide unique habitats for a variety of aquatic organisms, thus contributing to drainage wide species diversity by supporting many rare and endemic species.Unfortunately, because of their small size, headwater streams are particularly susceptible to the effects of habitat alteration and conversion of natural land cover to anthropogenically dominated landscapes. Therefore, understanding fish-habitat relationships is essential for conserving and restoring headwater species and their habitats. The Sandhills Chub Semotilus lumbee is a headwater specialist endemic to the Sandhills ecoregion in North Carolina and South Carolina. It has been extirpated from several locations in South Carolina; thus, quantitative information on abiotic habitat factors is needed to guide conservation and restoration efforts. The objective of this study was to produce a predictive model of Sandhills Chub occurrence using microhabitat features and watershed-level habitat characteristics.Methods: Logistic regression was used to identify which habitat features were associated with the occurrence of Sandhills Chub. Habitat and fish data were collected between 2019 and 2020 at 115 sites within the South Carolina Sandhills.Result: Sandhills Chub (total = 431) were collected at 41 out of 115 sites sampled.We observed that Sandhills Chub presence was positively associated with dissolved oxygen levels, instream cover, the percent of substrates between 6 and 11 mm, and elevation and was negatively related to the number of impoundments within each 12-digit hydrologic unit code. Conclusion:The Sandhills Chub prefers streams that have high dissolved oxygen content, presence of instream cover, the substrates necessary to construct their pitridge nests, low numbers of impoundments on the streams, and higher elevations within the Sandhills. Results from this study will provide important information to guide management decisions for the future conservation and restoration of Sandhills Chub.