Anglers Surveyed

How do Idaho's anglers fish, and what kind of fish management do they want? Fish and Game has been busy finding out. To obtain anglers' input for development of the 2001-2005 Fisheries Management Plan, the Department of Fish and Game conducted a mail survey of 10,800 resident Idaho anglers and 1,200 non-resident anglers in 1999. Names were selected at random from a list of all types of license buyers, resident and non-resident. The number of anglers who sent in completed surveys is twice the number in typical political surveys, and results are accurate to within a few percentage points of what surveying all 447,000 Idaho anglers would have provided. The greatest numbers of resident anglers live in the Southwest (38 percent) and Panhandle (14 percent) regions and the least live in the Salmon Region (one percent). The other regions include Clearwater, at 9.6 percent, Magic Valley at 13.4 percent, Southeast at 12.3 and Upper Snake at 11.7 percent. The majority of nonresidents came from Utah (22 percent), Washington (21.5 percent), and California (14.6 percent). Nationwide, participation in fishing by youths has been declining. As our daily lives become increasingly hectic, competing recreational activities have reduced the level of participation in fishing activities. However, survey respondents said that 72 percent of the children under the age of 14 who are living at home fish, a significant increase from 1987 when only 30 percent under the age of 14 fished. In the next five years the Department will continue efforts to educate youth by providing fishing clinics, in-classroom education, expansion of the rod-loaner program and providing additional family fishing opportunities. With the vast majority of Idaho's population living almost within sight of the Snake River, it was the body of water that was most frequently listed by anglers when asked to name their three most frequently fished waters. The Salmon, Henrys Fork Snake, Clearwater, and Boise rivers ranked 2, 4, 7, and 9 while Henrys Lake, Lake Coeur d'Alene, Cascade Reservoir, C.J. Strike Reservoir, and Chesterfield Reservoir were the most popular lakes and reservoirs. They finished 3, 5, 6, 8 and 10 respectively, as the most frequently fished waters. Trout remain the bread-and-butter fish of Idaho. When asked what three species they most preferred, just over 50 percent of anglers listed "trout" as one of the three. Other top preferred species (and the percent of anglers listing them) were bass (15 percent), steelhead (nine percent), rainbow trout (six percent), salmon (six percent), cutthroat trout (four percent), catfish (four percent), crappie (four percent), brown trout (three percent), and perch (three percent). One significant change in angler characteristics from recent surveys was a decrease in the number of days fished per year. Anglers had fished an average of 18.4 days in 1994, and anglers reported fishing an average of 16.2 days in 1999. This is a trend that has been projected nationwide due to a decreasing rate of participation in fishing. However, while we've seen a decrease in the number of days fished in Idaho, we actually show an increase in the number of one-day fishing licenses sold. Six out of 10 angler days in 1999 were spent on lakes or reservoirs, up somewhat from previous surveys. Half of the angling effort in 1999 was specifically directed toward "trout." About 10 percent of the effort was directed toward other cold-water species such as steelhead, kokanee, whitefish, and landlocked chinook. Similar to results of the 1994 survey, about 30 percent of angler days in 1999 were spent pursuing warm-water species. Anglers were asked if they would like more, fewer, or the same number of waters managed with special rules that require some sizes of fish to be released in order to have more and larger fish to catch, but not harvest. Forty-seven percent of the anglers said they wanted more waters managed this way for trout, 33 percent wanted no change and 20 percent had no opinion. In response to the same question concerning bass management, 42 percent wanted more waters managed this way, 24 percent wanted no change and 34 percent had no opinion. In a follow up question, 60 percent of the anglers said they supported restrictive rules if they would result in a significant, or any increase, in numbers and sizes of trout and a few supported restrictive rules even if they did not change the fish population. Twenty-five percent did not support restrictive rules at all unless the trout population was in danger of over harvest. Anglers were asked how they would spend $100 on improving Idaho's fishing and protecting the resource. Respondents indicated that hatchery trout for streams and habitat protection should receive the most, $17.82 and $17.73 respectively. Hatchery trout for lakes ($17.29), protection and enhancement of wild trout ($17.02), salmon and steelhead fisheries ($12.74), enforcement ($12.03) and warm-water fisheries ($5.36) received lesser amounts. By a margin of nearly two to one, anglers indicated that they would like to get more information from the department. When asked how they would like to receive this information, they indicated that they would like more brochures (49 percent) and 26 percent said that they wanted information via the Internet. In a related question, 66 percent of the respondents have access to the Internet and the Department has seen a dramatic increase in the number of Internet inquiries it now receives. In a recent 30-day period, the department website had more than 84,000 user sessions with an average length of nine minutes each.