Evaluation of a Statewide Volunteer Angler Diary Program for Use as a Fishery Assessment Tool

Abstract

We implemented a statewide volunteer angler diary program for the 1995 fishing season to determine whether angler diaries can provide data that are useful for the management of the principal sport fishes in waters throughout Mississippi. Of 1,153 anglers volunteering to participate, 224 (19%) returned diaries with at least one recorded fishing trip that was usable for data analysis. We found no significant (P < 0.05) correlations between angler diary catch per unit effort (CPUE; fish/h) and creel survey or electrofishing CPUE for black bass Micropterus spp. and crappies Pomoxis spp. The length distributions of black bass reported by anglers were similar to those obtained from electrofishing samples at five of seven reservoirs when fish smaller than 250 mm were excluded from the comparisons. The length distributions of crappies obtained from diary reports were different from those obtained from electrofishing samples. Low participation by anglers for catfish (Ictaluridae) and sunfish Lepomis spp. precluded similar analyses for those species. The participating anglers differed from the general angling public in Mississippi, possibly biasing estimates of catch rate. Although angler diaries may have value for monitoring angler catch rate trends for diverse types of anglers and in numerous water bodies, our results show that angler diary data should not be used to replace traditional fishery assessment data.