Proportional Angling Success: An Alternative Approach to Representing Angling Success

A common goal of recreational fisheries management is to improve fishing success. The mean number offish caught per hour of angling (mean angler catch per unit effort [CPUE]); is frequently used to measure angling success. Unfortunately, the sample sizes needed to detect even modest differences in mean angler CPUE at conventionally‐used levels of statistical significance are often impractical or impossible to obtain. Using case studies, I investigate potential issues with the use of mean angler CPUE and several alternative approaches for representing angling success. I present proportional angling success (PAS) as an alternative approach to representing angling success with creel survey data. Proportional angling success (PAS) is defined as the proportion of anglers that have individual catch rates greater than or equal to x fish per hour (where x is determined on a species and region specific basis). I demonstrate that PAS is statistically powerful, is minimally affected by subjective decisions to include or exclude portions of data, reflects differences in fishing quality among creel surveys, does not require changes to conventional creel survey design and can be used to readdress historical creel survey data, can be used as a standard method for comparing angling success among fisheries, and can serve as the norm for the angling public. I encourage fisheries managers to consider using PAS when developing fisheries management objectives or analyzing creel survey data. The use of PAS may enable fisheries managers to better measure angling success and ultimately contribute to improved management of recreational fisheries.