Current Trends in State Fishery Programs

A questionnaire survey of the various states was made in June of 1946 to determine the current trends in fishery programs. Trout states total 31, with 246 hatcheries producing 203,546,000 fry and fingerlings and 18,081,000 creel‐sized trout. The trend is to more creel‐sized trout. States take 194,000,000 eggs themselves and obtain 98,375,000 trout eggs from other sources. A majority of states classify results of fry plantings as poor and of creel‐sized plantings as good. The average creel‐size trout is 7 1/2 inches in length and is 13.2 months old. The cost per pound for food alone averages 14.6 cents. Total cost per pound for raising trout averages 66 cents. Rainbow trout constitutes 47.5 percent of all trout raised, followed by cutthroat, 15 percent; lake trout, 13.4 percent; brook, 12.2 percent; and brown, 11 percent. Hatchery disease loss averages 13.5 percent. Gill disease seems most prevalent. The principle trout‐culture problem is food, either procurement or proper diet selection. Floods and low water cause greatest loss of trout on fishing grounds. Public access to fishing grounds seems the principal trout management problem. Pond fish cultured by 26 states totaled 880,281,000, but 21 of 36 states stated that they did not think the planting of pond fish advisable in waters in which a resident population was present. Of 37 states, 34 had problems of overpopulation in pond‐fish waters. Most of them were fighting it by removing restrictions on fishing. The 48 states sell 8,280,000 fishing licenses for $10,580,000. Average license fee in trout states is $1.75 and in non‐trout states $1.28. Of 40 states reporting, 29 have intensive statewide management programs for fishing waters. In the 35 states reporting on numbers of men employed in various lines of fisheries, a total of 98 men are in administrative posts, 214 are in biological work, 741 in trout culture, 271 in pond‐fish culture and 318 in other lines of work allied with fisheries.