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Six Years of Catch Statistics on Yellowstone Lake
Author(s) -
Cope Oliver B.
Publication year - 1957
Publication title -
transactions of the american fisheries society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.696
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1548-8659
pISSN - 0002-8487
DOI - 10.1577/1548-8659(1955)85[160:syocso]2.0.co;2
Subject(s) - fishery , geography , statistics , oceanography , environmental science , ecology , biology , mathematics , geology
The U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service collected catch statistics on Yellowstone Lake and adjacent waters from 1950 to 1955 as part of an investigation on the status of the cutthroat trout fishery and the fish populations. Methods for estimating numbers of fishermen, hours of effort, and catch, were developed for each unit of the fishery and were used to compute estimates for all years of the 6‐year period. One feature of this fishery is the presence of only one species of sport fish in these waters. Another is an unusual hourly distribution of fishing throughout the day. Very little fishing is done before 7 a.m. and thereafter three peak periods of fishing effort occur, in the late morning, in the afternoon, and in the evening. Another characteristic is a remarkable uniformity of angling pressure among days of the week. The “resort” character of the Yellowstone situation explains these unusual tendencies. Good opportunity also is afforded in this fishery for studies on the effects of changes in regulations. Distribution of fishing effort according to area and season has been very constant from year to year. The Fishing Bridge fishery peaks early in the year and declines rapidly. The West Thumb fishery is smaller, but is sustained throughout the season. The lake outlet area accounted for 30 percent of the total catch of Yellowstone Lake, and 27 percent of the combined lake and river catch. The components of the fishery contributed the following average annual catches: West Thumb Dock guides and rowboats, 25,450 fish, or 9.98 percent of the lake total; Fishing Bridge Dock guides and rowboats, 54,239 fish, or 21.27 percent; Lake Dock guides and rowboats, 33,387 fish, or 13.09 percent; lake shoreline, 65,271 fish, or 25.60 percent; Fishing Bridge 6,474 fish or 2.53 percent; private boats, 70,123 fish, or 27.50 percent. The average annual lake catch for the 6‐year period was 254,944 fish. The average catch in the river was 33,575 or 13.16 percent of the lake catch. Trends for the lake and river fishery as a whole show an increase in fishing effort up to 1952, followed by a small reduction in 1953 and increases in 1954 and 1955. Fishing effort varied with the numbers of tourists, although the reduction in fishing pressure from 1952 to 1953 was greater than the reduction in numbers of tourists. The successes of individual components of the fishery have fluctuated independently of each other from year to year. The catch per fisherman hour for river and lake combined in 1955 was 0.671 fish, compared with 0.510 in 1951, 0.519 in 1952, 0.508 in 1953, and 0.584 in 1954. Reductions in mean lengths of the catch were evident up to 1952. The mean lengths were greater for 1953–1955 than those of 1952, a condition that is attributed to weak year classes. The reduction of the limit from five to three fish in 1953 did little toward reducing total catch, but the shortened season had a decided effect on the reduction of the catch.