Findings from Ohio's Lake Erie steelhead tributary creel surveys

We completed two consecutive years of creel surveys for the steelhead fishery on Ohio’s Lake Erie tributaries and shoreline access points.  Seventeen different streams and 89 locations were surveyed by two creel survey clerks during the period of late September, 2008 through early May, 2009, and the process was repeated for the same time period in 2009-2010.  We gathered estimates on angler hours, species sought, catch rates, catch, and harvest, by stream and month, for both years of the survey.  Comparisons were made across years, to historic Ohio steelhead creel surveys, and to other steelhead angler evaluations.  We saw significant increases in angler hours, catch rates, harvest, mean length of fish at harvest, and percentage of released fish compared to historic surveys.  Less than 10% of steelhead observed by creel clerks in our surveys exhibited new or old sea lamprey wounds.  We also report on demographic information collected during the two seasons of creel surveys regarding angler types, travel and expenditures, and fishing trip habits.  During the first year of the survey, 1,512 steelhead anglers volunteered to participate in an in-depth human dimensions survey of steelhead anglers through The Ohio State University School of Natural Resources.