Monitoring Angler Use of New Zealand Backcountry Fisheries with Trail Camera

New Zealand is a top international fishing destination known for trophy backcountry trout fisheries.  Recent changes in recreational uses of forest parks have prompted a push to expand New Zealand’s network of mountain bike and ATV trails.  The corresponding access improvements have raised concerns about maintaining quality backcountry fisheries.  Although angler use phone surveys are conducted on a national basis, determining reach level impacts of access improvement is difficult. Trail cameras were trialed as a direct measure of angler use.  Two backcountry fisheries within the same forest park located on New Zealand’s North Island were selected as study sights.  Both fisheries had varying degrees of access including a multi-use trail (ATV and mountain bike).  Eighteen monitoring reaches were randomly selected from 90 potential 500 m reaches.   The influence of accessibility was explored by comparing angler use (anglers month-1) with the distance from an established bike or ATV trail. Over 10,000 images from trail cameras where collected including 135 river users who were primarily fly fishers.  Angler use was highest on the interior of the park (no vehicle access) where ATV trails allowed easy access to good fishing water.