Recruiting or Retaining Anglers: The Role of Arkansas Fishing Derbies
Recruiting new anglers is a primary concern of fisheries agencies, and successful recruitment depends on reaching new anglers at a young age. Fishing derbies are a common recruitment technique, yet their effectiveness is rarely evaluated. Arkansas Game and Fish Commission currently supports fishing derbies by stocking channel catfish into derby ponds prior to derby events. This study evaluated derby effects on effort at derby locations, derby event efficacy in attracting and potentially recruiting non-anglers, and influences associated with derby type (urban or rural and open or closed to the public). Using creel surveys, 32 derbies divided evenly among derby types were sampled from 2005 to 2007. Fishing effort on derby ponds significantly increased the week following a derby event (Z = -2.91; P = 0.004), particularly following open and/or urban derbies. Eighty-nine-percent of adults at the derbies reported either currently possessing a fishing license (71%) or having possessed one in the past (18%). The remaining 11% had never possessed fishing licenses, suggesting that nearly 5,000 of the 44,000 participants were being introduced to fishing for the first time. Hence, fishing derbies act both as a recruitment event as well as help to retain anglers in Arkansas.