Structure of the Angling Experience

Questions regarding the importance of circumstances within an angling trip and concerning judgements made about the trip were posed to anglers during roving creel surveys in two southeastern United States river drainages. Attitudinal questions addressed one of three topics: Personal; facilities; angling. Several attitudinal responses differed among anglers according to access type (bank or boat), targeted fish group, age, and drainage fished. A principal-axis factor analysis of each drainage's data resulted in the isolation of a recreation and an angling factor. These factors accounted for 52% and 23% of the pooled standardized variance, respectively. Based on the questions asked and on the factor analyses performed, the on-site angling experience was conceptually divided into two parts recreation and one part angling activity. These proportions, generated from measures of importance, reiterate the structure of the fishing ethic embodied in the writings of Izaak Walton and Charles Cotton. Receive...