Database Management and Analysis of Fisheries in Illinois Lakes: OptimizingFisheries Management. Volume 1

摘要

Since its inception in 1987 the INHS creel survey program has continued todevelop and meet the needs of fishery managers as well as answer the questions sought by fisheries researchers. In segments 7, 8, and 9 the project has developed predictive models of boat and shore angler counts based on vehicle counts and utilized them on access point creels, worked with other public agencies to provide creel information for fisheries managers working for the USFWS and Will County Forest Preserve District, and utilized the FAS Creel software to analyze walleye data collected from a stream creel on the Mississippi River at Lock and Dam 17 during 1991-1992, as well as ice creel data collected by USFW and IDNR from the Keithsburg Refuge backwater area of the Mississippi River in 1994. The creel database continues to grow, especially with the addition of continuous creel data from two classes of Illinois lakes previously absent from the core set of long-term study lakes. Data from a number of these surveys have provided important short-term information to managers evaluating the stocking success of coolwater species of sportfish such as walleye, muskellunge, and striped bass, while also giving managers insights to long-term trends in the lake fisheries throughout the state. Analyses of these data have revealed the importance of repeated creels in tracking developments on a lake's fishery, the relationship of fish production with the physico-chemical classification of a lake, the relationship of largemouth bass and bluegill size with lake classification, and the results of sampling reduction on estimating long-term in a lake's fishery.