He. LlnM TJMbMA 



F1j1l1o< Tlao i StJU-t_ 

 Angl« r 



DAILT BOAT LOO 



End 



Streat or P.O. 



City 



Zip Cod* 



Keiurlu - Line weight, Reel size: 



Figure 2. — Daily boat log used by big game fishermen in the northeastern Gulf of 



Mexico. 



is boated, that is, it is either brought aboard, or 

 brought up to the boat and released. 



In determining relative abundance, the number- 

 of-fish-RAISED-per-hour-of- fishing ( raise s- 

 per-hour) was used as an index in most instances 

 rather than the number-of-fish-CAUGHT- 

 per-hour-of-fishing (catch-per-hour). We felt that 

 the former was much less affected by the skill of the 

 angler than the latter. If a fish were hooked and 

 lost, it would not be included in the catch-per-hour, 

 but it would in the raises-per-hour. Use of raises- 

 per-hour offered an additional advantage: much 

 more data were available. The disadvantages were 

 the possibility of the same fish being raised more 

 than once, and the possibility of misidentification of 

 the species. We felt that the advantages outweighed 

 the disadvantages. 



In determining the number of hours fished, we 

 deducted the time spent fighting a fish. Whenever a 

 fish is hooked, all lines except the one with the 

 hooked fish are reeled in. Thus, if a fish were 

 hooked at 1000 h and boated (or lost, or released) at 

 1130 h, IVi h were deducted from the total fishing 

 time, which was derived by subtracting the time the 

 lines were put in the water from the time the lines 

 were pulled out preparatory to returning to port. 



The number of lines trolled was not considered. 



as we felt that this factor had little influence on 

 whether or not a fish was raised. Most boats trolled 

 four lines, although a few of the small boats trolled 

 only two or three lines. 



Sailfish were often caught while trolling inshore 

 for king mackerel {Scomberomorus cavalla), 

 Spanish mackerel (Scomberomorus macidatus), 

 and cobia (Rachycentron canadum). Since the fish- 

 ing method for these smaller game fishes is different 

 from big game fishing, all sailfish caught and the 

 effort expended for this type of fishing were disre- 

 garded. 



Where data were insufficient or lacking to permit 

 the use of raises-per-hour, other indices of relative 

 abundance were used. Catch-per-hour, hookups- 

 per-day, and percentages were used in some of our 

 analyses. True estimates of abundance could not be 

 obtained. Therefore, the term abundance when 

 used in this paper refers to relative abundance. 

 Data for years prior to 1971 for South Pass are pre- 

 sented for historical comparison in some tables of 

 this paper. These data were taken from Naka- 

 mura's mimeographed report (1971). 



We believe that we obtained data from more than 

 90% of the total effort expended in offshore sport- 

 fishing for billfishes in the eastern half of the Gulf of 

 Mexico (from the mouth of the Mississippi River to 



272 



