This led to the conclusion that punchcard tabula- 

 tion of a set of data such as these is worthwhile 

 only if errors are minimized by use of the punch - 

 verification process. 



General figures 



Number of returns. Table 1 gives some of the 

 general statistics of the 4 seasons of creel cen- 

 sus . Slightly fewer than 500 cards were returned 

 by the census of the summer of 1944. The sum- 

 mer of 1945 being much more extensive, yielded 

 almost 14,000 returns. The two winter seasons 

 averaged about 3,000 cards per season. 



The field work of the census (excluding 

 all supervisory work) cost the participating agen- 

 cies about $10,000. At this rate, each of the 

 20,000 cards cost approximately 50 cents. 



Fishermen, trips, and hours . The 20,000 cards 

 represented a total of about 40,000 fisherman- 

 trips . The numbers of men and women whose 

 fishing activities were recorded are itemized in 

 table 1. Minors of 15 years or older were 

 separated as to sex and included in these figures; 

 children under 14 were not counted. 



In the two summers the percentage of 

 women was 14 and 17 respectively. In the win- 

 ter fishing this figure dropped to 5 percent. 

 Evidently the members of the gentler sex prefer 

 to do their fishing when the weather is less 

 rugged. 



Each card represented, on the average, 

 about 1.7 fishermen in the summer fishing, and 

 about 2.3 fishermen in the winter. The differ- 

 ence probably is significant. Winter fishing is a 

 more gregarious sport than is summer fishing. 

 Not only are the fishermen more closely congre- 

 gated in regard to locality, but also the average 

 "fishing party" (upon which an individual card 

 was based) tends to be larger. The total number 

 of person-hours of fishing (table 1), when divided 

 by the corresponding total numbers of fishermen, 

 give the average hours fished by each person up 

 to the time of the census interview. These fig- 

 ures for average hours per person varied from 

 3 .2 in the winter of 1944-45 and 3 .4 in the winter 

 of 1945-46 to 3.7 in the summer of 1945 and 3.9 

 in the summer of 1944. Probably the average 



fisherman stays out longer in the summer than 

 in the winter because of the longer hours of day- 

 light and the more easily tolerated weather. 

 Also, the figures given may have been influenced 

 by the fact that in the su.nmer the interview co- 

 incided more often with the end of the fishermen's 

 activity for the day. In the winter the interview 

 often was performed on the ice while the fisher- 

 man was still active. 



The fishing success ratio, expressed 

 either in fish per person (per "fisherman trip") 

 or in fish per person-hour, ran almost identical- 

 ly for the two winter seasons and the summer 

 season of 1945, but was appreciably higher in 

 the summer of 1944 (table 1). However, the fig- 

 ures for the summer of 1944 are for a restricted 

 area. The figures regarding the fishing success 

 will be discussed in much more detail below . 



An average catch of around 2 fish per 

 person (per fishing trip) does not make a very 

 showy stringerful. Of course, a certain number 

 of fishermen went home with a respectable catch 

 and occasionally (though very seldom) a "limit" 

 catch of one or more species was recorded. On 

 the other hand, many persons fished a stint of 

 several hours without catching a single fish. For 

 example, in the winter of 1944-45, 37 percent 

 of the total number of fishermen interviewed had 

 caught no fish; 56 percent had caugjit 1 to 5; 5 

 percent had caught 5 to 10 each; and only 2 per- 

 cent had taken more than 10 fish apiece . The 

 corresponding calculations for the other 3 sea- 

 sons have not been made but it is probable that 

 the figures would run somewhat similar. This 

 percentage of empty creels is about the same as 

 is to be found in some other areas, as shown by 

 the published literature on creel census. 



Residence and distance travelled. For the win- 

 ter of 1944-45, an analysis has been made of the 

 places of residence of the fishermen and the dis- 

 tances travelled to the fishing grounds. As 

 shown in table 2, fishermen residing in at least 

 120 different places fished in the area under ob- 

 servation at some time during the winter . Lake 

 Pepin alone (pool 4-=L) was visited by fishermen 

 from 52 separate addresses. 



However, all of the addresses given dur- 

 ing the winter 1944-45 were in the 3 states: 



