Methods 



The establishment of the checking station on the Little Pigeon River 

 area was publicized by the staff of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, 

 All anglers in t he district were urged to present their catches at the sta- 

 tion where such information as we desired could be obtained and recorded. 

 The standard Fish and Wildlife Service Creel Census Report form was used, 

 and a separate record was made on each fisherman. The fish caught were 

 sorted by species, weighed, and measured to the nearest inch. An attempt 

 was made to segregate the planted brook and rainbow trout from the wild fish 

 even though the stocked specimens were not marked in any way. The hatchery 

 brook trout were at first distinguishable by their color and siz3| the rain- 

 bow trout proved to be more difficult to sort into wild and planted groups 

 and efforts to do so were soon dropped. 



The home county or State of the fisherman, the hours spent on the 

 stream, and the type of lure used in fishing were also noted. When time 

 permitted, the comments of each person w ere solicited and recorded with 

 respect to his preferences for general lures or artificial-lures-only 

 regulations. In addition, daily entries were made on those anglers who 

 caught no fish. 



Fish and Fishing Returns 



A total of 3,UU3 legal trout were removed from the streams of the 

 Little Pigeon River watershed by anglers who spent 1,200 fishing days during 

 the 1953 season (table 2). The catch per fisherman day was 2.9 trout, 7 or 

 more inches in length. King and Currier (1950) reported an average catch of 

 U.9 trout per fisherman day in Little River in 1950. At the time, there 

 were no size restrictions in effect on this well-known Park stream, and 52 

 percent of the total catch approximated only 6 inches in length. 



Averages and other expressions based on the total number of fishermen 

 are misleading since many anglers catch no trout. Of the 1,200 individual 

 fishing trips recorded, 57 percent resulted in a catch of fish, and k3 per- 

 cent resulted in none at all. The average creel per successful fisherman 

 was 5.0 trout, or 71 percent of the legal limit of 7 fish. The average 

 catch per successful angler on Little River during 195>0 was 7.3 trout, or 

 73 percent of the possession limit of 10 trout. 



It was to be expected that a relatively large percentage of che data 

 on fish and fishing pressure would be accumulated during the early part of 

 the open season. The records were tabulated by half -month periods (table 

 2) and show that 37 percent of the season's successful trips and 36 percent 

 of the season's total catch were registered during the first half -month 

 of the l5-week season. By the end of the first full month of the fishing 

 season, 55 percent of the total successful trips and 5U percent of the total 



