Fishing Efforts and Success of Resident and Nonresident Anglers 



A great deal of concern is continually expressed in the vicinity of the 

 Great Smoky Mountains National Park about maintaining good fishing quality 

 for the benefit of the tourist angler. Under existing circumstances, the 

 nonlocal fisherman catches very few fish (table 5). The stocked trout are 

 largely removed by resident anglers before the tourist season commences. 

 In fact, the creel-census records show that throughout the summer few but 

 the local fishermen have sufficient proficiency to c atch the very wary wild 

 fish. 



Nonresident anglers did make a considerable effort to catch trout in 

 the little Pigeon during 1953l 2$0 (21 percent) of the 1,200 fishermen 

 recorded at the checking station were out-of -State persons. Their total 

 catch was U3 trout, or a mere 1.25 percent of the total 3,14i3 fish regis- 

 tered. The few successful anglers among them caught 1.2 fish per hour of 

 angling effort (table 6) . 



Of the tourist fishermen interviewed, a majority of fish strictly for 

 sport, not for the pan. They wanted to see fish and to catch fish, but 

 possession was of minor consequence since few had facilities to store or 

 cook fish. Many expressed keen disappointment over the fishing. They ques- 

 tioned the practice of fish stocking in a National Parkj and they found 

 fault with the State-license requirements on Federally controlled waters, 

 especially since the high fee charged by the State of North Carolina dis- 

 couraged a day or two of casual fishing on that side of the Park. 



Unfortunately not all nonresident fi shermen w ere identified by their 

 home states. Most of them caught no fish, and at first only this fact 

 plus the hours spent on the stream and their nonresident status were noted. 

 Later they were listed according to their home State, Fourteen States 

 were represented in °U of the total 2^0 nonresident fisherman-days. 



Residents of Tennessee, of whom 90 percent were from Sevier and 

 Cocke Counties, logged 9$0 fishing trips, or 79 percent of the total. They 

 caught 3,h00 trout, which amounted to 9&.75 percent of the total number of 

 fish reported. The successful residents averaged l.k fish per hour of 

 effort. 



Distribution of Fish and Fishing Pressure on the 

 Little Pigeon Watershed 



Fishing pressure on the Little Pigeon was not uniformly distributed 

 because of the lack of easy access to certain waters. Anglers reported the 

 locations of their efforts to the creel census clerk, and it was therefore 

 possible to compute the season total of fishermen per mile on various sec- 

 tions of the streams. 



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