The average fishing time per trip at Ridge Lake was found to be 3.4 hours. On 

 this basis, the average cost of eqviipment per hour of fishing at Ridge Lake was 47 cents: 

 1.59 



3.40 



= 0.47 



Cost of travel The road distance in miles traveled to and from Ridge Lake was 



figured for each of the 126 fishermen, and, in the cases where individuals fished the Izike more 

 than once, their mileages were multiplied by the number of trips they made to this lake. 



The sum of individual trip-miles for the sample group was 25,371.2. However, 

 as fishermen usually made boat reservations in pairs and traveled in pairs to fish Ridge Lake, 

 the individual mileage figure was divided by 2, giving a figure of 12,685.6 from ■which to cal- 

 culate costs. This mileage represented 404 trips. 



17 AR^ Q 



Thus, ' ■ = 31.4, the average number of miles traveled per trip, repre- 

 senting a cost, on the basis of 7 cents per mile, of 31.4 x 0.07, or $2.20 per trip. 



The average length of time fished per trip was 3.4 hours. Therefore, the travel 

 cost per hour of fishing was as follows: 



14^ = 0.647, or 65 cents 

 3,40 



Cost of meals. Many of 'the fishermen came from Charleston, the nearest large 



town, 7 miles north of Ridge Lake, or from towns within a road distance of less than 50 miles 

 fronn the park. It was assumed that these fishermen probably spent little or nothing for meals 

 Those who traveled a road distance of 50 miles or more to reach the lake (100 miles or more 

 round-trip) probably stopped for meals along the way. An arbitrary distance-meal relation- 

 ship ■was set up for individual fishermen as follows: 



100-150 miles, round trip 1 meal 



151-225 miles, round trip 2 meals 



226 or more miles, round trip 3 meals 



Meals were assigned to individual fishermen on this arbitrary basis, giving a total 

 for the season of 140 at an assixmed average cost of $0.75 each, for a total cost of $105.00, 



12 



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