low incomes, who cannot afford boats or lengthy trips. Fishermen who 

 can afford boats evidently choose to go upstream of Lock and Dam 26. 

 Lock and Dam 25 ranked 3rd and 4th in shore and boat counts, respec- 

 tively. Lock and Dam 24 had respective shore and boat counts which 

 ranked 17th and 11th during the 1959-1963 period. 



Several Mississippi River sport fishery surveys have been conducted 

 under the auspices of the Upper Mississippi River Conservation Committee 

 (UMRCC) . The years of these surveys were: 1956-1957 (Klant and Vidal, 

 1958), 1962-1963 (Nord, 1964), 1967-1968 (Wright, 1970), and 1972-1973 

 (Fleener, 1975). All navigation pools were censused in the 1956-1957 

 period. Only Pools 4, 5, 7, 11, 13, 18, and 26 were surveyed in the 

 three latter periods. 



Table 33 shows comparative summaries of creel data from the four 

 UMRCC sport fishery surveys for Pool 26. The values indicate that the 

 greatest catch rate (0.625 fish per man-hour) for this pool occurred in 

 the 1956-1957 period. The lowest rate (0.374 fish per man-hour) was 

 recorded in 1962-1963. Pool 26 ranked 7th among the 26 upper Missis- 

 sippi River pools censused in 1956-1957 and ranked last among seven 

 pools in the three later surveys. 



The species composition of the sport catch in Pool 26 in 1962-1963, 

 1967-1968, and 1972-1973 is shown in Table 34. Freshwater drum ranked 

 first in the catch by sport fishermen, averaging 27 percent of the total 

 harvest for the three census periods. The top five species in order of 

 abundance in the sport catch were: 1962-1963, freshwater drum, channel 

 catfish, crappie, bluegill, and carp; 1967-1968, freshwater drum, white 

 bass, bluegill, green sunfish, and channel catfish; and 1972-1973, fresh- 

 water drum, channel catfish, carp, crappie, and green sunfish. 



All four UMRCC sport fishery surveys indicated that the preponderance 

 of anglers fishing Pool 26 were from Missouri, primarily the St. Louis 

 area. The remainder were from border counties in Illinois. 



During 1970, the Illinois Department of Conservation made an aerial 

 recreation survey of Mississippi River Pools 12-26 (Dunham, 1970a). 

 Aerial counts of fishing boats, boat fishermen, bank fishermen, and 

 pleasure craft were made on a weekday, a weekend day, and a holiday (July 4) 



105 



