Angler Origin 



Of 563 anglers responding to residency questions, a majority were not Montana residents. 

 Montana residents represented 39% of anglers interviewed while non-residents were 

 61%. Anglers came from 15 Montana counties, 23 states and the District of Columbia, 

 and 2 foreign nations (England and Belgium). Gallatin County anglers were the most 

 represented (26.2%), followed by the States of Idaho (25.6%) and Utah (12.6%) (Fig. 8). 



Figure 8. Summary of place of origin for anglers interviewed in the Hebgen Reservoir 

 Creel Survey, June 2000 to June 2001. 



Angler Preferences 



A total of 564 anglers interviewed by creel clerks indicated the gear that they used the 

 day they were interviewed. Over a third of anglers (37%)) use bait, while 32% used some 

 combination of terminal tackle (Fig. 9). Fly fishers represented the second most popular 

 single method. 



Of the 560 anglers responding to the question of whether they fished from shore or out of 

 a boat, a majority of anglers claimed they fished from shore (77%) over the course of the 

 entire creel survey. This is almost opposite of results from angler counts which indicated 

 that 71% pressure was from boat anglers. Apparently, a strong interview bias toward 

 shore fisherman resulted from relative ease of locating them for interviews. 



Because of long winters, boat access is to Hebgen Reservoir is limited from October to 

 May due to ice. Ice fishing, considered shore fishing, almost exclusively occurred on the 

 North half During summer and early fall (June through October 2000), 57% of anglers 

 stated that they used a boat while the remainder fished from shore. 



12 



