In the last article I wrote for the Lakecaster I discussed our creel program on Sam Rayburn Reservoir. Like Sam Rayburn a creel survey is also conducted on Toledo Bend Reservoir.

TPWD conducts a year round creel program on Toledo Bend with the help of Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries personnel. The purpose of any creel survey is to monitor fishing effort, catch, harvest rates, sizes of fish being caught, economic impacts of the fishery, angler preferences, and most importantly it gives us a chance to interact with the public and answer any questions they might have while out on the water. Our creel program requires us to be out on the water 10% of the days of the year, with us concentrating more sampling effort on weekend days than weekdays simply because more people fish on weekends. Our sampling year runs from June 1 through May 31st. As always we intend and try to be as less intrusive as possible when approaching someone while they are fishing. We try to go through the creel interview in as little time as we can to let people get back to what they came to do - fish.
 
It takes about two minutes to go through the creel interview questions. We’re interested in how long you’ve been fishing and how much longer you plan on being out. Of course we want to know what you have caught. We’ll ask your zip code (we use this to see where all folks are coming from to use the lake) and how much money you spent for your fishing trip. I’ll be the first to say I don’t like the money question, I believe how people spend their money is personal, but this information helps determine economic impacts of the fishery which helps TPWD determine where to devote its resources and efforts. Lastly I want to emphasize that our purpose is NOT to find out where anyone’s fishing hole may be. We do not mark waypoints or even make a note to where we interviewed somebody. We don’t ask or care if you caught all your fish that you are reporting where we found you or someplace else on the lake before the interview. In other words the purpose of the creel survey is NOT to give the creel clerks fishing tips for their personal use or gain later on.

           

Now that we have finished our creel survey for June 1, 2005 through May 31, 2006 and have the data worked up, this is more or less how Toledo Bend performed for the past year. Please note the estimates provided only reflect rod and reel fishing and no other type of fishing (trot lines, jug lines, etc.)
 
Fishermen on Toledo Bend spent an estimated 651,500 hours fishing this past year. To put that number in perspective, an individual person would have to fish about 74 years around the clock to match that.
 
Percent of the fishing time was devoted to targeting the following fish – Black bass (57%), Crappie (23%), Panfish (6.5%), Catfish (3.5%), and Other fish and Any fish (10%).
 
Fishermen on Toledo Bend catch an average of about 3 fish for every hour they fish, with at least one of those three fish being kept. Bass fishermen don’t feel bad, the average fishermen catches less than one black bass per hour of fishing time with it taking a little over 2 hours to catch a legal sized largemouth bass. Crappie and catfish fishermen catch about 2 fish per hour with half being keepers. Folks targeting white bass and yellow bass drive the catch rate up by catching about 13 white bass and nearly 8 yellow bass for every hour they fish for them with half being kept (there is no minimum length limit for these fish at Toledo Bend).
 
Last year fishermen on Toledo Bend caught an estimated 1,700,290 fish of which they kept 677,910 fish and released the rest.
 
Here is a general breakout of the major fish species harvested and released for this past year:

Largemouth Bass – Harvest 144,620 / Release 461,550
Spotted Bass – Harvest 8,325 / Release 17,890
Black Crappie – Harvest 240,890 / Release 263,230
White Crappie – Harvest 59,140 / Release 30,430
Bluegill – Harvest 86,260 / Release 82,100
Yellow Bass – Harvest 67,500 / Release 59,900
White Bass – Harvest 22,840 / Release 19,015
Channel Catfish – Harvest 27,860 / Release 18,410
Blue Catfish – Harvest 13,110 / Release 6,635

Last year fishermen came from over 250 zip code areas to fish on Toledo Bend, directly spending an estimated $4,160,000 to do so.

As always, if you should have any questions concerning this article or have any other fishery questions please don’t hesitate to contact me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or call me at 409-384-9572. Good Luck and Good Fishing!

Dan Ashe is a fisheries biologist with Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. He has worked out of the Jasper, Texas field office since 2005 helping to manage east Texas reservoirs including Sam Rayburn and Toledo Bend. Dan has also worked as fisheries biologist in Puerto Rico, California, and Alaska but now calls Texas home.