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The Lowcountry Anglers Fishing Club

.: Recreational Angler Survey - Red Drum :.
This survey is provided by SC DNR

Surveys were collected from:

  • 506 Saltwater fishing license holders
  • 246 South Carolina CCA members
  • 379 Visitors to Charleston Inshore Fishing Expo, Myrtle Beach Boat Show, Charleston Boat Show
  • 277 Charleston inshore fishing tournament participants, Fishing Club meeting attendees and, Fishing Pier anglers

 

Surveys Returned

Overall 1,408 surveys were filled out and returned

Catch and Release

90.3% of people who responded to the survey practice catch and release either "Usually" or "Always" (That is, they release some of the fish they catch)

Age and Gender 92.6% of respondents were male. Most age 25-64
Fishing Clubs and SCCCA 61.6% were neither members of fishing clubs nor SCCCA


South Carolinians Fishing for Red Drum

85.6% of survey respondents fish for red drum.

Hook Types Used By Red Drum Anglers
47.6% use J-hooks
34.5% use Circle Hooks and Wide Gap(Kahle) hooks
17.9% use all other hook types combined

 

Bait Types Used By Red Drum Anglers

70% use Live or Natural Bait

15% use Artificial Baits

11.8% use a combination of Artificial and Natural Baits

3% Fly Fish for red drum

  • Almost all South Carolina anglers fish for red drum from private boats
  • Most fish in tidal creeks, mud flats, and around oyster bars. Very few fish in the surf.
  • Most anglers (70%) do not target only legal sized fish. They fish for all sizes of red drum.

What It All Means: We now know that the virtually all South Carolina anglers encounter fish which they release alive.

Red drum is the most often targeted fish species within the estuary, and is one of the most popular fish species in the entire southeast.

SC red drum anglers overwhelmingly chose to use natural or live baits, and they use J-hooks more often than any other type of hook.

In previous studies comparing hook and bait types, the combination of J-hooks and natural bait produced the highest catch-and-release mortality rate of any combination studied. This study has revealed a similar phenomenon. J-hooks have gut hooked red drum 35-40% of the time, and 5-10% of fish caught on J-hooks have died. Offset Circle hooks gut hooked fish aproximately 20% of the time, and 10% of fish catght on offset circle hooks have died. Non-offset Circle hooks have gut hooked fish only 5-10% of the time, and 2-5% of fish caught on non-offset Circle hooks have died.

Future Directions: These data will be combined with our fishing studies to help us to estimate catch and release mortality for red drum in South Carolina's estuaries. Are more fish surviving the catch and release encounter than we had thought? Or are fewer fish surviving to grow and reproduce?

 
 
 
.: The Lowcountry Anglers Fishing Club - 2008 :.
 
 
 
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