Data Science and Support

Technology and data management efforts are used to make information easily available to the public and help fisheries staff be more efficient and effective in their work. Fisheries staff collect information, such as fish numbers and sizes in lakes and rivers or numbers of fish stocked. This information is stored and analyzed in many data systems that the public can view online. To make all this work, the technology and data management team creates and modifies data systems, trains staff in their use, and regularly updates the computer systems that provide information to anglers and the public.

This work is important because the internet is the tool agencies use to share information with the public. More than 40% of Iowa anglers visit the Iowa DNR web site often. It is necessary to continuously improve the web site and the information it provides to keep current with new technologies.

Activities associated with this work have been started to develop, modify and maintain databases which store large fisheries data sets. Interpretation of these data provides the basis for making effective management decisions. Products of this work include the following:

• the ability to immediately buy a fishing license on your mobile device
• a search tool that integrates with a mobile device to tell you the closest store-front location to buy a hunting or fishing license.
• lake, river, and trout stream web pages which include stocking data, waterbody specific fishing regulations, fishing reports, fishing forecasts, lists of amenities, contact information for fisheries biologists and conservation officers, and links to maps and fish survey data
• online tool to submit Master Angler-qualifying fish
• an online Fishing Atlas for mobile devices that combines updated contour maps and habitat structure maps for individual lakes
• a statewide fish habitat structure location file that can be loaded onto a GPS
• online maps that show statewide data sets of trout streams, paddling routes, boat ramps, fishing access points, fish habitat structures and fish cleaning stations

The DNR Fisheries Bureau is funded only by the sale of fishing and hunting licenses and equipment. Continued license sales are critical to provide the funding needed to manage Iowa fisheries. After years of simply selling fishing licenses, the DNR began a partnership with the Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation (RBFF) in 2005 to assess fishing promotional efforts. These efforts were started in response to declining or fluctuating fishing license sales. Fishing promotional campaigns have varied from localized efforts to statewide and from specific target populations to all anglers. Using new strategies to sell more fishing licenses makes financial resources available to maintain and improve fishery resources.

Radio and television advertising, live events, movie theater advertising, magazines, letters, postcards and emails have been used to promote fishing to potential license buyers. An evaluation of fishing promotion efforts from 2005 to 2013 showed that lift (or increase in license sales associated with the marketing approaches) ranged from 0.1% to 4.6%. License sales patterns show that weather and economic conditions may strongly influence fishing license sales.

The results from these analyses support recommendations and suggestions for future fishing promotional efforts and highlight the uncertainty of major drivers of license purchase rates. Results from these assessments include:

• inexpensive “renew your fishing license” postcards can be effective
• email reminders following mailings yield results and is cost-effective
• thousands of inconsistent anglers would fish more often if a friend or relative invited them
• weather often has a major influence on a person’s decision to buy a fishing license

Future assessment activities will continue to look at promotional efforts, as well as community fishing opportunities like the urban trout stocking program. The DNR is also starting an aggressive Recruitment, Retention, and Reactivation (R3) program for hunters and anglers, in partnership with sporting goods vendors and local conservation groups. The research done thus far, and building better partnerships, should provide more and better fishing opportunities and fishing locations closer to home for more Iowans.

In 2016, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) conducted a comprehensive mail and online survey to evaluate the trout fishing activities and preferences of anglers fishing for trout. The Iowa DNR conducts this survey about every five years; similar surveys were conducted by telephone in 1975, 1980, 1986, 1991, 1996 and 2001, by mail in 2006, and by mail and online in 2011. A total of 3,605 angler surveys were completed, equaling 7.7% of the 46,604 anglers who purchased trout fees in 2016. Mean age of all trout anglers was 43.8 years, which is similar to what was observed in 2011.

Licensed trout anglers spent an estimated 489,455 days trout fishing in Iowa and made 720,611 trips to individual trout fisheries in 2016. Total annual angler trips were determined for each catchable, special, urban winter pond, and put-and-grow trout fishery in Iowa. North Bear (21% of trout anglers), South Bear (17% of trout anglers), Trout Run (13% of trout anglers) and Bloody Run (12% of trout anglers) were the top four most heavily used fisheries. Put-and-grow streams had the least angling use and ranked the lowest including Turner (94th), Monastery Creek (91st) and White Pine Hollow (88th). Streams with the highest number of angler trips per mile of stream open to public fishing were Baileys Ford (30,836 trips), Trout Run (Winneshiek County) (21,450 trips), Joy Springs (14,804 trips), Richmond Springs (13,808 trips), Turkey River (13,210 trips) and Twin Springs (13,048 trips).

The average trout angler spent 11 days fishing Iowa’s trout waters. Overall, trout fishing activity days, angler trips, and mean days and trips per angler were at or above 2011 levels and comparable to previous years. The percent of anglers fishing and total trips taken to special urban trout fisheries have increased significantly since 2001. Fishing pressure on the urban winter trout fisheries in 2016 increased to 99,444 trips from 70,202 in 2011, 48,868 in 2006 and 12,920 in 2001. Trips to urban winter trout fisheries increased to 13.8% of all trout angler trips in 2016 from 12% in 2011 and 9% in 2006. The number of urban fisheries available expanded to 8 locations in 2006 and 17 in 2011 and 2016. Heritage Pond, Prairie Park Pond, Terry Trueblood Lake and Ada Hayden Lake ranked the highest in estimated angler trips to winter urban trout fisheries. Thirty percent of trout anglers purchased a trout fee specifically for an urban trout fishery.

Angler satisfaction with the trout program was ranked at 8 on a scale of 1 to 10, exactly the same as the 2011 survey. Angler responses to questions about the published stocking schedule broke down in a geographic pattern. Anglers from northeast Iowa’s trout zone and non-resident trout anglers were least likely to check the announced stocking schedule (39%), while anglers in areas with only winter stocking were most likely to check the stocking schedule (58%). Anglers who do check the stocking schedule generally use this information to fish the stocked water body (72%-84%). Most anglers are satisfied with the current amount of announced stockings (59%-67%). Anglers from the trout zone are more likely to avoid streams that were recently stocked than other resident anglers. While the majority of anglers prefer that the stocking calendar remain the same, anglers from the trout zone prefer fewer announced trout stockings. This information, combined with the budgetary issues of maintaining a rigid stocking schedule, could be used to justify reducing the number of announced trout stockings on northeast Iowa streams.

• 2018 Iowa Angler Survey
• Brushes with Greatness: Preserving Original Maynard Reece Fish Art
• 2016 Trout Angler Survey
• Assessment and Development of Underwater Structure to Attract and Concentrate Fish
• 2011 Trout Angler Survey
• 2007 Iowa Angler Survey Summary
• 2007 Iowa Angler Survey
• 2007 Iowa Angler Survey Nonparametric Analysis
• 1994 Iowa Angler Survey