Results of Angling under Special and Normal Trout Fishing Regulations in a Michigan Trout Stream

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Abstract
The objective of this experiment was to compare angling quality for various sizes of trout in stream sections having two different sets of fishing regulations. Four anglers fished artificial flies and worm‐baited hooks equal amounts of time in two stream sections, utilizing stratified random sampling procedures. Catch data were treated by analysis of variance, after transforming individual catch‐per‐hour data to: log[(catch/hour X 100) plus 1]. Total catch was 579 trout, 3.0 to 13.0 inches total length, in 192 hours; flies took 249 trout, worms caught 330 trout. Pertinent length categories into which the catch was separated were tested statistically. Statistically significant differences in catch data, at or above the 95 per cent confidence level, led to these conclusions: Comparing catch by both lures in both waters: More trout over 7 inches long were caught with worms than with flies. No significant difference was found for all trout. The second quarter of the trout season was significantly better than the other three. Morning and afternoon periods were consistently better than evening periods. Significant differences were found between catches by anglers for all trout, but not for trout larger than 7 inches. Significantly more trout of all sizes were caught in the special water than in normal water. Comparing catch by flies in special water with both lures in normal water: Significantly more legal trout were caught in normal water. The catch of all trout was found to be statistically nonsignificant between waters although a 60 per cent advantage was noted for special water in empirical data. Results of angling by test fishermen were similar to those for public anglers, except test anglers caught more sublegal trout on flies in special water than public anglers.

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