Abstract

Understanding how often individuals fish and where they fish should be of concern for fishery managers, as well as those responsible for marketing particular destinations. This research examined location preferences of a state wide population of saltwater anglers in Texas, and how various aspects of angling behavior influenced their travel decisions. Using data collected from a sample of Texas saltwater anglers, angling behavior and attitudes were bypothesized to influence the location an individual fished most often in the previous 12 months. Using information conceming the locations where inshore anglers fished most often, and offshore anglers accessed the Gulf of Mexico, distance measures were calculated using a Geographic Information System (GIS) and used as a surrogate for distance traveled for a "typical" fishing trip for each angler. These measures were then used as the dependent variable in subsequent analysis.

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