A Management-Oriented Approach to Understanding Diversity among Largemouth Bass Anglers

We sent a mail survey to participants in a Texas sport fishery for largemouth bass Micropterus salmoides. Respondents were divided into two groups according to the specificity of responses to an open-ended mail survey question asking which species of fish they most preferred to target in Texas freshwaters. One group consisted of those who gave a general response (i.e., “bass”) and the other was those who gave a specific response (i.e., “black bass,” or “largemouth bass” or “bigmouth bass”). We found significant (P < 0.05) differences between these angler groups in fishing motives and attitudes, years of fishing experience, annual fishing frequency, and investment in fishing. Group differences were consistent with predictions based on the concept of recreation specialization and provide initial evidence that specificity of angler identification of species preferences is a managerially useful surrogate for general level of angler specialization. Additional work is necessary to verify these results with largemouth bass anglers elsewhere, as well as with anglers for other species.