Mailed angler survey wrapping up, still time to respond

June 28, 2017

Randy Zellers

Assistant Chief of Communications

There’s still time to send in your responses if you were selected to participate in this year’s Arkansas Game and Fish Commission angler survey. 
The AGFC mailed 10,000 surveys in March to randomly selected Arkansas residents who purchased a fishing license in 2016. Responses from those surveys will help shape the direction of fisheries management in the future.  

According to Jason Olive, assistant chief of the AGFC Fisheries Division, says this survey is much different than the public comment surveys delivered each year during the regulations process.

“Our public comment surveys are important ways to get feedback from anglers about proposed changes and general angler attitudes. Typically if someone is content or happy about the status of their angling or proposed changes, they don’t respond, so we don’t hear all sides of the story.” Olive said. “This mail-in survey digs a little deeper into what our anglers want, and places it in a statistically valid format covering the entire audience of anglers.” 

The surveys were sent by Mississippi State University, the third party who won the bid for the project. According to Olive no in-state agencies or institutions bid and Mississippi State has a strong track record with these sorts of surveys. The survey is the first of three that will be conducted in the next few years to gauge trends in angling and better understand what anglers want when they visit a lake, river or stream in The Natural State.

“Even if someone thinks the survey won’t apply to them, we want their feedback,” Olive said. “We want to hear from all types of anglers that were selected – from the once-a-year angler to the die-hard angler who spends more time on the water than at work.”