Creel Surveys in Illinois

Since 1987, the Illinois Natural History Survey has conducted creel surveys on a variety of Illinois lakes as a part of the Statewide Creel Survey Program. Creel surveys play a vital role in the successful management of healthy fish populations and the fisheries they support by providing rigorous scientific information about fish populations, angler use, and the overall condition of the state’s recreational fisheries. This information helps resource managers better tailor their effort to improve fisheries in Illinois.

In Illinois, creel surveys are typically conducted on 8-15 lakes each year. In some cases, lakes are chosen in an effort to provide long-term data over multiple years; in other cases, a lake may be chosen based on a unique data need for that particular year. Lakes also are chosen for a creel survey to supplement other research being conducted on that lake.

A creel survey is a widely accepted scientific method for assessing fish populations and the behavior of anglers. At its foundations is the creel interview, in which a INHS/IDNR creel clerk, spends several minutes with randomly selected anglers on the lake. During the interview, the clerk collects information about the angler’s effort and success on that day. During the typical year, our clerks often conduct over 2,000 interviews on each lake.

Clerks are NOT on any particular lake every day. As part of the scientific nature of a creel survey, our program puts clerks on the water to cover approximately 40% of all the available daytime fishing hours on a particular lake. This strategy provides a scientifically reliable, cost-effective way of conducting the creel survey. The purpose of collecting data using a creel survey is purely scientific, and plays absolutely no role in enforcement.

Currently, creel surveys collect data on weather and lake conditions, total number of anglers on a particular lake and the number of hours fished (effort), species of fish sought after by anglers and the number of fish caught, whether those fish were kept or released, and length measurements on fish caught. These data, together with other standardized sampling efforts by fisheries biologists, provide a wide-ranging and informative dataset for biologists to manage Illinois fisheries better.

Annual creel surveys are made possible through funding by the Federal Aid in Sport Fish Restoration Act (Dingell-Johnson), the Illinois Department of Natural Resources Division of Fisheries, and the Illinois Natural History Survey.