Potential Factors Limiting Brown Trout Catches by Anglers - A Case Study

Abstract

In recent years, the numbers of native brown trout caught by anglers has declined throughout the Czech Republic. In this study, we focus on individual factors potentially related to this negative trend, based primarily on long-term angling catch data (2000-2020) for twenty fishing grounds of the Czech and Moravian angling unions covering twelve upland trout streams. The results indicate that angling pressure, expressed as annual number of attendances, is the most important factor in the decline of trout populations, with drought caused by climate change as a secondary factor. There is a clear need for changes in current fisheries management practice, using new sustainable development scenarios, in order to protect and improve unfavourable conditions for natural brown trout populations.