The U.S. Inland Creel and Angler Survey Catalog (CreelCat): A Database and Interactive Tool for Inland Fisheries Management and Research

The U.S. Inland Creel and Angler Survey Catalog (CreelCat) contains data compiled from 14,729 creel and angler surveys conducted by state natural resource management agencies (including Washington DC and Puerto Rico) in inland waters across the United States. Data are contained in eight .csv files which contain information about survey characteristics (Survey_Data.csv), angler effort (AngEffort_Data.csv), catch and harvest (FishDataCompiled.csv), angler demographics (Demographic_Data.csv), angler preferences (AngPrefDataCompiled.csv), taxonomic classifications (Taxa_Data.csv), issues with catch and harvest (Fish_Attribution_Issues.csv), and issues with angler preference (AngPref_Attribution_Issues.csv), as well as three shapefiles containing geospatial information for lakes, reservoirs, ponds and tailraces attributed as polygons; rivers and streams attributed as lines; and all types attributed as points. Survey methodology and documentation is highly variable and therefore not all fields will be available for all surveys. The majority of surveys have been georeferenced; however, some data sources did not include adequate information to georeferenced the survey locations. In future releases we hope to update as many additional surveys as possible with geospatial information. Tables can be linked based on the 'Survey_ID' field. Data can be linked to the CreelCat shapefiles (point, line, and polygon) based on the WB_ID field contained in the 'Survey_Data' table as well as the shapefile attribute tables.