Verifying Identification of Salmon and Trout by Boat Anglers in Lake Ontario

Abstract We estimated how well anglers with varying levels of fishing experience identified six salmonid species during creel surveys of the boat angler fishery in Canadian waters of Lake Ontario (1995 and 1996). Anglers were asked to identify the species of their harvested salmon and trout. Angler identifications were compared with identifications made by creel survey technicians. In total, 583 noncharter anglers and 92 charter boat captains identified 1,098 and 271 fish, respectively. Chinook salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha, rainbow trout O. mykiss, and lake trout Salvelinus namaycush dominated the observations. The greatest accuracy in identification by noncharter anglers was for lake trout (96%), followed by Chinook salmon (93%), rainbow trout (88%), brown trout Salmo trutta (85%), Atlantic salmon Salmo salar (67%), and coho salmon O. kisutch (60%). Identifications by charter captains were closer to identifications made by the creel survey technicians: accuracy for coho salmon and rainbow trout was 10...