Research Webinar: The Recreational Ice Fishing and Ancillary Retail Community on Lake Champlain

In the first research webinar of the spring 2025 series, Mark Malchoff from the Lake Champlain Sea Grant (retired) and Nicole Balk from the New York Department of Environmental Conservation discuss Lake Champlain winter angler demographics, preferences, and behaviors.

A variety of anglers are using ice to facilitate their access to a fishery jointly managed by Vermont, New York, and Quebec. State fishery agency creel census data (i.e. preferred target species, catch rate, etc.) are collected to help guide management actions. Socio-economic data (including attitude and opinions) that might be used to characterize human dimensions of these fisheries however, are often lacking. The webinar reviews some findings from multiple surveys about Lake Champlain’s winter anglers and how they interact with the natural and economic resources in the LC basin.