We Anglers Have Power!

[Trav]

Recreational fishing is big business, generating more than $125 billion in economic output and more than one million American jobs. If sportfishing were a corporation, it would rank(47th) above Bank of America,Time-Warner, Microsoft or IBM on the Fortune 500 list of largest American companies. That is more than Gross Product of 23 states.

This doesnt include the 650 million in revenues from license sales across the country.

40 million anglers(more than all the MLB stadium admissions in a year, combined) generate 45 billion in retail sales each year. That is also more than those Americans who play golf and tennis combined.

Fishing also provides for 16.4 billion in state and federal taxes.Nine billion being federal taxes, surpassing the entire budget of the Enviremental Protection Agency.

The American Sporting Goods Association Ranks fishing 6th out of 42 recreational avtivities. Only walking,swimming,exercising,camping and bowling rank higher.As a Leisure time activity fishing out ranks basketball,softball,skateboarding,hiking,and jogging.

American Anglers spend a combined 471 million days a year on this activity.

We anglers do have power in numbers.

This and alot of other information on Sport fishing can be found on the American Sportsman Association Website.

[slider]

TRAV: THAT IS SOME GOOD STUFF TO KNOW. MAYBE WE SHOULD ALL TRY TO GET TOGETHER ON THIS AND DO SOMETHING ABOUT THE GAS PRICES, IF THEY KEEP GOING UP IM GONNA HAVE TROUBLE GOING AS MUCH AS I LIKE TO. IM ALLREADY LOOKING AT WAYS AND THINGS TO CUT OUT. SLIDER

[Trav]

Haha

Forty million anglers marching in DC. That would be one heck of a spectacle. That is 11 or so percent of the total population. I bet we make the news!

[OzarkKid07]

Those stats are pretty amazing. And what a concept. Power in numbers... Imagine if some group were able to focus the spending and voting power of all those people for the good of the sport. I think there was an old post called "Whose Land is it?" that addresses that very idea. If only there was someone out there who had enough vision to begin uniting this vast demographic to tackle one cause at a time... Oh the possibilities...

[Trav]

I remember that thread Kido.

That was started as your attempt to get people to join/discuss your utopian dream. Then it got turned and twisted into some non-american cult classic. Haha

I had fun on that topic. I hope you dont carry any ill feelings. We were just poking holes(and a little fun) at the idea you were conveying.

I have noticed that agendas are quickly exposed on this site. Especially when there is religion and/or politics involved. If I remember right, you had both going for ya. Haha

[Al Agnew]

The only thing that makes me question the accuracy of all those statistics is...BOWLING has more participants than fishing????? Who the heck bowls?

[flyfshn]

Interesting! Very cool if they are accurate. I'm with Slider.....if gas prices continue to rise, I won't be able to go as much as I would like. I heard the wonderful media say that gas will be at $4 gallon this spring! If we could shut the media up, we would all be much better! I agree with freedom of speech, but the media is very powerful and has a lot of influence on the public.

[Trav]

All those stats are correct. Straight off the ASA Website.

[flyfshn]

Ok Trav......you lead and we will follow!!

[Tightline]

We are a huge force Trav,but getting us all to agree on a specific thing to lobby or vote about is a different thing.

Me and slider have talked about buying and old van or a bus so a bunch of us could carpool to the fishing hole.

Hey, it may come to that!