About 94 percent of the fishermen who use Clinton Lake are Kansas residents, according to a Wildlife and Parks survey conducted last year.

A more detailed breakdown showed that 37 percent of those anglers were from Lawrence, 20 percent from the Kansas City metropolitan area and 13 percent from Topeka.

The survey was conducted during daylight hours from March through October last year to assess angler use, catch and harvest characteristics.

This information can be important to lake management in determining stocking rates and regulations. It can also come into play when applying for grant money to improve facilities.

According to the survey, 55,503 people expended 136,150 hours fishing Clinton. Boat anglers outnumbered those on shore by a ratio of about 3 to 2, and had a 3 to 1 advantage in hours fished.

People fishing from shore harvested 13,392 fish, while those in boats removed 88,903. Of course, not all fish caught were harvested. Shore anglers released 14,269 fish, and those in boats released 62,443.

Interviewed anglers said they preferred catching crappie (51 percent), channel catfish (25 percent), walleye (10 percent) and largemouth bass (5 percent).

The top harvested species was white crappie. Approximately 66,760 white crappie were removed from the lake, and 79 percent were larger than 10 inches in length.

White crappie was also tops as far as pounds harvested with 44,061 followed by channel catfish 38,074, white bass 5,450, walleye 5,195 and flathead catfish 3,305.

Examination of harvest coupled with catch and released fish yielded another prospective regarding species value to the fishery.

White crappie had the highest value when both harvest and released fish were considered (almost 38,358 were released), so one could make the case that this species was the most important to anglers in terms of recreation.

Fishing at the Clinton outlet was down due to lack of releases from the reservoir. About 7,501 anglers exerted 14,505 hours of fishing pressure. Anglers caught 4,999 fish — mostly channel catfish, white crappie, freshwater drum and carp.

Males accounted for 83 percent of all Clinton anglers.

Four other Kansas reservoirs were surveyed in 2003 — Cedar Bluff, Fall River, Melvern and Sebelius.

Of the five, Clinton ranked at the top in terms of number of anglers, number of fish harvested, and in the number of white crappie, channel catfish and walleye harvested.

In addition, Clinton ranked first in numbers of bluegill, channel catfish and drum released.