RBFF AND THE OUTDOOR FOUNDATION PARTNERED TO PROVIDE A COMPREHENSIVE LOOK AT FISHING PARTICIPATION IN THE U.S.

For the 12th consecutive year, RBFF and the Outdoor Foundation partnered to provide a comprehensive look at fishing participation in the U.S. The 2022 Special Report on Fishing — released Monday, July 19 prior to ICAST 2022— explores participation trends alongside insights into motivations, barriers, and preferences of key groups identified as essential for future growth.

As previously revealed, over fifty-two million Americans age 6+ went fishing in 2021, supporting a six-year upward trend.

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Leaky Bucket
While 3.7 million first timers and 8 million reactivated anglers went fishing, 14 million participants lapsed. That -18 percent churn rate resulted in an overall participation decline of 4 percent.


Shrinking Gender Gap
Women composed 37 percent of fishing participation in 2022, the highest level on record. The participation rate among girls ages 6-12 and 13-17 grew 5 percent and 10 percent, respectively. With these increases, the difference in participation rate between boys and girls has shrunk to less than 4 percent.


A Family Affair
Over half of participants tried fishing thanks to an invitation from their friends or family. Seventy-eight percent of anglers associated fishing with spending quality time with family or friends.

Growth Amongst Decline
While overall participation fell slightly from the historic high in 2020, African American participation increased almost 11 percent year over year. In addition, over 300,000 more Hispanics went fishing in 2021 than in 2019.For further information: Bruna Carincotte, bcarincotte@rbff.org, 202-743-9894