Fishing participation was on the rise in 2016, increasing by 1.8%, or by 1.5 million participants, since the year before and reaching the highest participation rate since 2012. Indeed, in 2016, 47.2 million Americans, or 15.9% of the population ages 6 and up, participated in fishing at least once during the calendar year.

Additional Highlights:

• Freshwater is more popular than other types of fishing.
• Fly fishing attracted the greatest increase in new participants.

 

 

Source: https://outdoorindustry.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/2017-Special-Report-on-Fishing_final.pdf