A new report by Captain Experiences — “an online platform that helps people find and book fishing and hunting trips quickly, easily, and with a process they can trust” — has Ohio woefully underperforming when compared with other well-known outdoor destination states. The Buckeye State ranked 27th overall as a fishing destination.
With the Toledo area and Ohio in general universally recognized as the “walleye capital of the world,” it begs the question why the platform’s ranking for the state is so low. There are top-notch guides all across the Lake Erie coast, many of whom also run in the pro circuits such as the Lake Erie Walleye Trail tournament.
Bass tournaments also come through here as well.
The platform used two criteria based on annual fishing licenses issued to nonresidents and annual fishing revenue from nonresidents and percentage shares of each within the state based on figures from 2022.
Ohio did bring in $3.66 million in annual fishing revenue from out-of-staters, according to the report’s researchers, which made up 18.3 percent of the state’s fishing license revenue for that year.
In all, the state sold 136,204 annual fishing licenses to nonresidents.
Jake Lane, a CE marketing specialist, clarified it was a matter of seeing which states were issuing the most nonresident fishing licenses in aggregate, or just overall, from the data the researchers collected from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s figures.
“There is no doubt that Ohio is a great destination for anglers, and I would assume if we removed some of the coastal markets, things would stack up a little differently,” he added.
Is there more the state could do to attract more anglers to the state to help bring in more revenue, which helps pay for outdoor programs and equipment for ODNR officers, among other things?
Messages to TourismOhio weren’t immediately returned.
Overall, the nation saw steady increases in out-of-state fishing revenue from the 1990s until the pandemic, which then saw a temporary setback. But in 2022, it spiked to 22 percent of total fishing revenue, according to researchers.
“This rise in nonresident licenses not only represents steady growth in the fishing tourism industry, but also a boon for wildlife conservation and management,” the researchers noted. “Additionally, like other forms of tourism, recreational fishing directly and indirectly supported more than 690,000 jobs and generated nearly $138 billion in local sales across the country.”
Florida by far and away was the top state in CE’s ranking, with 917,665 nonresident annual fishing licenses issued and $25.75 million in revenue from those sales. But percentage-wise, Alaska had shares of 70.8 and 75.6, respectively.
Meanwhile, Ohio’s neighbor to the north — which recently touted in a news release the stocking of more than 9.1 million fish this spring and summer to boost fall fishing for anglers — fared much better in the CE report, finishing ninth.
Michigan sold 252,180 annual fishing licenses to nonresidents, which brought in revenue of nearly $9.78 million.
In addition, Ohio has gained a reputation as an up-and-coming white-tail deer hunting state with some sizeable racks. Many members on a Facebook deer hunting site I’m on are usually, “shhhhhhh, quiet,” about having nonresidents come in and enjoy Ohio’s natural bounty. However, that thinking assumes everyone tags out, and we know that’s not how it goes.
Ohio requires written permission to hunt on private land. There also are quite a few hunting outfitters who would benefit as well as mostly rural economies with gas, food, and lodging, as noted earlier.
If you are looking for your next big fishing or hunting adventure, you can contact CE at captainexperiences.com .
ALSO IN MICHIGAN, there will be a Furtaker User Group meeting from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Aug. 23 at the Quality Inn & Suites at 561 Boulevard Dr. in St. Ignace to discuss regulation recommendations for the 2026-27 hunting and trapping seasons, population estimates, and species updates.
Then the next day, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Aug. 24, also at the Quality Inn & Suites in St. Ignace, there will be a Bear Forum to discuss the latest population estimates, 2023 harvest information hunting regulations, and other trends occurring across the bear range.
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