DOI: 10.5061/dryad.4pr3r
title: Data from: Encountering a bait is necessary but insufficient to explain individual variability in vulnerability to angling in two freshwater benthivorous fish in the wild

description: Fish personality traits, such as swimming activity, or personality related
 emergent behavioural properties, such as space use, should affect
 encounter rates between fish and fishing gear. Increased encounters should
 in turn drive vulnerability to capture by passively operated fishing
 gears. However, empirical evidence documenting a relationship between
 activity-based behaviours and vulnerability to capture in the wild is
 limited. Using whole-lake acoustic telemetry, we first documented
 significant repeatabilities over several months of a suite of encounter
 rate-associated behaviours (swimming distance, activity space size, time
 on baited feeding sites, switching frequency among baited feeding sites,
 distance to the lake bottom) in two recreationally important benthivorous
 cyprinid species, the common carp (Cyprinus carpio) and tench (Tinca
 tinca). We then experimentally targeted both species using standard
 angling gear on baited feeding sites. Individual fish regularly visited
 the angling sites, documenting that the fishes encountered the angling
 baits. Carp were readily hooked within the first few days, after which
 catchability dropped to low levels characteristic of tench from the onset
 of the angling experiment. When attempting to explain individual variation
 in vulnerability, we failed to document significant relationships among a
 suite of repeatable encounter-based behaviours and vulnerability to
 angling for both species. There was also no evidence for size selection or
 for energetically less conditioned carp to be more vulnerable than their
 counterparts. The data cumulatively suggest that fine-scale behaviours
 after encountering a bait (e.g., frequency of bait intake, or degree of
 spitting baited hooks following ingestion) are ultimately decisive for
 determining vulnerability to angling in both species. We therefore
 conclude that encountering a stationary bait in angling for benthivorous
 cyprinids is a necessary, but insufficient condition for determining the
 likelihood of capture of an individual fish. Hence, fishing-induced
 selection on encounter-based behaviours in recreational angling for
 benthivorous fish in the wild appears unlikely.
description: carp
 positionsThe file 'carp
 positions' contains the telemetry data for all carp recorded by a
 high resolution whole lake acoustic telemetry system from tags with a
 burst rate of 5 seconds. The file includes the time stamps of each
 position, the UTM x and y coordinates for each position, the fish depth
 and temperature from the sensor in the transmitter, lake depth at the
 carp's position, and macrophyte height at the carp's
 positiontench
 positionsThe file 'tench
 positions' contains the telemetry data for all tench recorded by a
 high resolution whole lake acoustic telemetry system from tags with a
 burst rate of 35 seconds. The file includes the time stamps of each
 position, the UTM x and y coordinates for each position, the fish depth
 and temperature from the sensor in the transmitter, lake depth at the
 carp's position, and macrophyte height at the carp's
 positiontench
 metadataThe "tench
 metadata" file contains size, waterbody source, date of
 tagging/release and surgery details for each tagged tench used in the
 experiment.carp meta
 dataThe "carp
 metadata" file contains size, fat meter readings (three per side),
 date of tagging/release and surgery details for each tagged tench used in
 the experiment.telemetry fish capture
 datathe "telemetry fish
 capture data" file contains information about all telemetry fish that
 were captured during the angling phase of the experiment. The file
 includes size at capture, location of capture, time of capture, the angler
 who captured the fish and the bait the fish was captured
 with.Feeding Site GPS
 Recordingsthe "Feeding Site
 GPS Recordings" file contains the GPS coordinates (UTM) of the eight
 baited feeding sites used throughout the experiment and the date that the
 coordinates were taken.Feeding Times Amounts
 and SitesThe "Feeding Times
 Amounts and Sites" file contains details about how the feeding sites
 were fed. It contains information about the time and date of feeding, the
 food amount, the type of food (corn or boilie) and the site
 ID.Fishing Catch All
 FishThe "Fishing Catch
 All Fish" file contains information about all catches at all fishing
 sites - including carp and tench. The file includes the angler, the site,
 the species captured, whether the fish was landed or lost, the total
 length of the fish (mm), the the bait and rod used and the number of
 pieces of bait.Fishing
 EffortThe file "Fishing
 Effort" contains data about the fishing effort during the angling
 phase of the experiment. The file contains the site that was fished, the
 beginning time and the end time of a stretch of angling, the rod used and
 the bait used.