The Mobile Delta was described in this study as the water area in Alabama lying between the Mobile Oauseway on the south and Highway 84 bridge on the Tombigbee River near Jackson, Alabama and Choctaw Bluff, Alabama on the Alabama River in Clark County on the north. It consisted of 31,549 acres of waster lying in a land areaapproximate1y 10 by 60 miles. The delta was divided into seven areas for the creel census. A creel census of the sport fishery was made in the area during July 1, 1963, to June 30, 1964. During this period a total of 49,922 sport fishermen fished the area and caught 294,043 fish weighing 112,325.4 pounds. Each angler spent an average of 4.3 hours to catch 5.9 fish weighing 2.3 pounds or caught 1.4 fish per hour weighing 0.5 pound. At an estimated cost of $3.41 per fishing trip, the value of this sport fishery in the Mobile Delta was $170,234 for one year. The catch per acre was 9.3 fish weighing 3.6 pounds. Fishing pressure was 1.6 fisherman trips per acre. A total of 10 saltwater species, 16 freshwater game species and 15 freshwater non-game species entered the catch. Largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides), bluegill (Lepomis maerochirus) and redear sunfish (L. mierolophus), accounted for 18.6, 23.7, and 16.6 percent by weight of the catch, respectively, while the other 38 species accounted for the remaining 41.1 percent.
