More than one quarter of U.S. anglers report their fishing activities have been reduced by problems accessing their preferred fishing holes, says a Southwick Associates poll. The recent poll at anglersurvey.com asked some 1,800 anglers if in the past year they canceled a trip or stopped fishing specific locations due to access problems.

Of the fishermen who marked such problems (which was about 30 percent), 80 percent reported access problems in fresh water while 15 percent experienced access issues in saltwater locations. As a result, 38 percent of affected anglers reduced fishing time to some degree. Sixty-two percent of fishermen continued to fish at the same frequency. It may not seem like staggering numbers, but you can bet there were Florida fishermen affected.

It’s not clear from the survey exactly what “access problems” encompass, but some common access problems for most fishermen include natural causes such as low water levels, or governmental restrictions to certain areas of water.

Okeechobee bass fishermen know too well what low water can do to shallow, fishy areas in the middle of the lake. Many of them are now forced to fish deeper canals along the outside.

Central Florida saltwater fishermen who fish close to Cape Canaveral feel the effects of restricted areas every time a shuttle launches. While launches are sporadic, there are also continuous closed areas in the lagoons and Banana River No Motor Zone that are ambiguously governed so Cape personnel can fish there, but the public cannot. MacDill Air Force Base near Tampa similarly restricts fishing on nearby flats to base personnel.