The American Sportfishing Association has released some recently complied data about angler participation, where they fish, and the economic impact of the sport.  The following are a few fun fishing facts.

• There are approximately 60 million anglers in the U.S. of which 46 million are estimated to fish in a given year.

• One of every four anglers fishes in saltwater.

• Fishing tackle sales grew over 16 percent in the past five years.

• Since 2006, angler numbers grew 11 percent.

• More Americans fish than play golf (21 million) and tennis (13 million) combined.

• If fishing were a company, the amount spent by anglers to support fishing-related retail sales would rank number 51 on the Fortune 500™ list.

• Fishing generated more revenue ($48 billion) than Lockheed Martin ($47 billion), Intel ($44 billion), Chrysler ($42 billion) or Google ($38 billion).

• The economic activity generated by sportfishing is greater than the economy, measured in Gross State Product, of 17 states.

• At more than 46 million anglers, more than twice the number of people fished in 2011 than attended every NFL game combined.

These statistics were provided by Southwick Associates and are available in Sportfishing in America: An Economic Force Conservation.