What makes anglers happy: A sentiment analysis of Walleye angler forums in the United States

Objective: We hypothesized online text can provide insight into the satisfaction of anglers who post on online forums.Methods: We applied sentiment analysis to almost 3 years of management-related posts on online angling forums to estimate the long-term satisfaction of Walleye Sander vitreus anglers in nine U.S. states.Result: Sentiment varied fourfold among states. Consistent with the literature, our random forest model found that sentiment increased with angler density, bag limit, and season length. Relatively unimportant factors were fishing license cost, the frequency of special Walleye regulations, the degree to which management agencies communicated with anglers through social media, and the importance of angling to the state economy.Conclusion: Our results support the hypothesis that online text can provide insight into the satisfaction of anglers who post on online forums. This work contributes to a growing interest in exploring and validating the use of online data within systems of harvest management and governance.