Introduction
Inland recreational fisheries constitute the dominant extractive use of freshwater aquatic organisms in thedeveloped countries of the temperature regions, and its importance is rising rapidly in developing countries. A widespread assumption remains that recreational fisheries are more benign than commercial fisheries, because they are understood to behave in a self-regulatory manner. However, evidence is accumulating that recreational fisheries are also implying a risk of fish stock collapses, especially when operating in conjunction with depensatory mechanisms (Post et al., 2002). Model-based research, inparticular the modelling of spatially structured fisheries, is required to identify crucial factors influencing fish-angler dynamics and to establish effective management options (Carpenter and Brock, 2004). One of the major issues in the management of recreational fisheries is how to account for angler movement between many independent stocks distributed across a landscape. We present a spatially-explicit model of recreational fisheries for understanding regional angler movement dynamics and for investigating how anglers interact with fish stocks in spatially-segregated freshwater fisheries.