By: Nancy Montes

How Return ‘Em Right Uses Angler Feedback

At Return ‘Em Right, angler input isn’t just welcomed—it’s essential. Since day one, we’ve built our program with a focus on listening to the people who know the water best. Your insights directly influence how we shape our training, the gear we provide, and the overall direction of our efforts. Whether it’s through surveys, conversations, or comments on our content, anglers have multiple ways to share real-world feedback. We’re not just collecting it—we’re using it. Feedback fuels progress. Every observation, story, and suggestion we receive helps make the Return ‘Em Right program stronger, smarter, and more aligned with what anglers need on the water.

 

Why Angler Feedback Matters

This program isn’t just built for anglers—it’s built with anglers.
Your voice shapes everything from the tools in your hands to the lessons we teach. Anglers aren’t just users of the program—they’re partners in conservation. And when you share your experience, you help move the needle on fish survival and reef health.

Building Stronger Conservation Strategies

Anglers are our eyes and ears on the water. Your first-hand reports—about how fish react, how tools perform, and what conditions are really like—help validate strategies and improve release practices. It’s real-world data that makes a real-world difference.

Improving Training and Resources

Every tip, critique, or comment you provide feeds directly into our training materials. If something’s not clear or doesn’t match what’s happening out on the water, we fix it. The goal? To make sure every video, guide, and how-to resource is practical, effective, and easy to apply during a day of fishing.

 

Gathering Feedback from the Fishing Community

Return ‘Em Right collects input in a variety of ways that span follow-up surveys to email to personal communication, social media and more. We know anglers are busy, so we’ve tried to make it easy to share your thoughts—anytime, anywhere. Whether it’s a follow-up survey, a quick email, or a conversation at a dock or event, there are plenty of ways to have your voice heard.

Online Surveys and Questionnaires

Follow-up correspondence and surveys let anglers quickly share their experiences with the Return ‘Em Right team. We formally reach out to anglers six months after shipping/receipt of the fish descending gear provided by our program partners. The purpose of our follow-up with anglers is (1) to determine how the gear is being used and how effective from an angler’s perspective it is in promoting the survival of released fish; (2) determine how effective our on-line learning programming is and ways that it can be improved to better meet your needs and the broader interests of our growing angler community, which is now more than 42,000 strong – the number of anglers who received fish descending gear, to date.

Your responses are visualized in dynamic dashboards that give our team real-time access to key data: how many anglers are joining the program, which social media campaigns are driving the most engagement, what content anglers are finding most useful, and even how efficiently gear is being shipped out. Your feedback doesn’t just help the education team—it powers decisions in marketing, communications, logistics, and beyond.

Social Media Engagement

Interacting with anglers on social platforms sparks valuable conversations that often turn into quick feedback loops—allowing us to address questions, clarify best practices, and adapt our messaging in real time. Whether it’s a comment about gear use or a shared success story from the water, these exchanges help us stay connected to the fishing community and continuously improve the program to better serve those protecting Gulf reef fish.

 

Turning Feedback into Action

Angler voices don’t just get collected—they’re put to work in meaningful ways. For instance, the main training course is now in its third version following feedback from over 20,000 anglers. Your feedback also was the impetus for providing the same learning program in Spanish. Efforts are made, based on angler input, to ensure that learning topics and resources remain relevant, practical and clear. In fact, some of the program’s most exciting initiatives—launching fresh outreach efforts, branded products, or expanding training opportunities, videos and other resources—have started directly from ideas shared by fellow anglers themselves. For example, we added print materials to the gear kit that we ship to anglers to address issues you brought up regarding setting the depth and adjusting the weight for descending.

 

How You Can Share Your Voice

Your experiences are the heartbeat of Return ‘Em Right. The feedback you provide helps shape our collective program and the preservation of reef fish populations and the lasting health of Gulf fisheries. If you, like us, want healthy fisheries tomorrow, your voice matters today. Join the conversation, share your story, and help us keep reef fish populations strong—for you, our community, and the next generation of anglers. We’re always ready to hear from you. Let’s keep the dialogue going—on the water and beyond.