Abstract
<title>Abstract</title> <p>Angler satisfaction is a key indicator of recreational fishery management effectiveness. However, insufficient attention has been paid to the asymmetric, threshold-based, and interactive mechanisms underlying angler satisfaction. Focusing on Chinese commercial fishing gardens, this study uses online review text data and integrates LDA topic modeling, SnowNLP sentiment analysis, XGBoost–SHAP, and an improved Kano model to identify the key attributes shaping angler satisfaction and how these attributes influence satisfaction. The results show that: (1) catch-related factors are the core dimension affecting satisfaction, accounting for 63.06% of the total impact index. Fish size is classified as an attractive attribute and was the strongest positive feature, whereas fish quantity is classified as a must-have attribute, with insufficient fish quantity as the strongest negative feature. Fish species is classified as a one-dimensional attribute, showing relatively balanced positive and negative effects. (2) Among non-catch-related factors, water quality and cost mainly reduce satisfaction through negative sentiment features, whereas manager charisma improves satisfaction through positive sentiment features. (3) Attribute effects exhibit threshold characteristics. Positive catch-related features, such as fish size, fish quantity, and fish species, enhance satisfaction only after reaching high levels, whereas negative features such as deteriorating water quality can trigger dissatisfaction at lower levels. (4) Strong interactions are mainly concentrated within catch-related attributes and between catch-related attributes and water quality or cost. High-level positive features mostly show negative interactions, whereas high-level negative features mostly show positive interactions. This study provides empirical evidence for improving satisfaction-oriented management in recreational fisheries.</p>