Granby Lake Trout

[DonInDenver]

[crazy] Does anyone know the thinking behind removing the 26"-36" slot on lake trout? The fish that size used to be protected, and there were good numbers as a result. There now seems to be an abundance of 15-20" lakers and very few of those 34"-36" fish that used to be fairly common and lots of fun to jig for. Anyone have any insight as to what led DOW to this decision three years ago?
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[DonInDenver]

[] I saw a report earlier today that they found him dead inside his armored bulldozer after they set off explosives to blow it open. It sounded like he might have committed suicide first. What a and bizarre story, for a whole lot of folks.
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[davetclown]

I know that many times that slot limits are temporary, they are plased in place to protect breading stocks and when a sizeable amount of hatchlings begin to mature they will remove the slot limit, an over population of fish this size can have as devistating affect on the eco system as not having enough breader stock. the trout do eat each other in natural environments.

there is also the politecal aspect as well. many times temporary slot limits are set in place for X number of years for an experiment and the law had to pass through state political red tape to be enforced.

In michigan we had a seperation from enviromental and state politics, that was untill Ingler came to town from texas and dicided that the environialist had to much power and could leagaly go after business for toxic waist dumpings. Ingler striped them of that power.... Twas and still is a devistatingly mighty blow against those who wish to protect the natural environment for those who use it.

hopefuly in your case it would be the first senario. the way you discribe it, it most likely is.... THIS IS A GOOD THING [cool] means what they are doing is working.

Dont look for the slots to go away permantly, in a management program this may have to be done again, especialy if poaching accurs or other unforseeable preasures are placed on the species...
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[davetclown]

wow I guess I should have paid a little closer attention to the news broadcast, they showed the doser rolling through town on the news here in michigan, I didnt know they had to blow him out. I thought they arested him after the rampage? I do remember it was over him being refused a building permit. (if memory serves)

some times local politics can be worse than state and federal... (who has their local mayor in their hip pocket?)
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[DonInDenver]

It's to me to see all those big fish decimated. Who wants to go fish for a bunch of 18"-20" lake trout with very little shot at a fish that is a decent size? Not I! I was listening to a guide on a local radio program yesterday who said he is fishing 5 days a week on Granby and since ice-out (late April) he and his clients have taken a total of 3 fish over 26". That bites!

My suspicion is that the regulation was changed to promote harvest of the fish that were doing the most damage to their precious hatchery kokanee that they dump in, but I haven't been able to confirm that. Seems pretty short-sighted to me, either way.

I'm not sure of the economics of mack fishermen vs. kokanee fishermen, but I can tell you that I'm not going to Granby to fish for a bunch of those little tykes. Which means I'm not paying for a motel room there, I'm not filling my truck and boat with gas there, I'm not eating at least 2 meals per day in the local restaurants, and I'm not dropping assorted other $$ on "necessities" in the local bait and tackle shops. My guess is that the serious mack fisherman drops more dough into the local economy than the kokanee people.

Anyway, with our burgeoning populations, fishermen and DOW need to get used to the idea that we have to start seriously protecting these valuable resources of big fish. Our lakes and rivers simply can no longer support heavy harvest by every Tom, Dick, and Harry who can afford a license and a tank of gas.

Okay, I'll climb down off the soap box now. This whole topic just pushes one of my "hot" buttons.
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[davetclown]

sorry about that, I do tend to be a 's advocate from time to time....

maybe some one from the state may get wind of what is going on from this post and re-evaluate the situation if they see that the donuts and dollars dont add up...
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[DonInDenver]

[cool] No problem, Dave. It doesn't take much to get me going on this topic.[blush] I fish waters that are strictly catch & release (or private, in some cases, with little or no harvest) and heavily fished public waters with the standard limits. There is no comparison in the quality of the fisheries. The catch & release and private waters are without exception far superior to the others in the number of quality game fish available. That is true both for the warm water fisheries and the cold water fisheries.

Do we want to catch and release a lot of really nice fish or catch and kill far fewer, much smaller fish??? It's a no-brainer as far as I'm concerned.
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[NealCO]

I think you are right about protecting the Kokes Don? I think I even read once that they had determined the water chemistry was not a good fit there anymore for kokanee.

Hell, why does the DOW do half he stupid #### they do? Why do they alow people to snag a limit of the largest Kokes in the state at 11-mile, yet don't collect eggs there, when they are always scrambling for enough eggs each fall?
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[DonInDenver]

I'm with you, Neal. Neither of those things makes the slightest bit of sense to me. And, at the risk of offending some, I've never understood the thrill or the "sport" in heaving out a huge treble hook with a couple of ounces of lead on it, and trying to rip it into the side of a game fish. [unsure]
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[DonInDenver]

Thanks for the reply. It sure sounds like you know what you're talking about. Is this from Oats, by chance??
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[Oats]

Don That was me, I was finally able to retreve my password, so I'm back in.
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[EricCO]

I was thinking about going to Granby this weekend. Should I not go? Where else can I get some Macs within a one day trip?
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[DonInDenver]

Eric-

Apparently they're catching a ton of the 17-20" fish at Granby. Just no big ones. The other place I would think about for a one or two day is Turquoise or Twin Lakes. I know Twin still has some big fish, but I've never fished it for macks. Post a message and see if anyone knows anything about it? Oats probably does but he's at Flaming Gorge this week.
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[EricCO]

Nothing wrong with a ton of 20" fish. Hell, we had a blast this winter catching those buggers all day through the ice.

Any special colors or style of baits historically work good at Granby?
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[DonInDenver]

I don't claim to be an expert, but I've always been partial to tube jigs. I'm not sure color makes much of a difference. My favorite has a green body with some red and black flakes mixed in and gray tentacles, but it's been years since I've fished there except through the ice. High Country carries that color. I'm sure the folks at Fletcher's or Budget Tackle would have some thoughts, too.
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[EricCO]

Went to Granby on Saturday.

Fished from about 8:00 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. We trolled the whole time and caught about 2 dozen 17 - 20" lake trout. Some skinny, some fat. We caught them on: gang trolls with squid/half a crawler, spoons, crankbaits, and dodgers with squids/sucker meat. They seemed to be about 30 feet down and deeper also they were scattered everywhere.

Lake was about 45 feet low.
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[DonInDenver]

Thanks Eric-

Did you graph any bigger fish? Was anyone jigging for them?
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[EricCO]

That lake is chalked full of big fish. We saw hooks at about 100 feet that were just huge! Unless the fish was average and was swimming with us?

I'm going back this Saturday and I'll be in my boat so I'll have a downrigger. I'll see if I can get on of them big boys to bite. Seemed like alot of fish were on the humps and dropoffs out from the shoreline with all the dikes.

We saw people jigging off that rock reef that comes out from Dike 3. Didn't see anyone hook anything but the ground.
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[DonInDenver]

That's really interesting Eric. Maybe that's worth a shot to go jig for them.
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[EricCO]

My dad is a die hard troller. To get him to sit still and wait for a tube or spoon to fall 100 feet would be an act of god. I will have to admit that I am quite fond of trolling myself. If we don't catch anything after a few hours of trolling, I'll throw out jigging as a proposal and see what the deal is.

Oh, and this time I'm bringing my shotgun too. If I see one more person litter in the lake, I'm going to put some pheasant load in the side of their boat. I'm no gronola or die hard environmentalist, but I can't handle trolling around gatorade jugs and crawler containers.[mad] Hell, I even put my cig butts in my back pocket, so the least they can do is throw their trash in their livewell or something.
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