02-23-2017, 07:20 PM
[#0000FF]Humble? Moi? Not so much.
I was vehemently against opening the channel to fishing during the spawn. There are only so many cookies in the cookie jar (Walleyes in Willard). And since the shad and wipers came along there ain't nearly the numbers or sizes there used to be. When you put all the cookies in a smaller cookie jar (the inlet)...and let the kids use snag hooks...a lot of those cookies are gonna get removed that would stay in the lake for others, otherwise.
Some of us have spent many years studying walleyes and enjoying every one we coaxed into hitting something we put in front of them. They don't come easy and you earn every one you get. Opening the channel when all the fish in the lake are stacked up in there...subject to "three-pronged dry flies"...is a slap in the face to dedicated wallieholics.
I never begrudge someone else catching walleyes, or even keeping a limit...if fairly caught after a good presentation with the right gear. But my blood boils when I see the "regulars" at the inlet casting their big Krokodile spoons with oversize trebles. Then when they drag a big egg-dripping female walleye in sideways, and put her on the stringer, they claim "I wasn't TRYING to snag it so it's legal."
Yeah, yeah, I know. SOME of the fish are caught in (or near) the mouth. Some actually DO yawn at the wrong time and get hooked in their open mouths. But if you wait long enough you will see the sun come up in the west too,. It could happen.
I respect DWR wanting to create more angling opportunities and to provide a shot at walleyes for folks that simply can't or won't fish for them in the "standard" ways during the spring and summer post spawn walleye feedup. But you don't see them allowing dimbulbs to shoot elk at the Hardware Ranch when they are being fed during the winter. Same thing as far as I am concerned.
And, as far as I'm concerned, the argument that there is little successful spawning in the channel anyway is not a valid argument. I don't fish for walleye fry. I fish for the big fish that escape the slaughter and then go on the feed a couple of months later. There has always been enough natural spawning and recruitment to maintain a decent population of walleyes. More so in the past. Now DWR has to plant walleyes to keep the population up. Hmmmm?
I am personal friends with quite a few folks at DWR. And I respect their educations in biology...and the efforts they put forth to keep tabs on species populations and ratios. But I'm afraid this is one area where I have to register a strong opposition to allowing the wholesale raping of walleyes...and wipers...at the inlet.
About the wipers. In previous years they have been primarily targets for folks who cast or troll lures...and who often release a lot of what they catch. During the past couple of years it has been publicized that wipers eat bait soaked on the bottom, just like catfish. So now a large contingent of happy harvesters removes even a greater number of wipers from the lake each year than those taken by the artificial lure crowd.
There are huge numbers of wipers taken home from the inlet in May and June...during the wiper "spawn". There are some wiper killers who return three or four times a day for another limit. And there are some who have "runners" who take their fish home so they can stay and keep raping them.
All that is just WRONG.
How's that for humble?
[/#0000FF]
[signature]
I was vehemently against opening the channel to fishing during the spawn. There are only so many cookies in the cookie jar (Walleyes in Willard). And since the shad and wipers came along there ain't nearly the numbers or sizes there used to be. When you put all the cookies in a smaller cookie jar (the inlet)...and let the kids use snag hooks...a lot of those cookies are gonna get removed that would stay in the lake for others, otherwise.
Some of us have spent many years studying walleyes and enjoying every one we coaxed into hitting something we put in front of them. They don't come easy and you earn every one you get. Opening the channel when all the fish in the lake are stacked up in there...subject to "three-pronged dry flies"...is a slap in the face to dedicated wallieholics.
I never begrudge someone else catching walleyes, or even keeping a limit...if fairly caught after a good presentation with the right gear. But my blood boils when I see the "regulars" at the inlet casting their big Krokodile spoons with oversize trebles. Then when they drag a big egg-dripping female walleye in sideways, and put her on the stringer, they claim "I wasn't TRYING to snag it so it's legal."
Yeah, yeah, I know. SOME of the fish are caught in (or near) the mouth. Some actually DO yawn at the wrong time and get hooked in their open mouths. But if you wait long enough you will see the sun come up in the west too,. It could happen.
I respect DWR wanting to create more angling opportunities and to provide a shot at walleyes for folks that simply can't or won't fish for them in the "standard" ways during the spring and summer post spawn walleye feedup. But you don't see them allowing dimbulbs to shoot elk at the Hardware Ranch when they are being fed during the winter. Same thing as far as I am concerned.
And, as far as I'm concerned, the argument that there is little successful spawning in the channel anyway is not a valid argument. I don't fish for walleye fry. I fish for the big fish that escape the slaughter and then go on the feed a couple of months later. There has always been enough natural spawning and recruitment to maintain a decent population of walleyes. More so in the past. Now DWR has to plant walleyes to keep the population up. Hmmmm?
I am personal friends with quite a few folks at DWR. And I respect their educations in biology...and the efforts they put forth to keep tabs on species populations and ratios. But I'm afraid this is one area where I have to register a strong opposition to allowing the wholesale raping of walleyes...and wipers...at the inlet.
About the wipers. In previous years they have been primarily targets for folks who cast or troll lures...and who often release a lot of what they catch. During the past couple of years it has been publicized that wipers eat bait soaked on the bottom, just like catfish. So now a large contingent of happy harvesters removes even a greater number of wipers from the lake each year than those taken by the artificial lure crowd.
There are huge numbers of wipers taken home from the inlet in May and June...during the wiper "spawn". There are some wiper killers who return three or four times a day for another limit. And there are some who have "runners" who take their fish home so they can stay and keep raping them.
All that is just WRONG.
How's that for humble?
[/#0000FF]
[signature]