RAC meeting in SLC for 2014 Fishing Regs

[wormandbobber]

When slow growth and overcrowding is a problem, slot limits are NOT very effective. Slot limits are effective where overharvest is a problem. I would suggest that if there are too many small fish and fish take a lot of time to grow large, the problem is that fish are overcrowded. Harvest of all fish sizes can be very helpful in these situations. People seem to forget that large fish are usually the result of fast fish growth and not age. By removing fish from the proverbial bucket, more room is made available for growth. The problem that bass fishermen typically have is that they simply do not harvest enough fish. Bassrods has never understood this concept....and many other bass fishermen do not as well.

So, as far as Jordanelle is concerned, biologists need to determine what the limiting factor for fish sizes are--is it slow growth caused by fish densities, or is it overharvest of larger fish? If overharvest is the issue, a slot limit is a good idea as long as bass fishermen harvest fish within the slot. A slot limit where fishermen don't harvest fish is an unnecessary regulation and really useless!
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