05-10-2014, 02:59 PM
Here are my thoughts on this....
Ok...the first thing you would hope to assume is that fisherman in general would know a little bit about their quarry....feeding habits....habitat preferences...etc. What most probably don't think about or realize...is that there is a huge difference between how many eggs a large adult can squeeze out vs a juvenile. It can vary from just 10's of thousands to hundreds of thousands. So...if you know that...it is completely irresponsible to keep large fish and throw back the smaller ones regularly. Yeah' I'll admit that its a pain to clean three smaller fish to get the same meat quantity as one large...however....if you know that one large fish can spawn 400000+ eggs compared to 50000...its logical to leave the pigs and consume the juvies. Then if you understand that a pig has better genes than a juvie and the chances of more eventual pigs coming from the pig are way higher than a runt...that should sway your thinking as well.
Managing a fishery is actually very difficult...having to know intimately every species in the water is essential. For example....bass typically spawn only once per year...but many panfish species may spawn up to 5....so right off the top you have the potential issue of over crowding of panfish. That can potentially have major consequences for the bass....panfish eating bass fry can seriously raise mortality and limit the number of bass being produced. More fish means more food is required to not only sustain them but also grow them. So limiting the over production of panfish is absolutely necessary. Over harvesting large bass diminishes the gene pool quality. Eventually you can have a fishery overloaded with stunted fish.
So keep that in mind when you fish and do what's best for the fishery...not your freezer. If you find your catching tons of small panfish...and only an occasional pig...keep the smaller ones not the pigs..most likely the food supply is being eaten up by the juvies and you won't see more pigs if that happens until the population is reduced.
As far as slot limits go...its an effective way to protect the pigs and control the pop of juvies...that's really the only purpose of it. If F&G determines the need for a slot is there...it needs to be adhered to.
I know Arrow rock had s huge pop of squaw fish and it was obviously having a negative impact on survivability and growth rates of other species...I always killed every single one I caught fishing Kokanee...but it wasn't until the BOR did an extensive Bull Trout tagging study that the problem was addressed somewhat...from what they told me, they killed a huge number of squaws during the summer of tagging. Last year it was apparent they had because the sqauwfish pop was way down...
In closing...I for one don't keep bass...however...if the pop got too big and stunted I would keep juvies just to thin the herd in a positive way. Tight lines fellas!
[signature]
Ok...the first thing you would hope to assume is that fisherman in general would know a little bit about their quarry....feeding habits....habitat preferences...etc. What most probably don't think about or realize...is that there is a huge difference between how many eggs a large adult can squeeze out vs a juvenile. It can vary from just 10's of thousands to hundreds of thousands. So...if you know that...it is completely irresponsible to keep large fish and throw back the smaller ones regularly. Yeah' I'll admit that its a pain to clean three smaller fish to get the same meat quantity as one large...however....if you know that one large fish can spawn 400000+ eggs compared to 50000...its logical to leave the pigs and consume the juvies. Then if you understand that a pig has better genes than a juvie and the chances of more eventual pigs coming from the pig are way higher than a runt...that should sway your thinking as well.
Managing a fishery is actually very difficult...having to know intimately every species in the water is essential. For example....bass typically spawn only once per year...but many panfish species may spawn up to 5....so right off the top you have the potential issue of over crowding of panfish. That can potentially have major consequences for the bass....panfish eating bass fry can seriously raise mortality and limit the number of bass being produced. More fish means more food is required to not only sustain them but also grow them. So limiting the over production of panfish is absolutely necessary. Over harvesting large bass diminishes the gene pool quality. Eventually you can have a fishery overloaded with stunted fish.
So keep that in mind when you fish and do what's best for the fishery...not your freezer. If you find your catching tons of small panfish...and only an occasional pig...keep the smaller ones not the pigs..most likely the food supply is being eaten up by the juvies and you won't see more pigs if that happens until the population is reduced.
As far as slot limits go...its an effective way to protect the pigs and control the pop of juvies...that's really the only purpose of it. If F&G determines the need for a slot is there...it needs to be adhered to.
I know Arrow rock had s huge pop of squaw fish and it was obviously having a negative impact on survivability and growth rates of other species...I always killed every single one I caught fishing Kokanee...but it wasn't until the BOR did an extensive Bull Trout tagging study that the problem was addressed somewhat...from what they told me, they killed a huge number of squaws during the summer of tagging. Last year it was apparent they had because the sqauwfish pop was way down...
In closing...I for one don't keep bass...however...if the pop got too big and stunted I would keep juvies just to thin the herd in a positive way. Tight lines fellas!
[signature]