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I just wanted to get some feedback on a situation that happened last summer that is still really eating at me, so here goes.
I love to fish at Twin Lakes, and every summer we get a camping spot for a few days and the family shows up and we fish. This past summer we arrived at our spot, and I had the opportunity to talk with the people who were just leaving, moving to a different location on the lake because we had reserved the spot ahead of time.
The older gentleman began to tell me how he and his son had been camped at that spot for the last 9 days and had taken (kept) several hundred fish (bluegill mostly) every day out of that area.
I don't have a problem with people keeping fish to eat, but how many is enough? I was in the area for the next few days, and we saw very few bluegill, and many many empty nests, that should have at least had males guarding them. I can't help but think this kind of slaughter has an impact on the fishery as a whole, especially when half the fish kept were probably full of eggs. This has come back into my mind as I have been reading some posts on this site from last summer, and have seen others who also noted an absence of gills. This is not the only time or place in the past several years where I have seen such selfishness and poor stewardship. Am I wrong about being so upset at hearing things like this? Does this sort of thing bother anyone else?
Thanks ahead of time for your thoughtful responses.
JP
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I agree they should put up a limit on perch and bluegill because ive noticed a decline in populations. Maybe make them only 25 per person. Because after so many of them how many do they eat and how many do they just throw away? I mean them perch and bluegills are food for the other fish in the places like bass. And lack of other fish causes sick populations of bass.
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As long as there is no limit on bluegils wethere its ethical or not its legal. I recently read an artical that was talking about perch, bluegil and sunfish. and was talking about how numerous fish could stunt there growth, i have fished twin for years and caught few bluegil big enough for me to keep. wether this is from over fishing or stunted growth idk. this same artical did say that in a large body of water you could keep as many as you could catch without hurting the population. not sure i agree with this or not just sharing.
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I know on montpelier res. there are way to many perch and they eat most of the feed and the trout and kokes stay small and there are no perch preditors, So they really need to be thined way out or exterminated, The fish and game poisend it about 5 or 6 years ago to get rid of them but it didnt work so if you want perch please come get them. All you want!!!
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any size to them?
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jigs, I understand what you're saying. I wouldn't consider Twin Lakes a large body of water, American Falls, Brownlee, CJ Strike definately. You are right, it is legal, but don't we as sportsmen have a duty to the sport we love to preserve it through good stewardship?
Over the past several years I personally have noticed a steady increse in the size of the gills at Twin Lakes. The most recent being lots in the 8" range with occasional 10"+. I'm hoping that last year was a fluke because of the weather, but that does not explain all the empty gill nests during spawning.
please keep the conversation going.
JP
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That does it! I am getting my Native permit. Stop the snake.
Idaho
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I agree that we need to be good stewards and eat all that we keep. We also need to use common sense when it comes to keeping huge numbers of panfish. It really depends on the lake. You could keep hundreds of perch at Roberts and still not have an effect on the overall population.
Windriver
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I agree with WR.
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I agree. It really does depend on the lake. The only problem is that the ones that need the most harvest have the smallest pan fish, like the stunted perch in Roberts, the perch with no large predators in Montpelier, and the zillions of 3 inch gills in Johnson. Please keep all that you catch from there.
I also think they need to put a size or slot limit on the Montpelier trout and even take some of the native cutts from there and grow them out to a predator size before releasing them back in. There needs to be some sort of check on the perch if poisoning hasn't worked. What a waste of money, all because someone thought they knew better than the fishery managers.
I sure hope someone gets that carp out of Twin and that there aren't more of them there. If carp get back in there, it will wreck the fishery again.
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I too agree with WR. It all depends on the body of water. I have no problem with someone taking as many perch as they want out of Roberts. I think that if it is a man made lake or has a serious problem with population then we are doing our part as sportsman to help the Eco system get back to a normal and more sustainable level.
Plus, I would rather catch a few nice fish in a day rather than 100 little guys. But that is just my opinion
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If the take is legal and the fish are used, no problem. I trust that if non-limits start to impact populations, F&G will adjust the regs. For example, they include brookies in the trout limit on Henry's.
Must be a bugger fileting that many fish.
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As others have noted Windriver says it pretty good.
How elderly was the gentleman? My grandfather kept everything he caught. Just the way it was when he was brought up. He would be about 105 now. We also never went over our limits.
That being said this man is with his grandson passing that on. Is he really going to eat hundereds of fish caught over a few days? Really? That would irk me to no end. Legal or not have some common sense. To my knowledge my grandpa ate everything he caught and never caught hundereds of fish over a few days (that I know of). We always ate them and never wasted them. Was this gentleman astute enough to know that he could keep that many fish and not damage the fishery? It kind of sounds as if everyone is disappointed in that lake anymore so I would guess not. It's legal so what do you do? Talk to him and hope for the best which may be the kid learns something I guess. As you were/are I would be upset too.
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Whether it's legal or not, I still think it's a case of poor ethics. There is no way that they are going to eat around 1,000 bluegill. Wasting of fish is never cool (unless they're carp). One other thing to note, just like with gamefish, larger panfish are harder to replace. I think it's fine to keep a hand full of good sized gills, but buckets of them off their nests? That's just gluttony and selfishness. Of course, they could have been full of crap and grossly exaggerated the numbers of fish caught.
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Lots of different ways of looking at it. I've many times taken home hundreds of fish. When I have the whole family over for dinner, we eat between 60 and 80.
My family eats a lot of fish. Even with my halibut and salmon I had, we ate a lot of trout, crappie, bad, bluegill, and perch over the year. Rarely does any go to waste.
For years, people have taken hundreds of crappie at many reservoirs, and the numbers seem to maintain. I've only noticed a slight decline in numbers, and a noticeable size increase.
I would trust that fish and game would set limits if it were found that populations were declining.
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Twin Lakes is a relatively small reservoir that like all the reservoirs in the area has the additional problem of fluctuating water levels due to irrigation needs. I'm pretty sure that if you got very many people camping out there for days and keeping 100+ fish off their beds every day, you would have a problem. That could seriously put a dent in that year class. Say the next year we have a drought and there is poor recruitment. That's two years down the toilet. I don't have a problem with keeping a bunch of panfish for a family fish fry, but keeping around 1000 fish while they're spawning is a bit ridiculous. And say the fish and game does decide to impose a limit after the population tanks. It's after the fact and it's going to take years to get it back. I would rather people think responsibly instead of waiting to be forced into something.
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I'm thinking this is preaching to the choir as the rest would simply not recognize themselves. ![[Image: confused.gif]](http://www.bigfishtackle.com/images/gforum/confused.gif)
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Yeah, you're probably right. It just seems like so many times I run into people that keep everything they catch and then they complain about how the place just "isn't what it used be."
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Yep if only more people would learn and use cpr more offten.. I have nothing against catching somthing for dinner or mybe lunch and dinner. But some people there eyes are bigger than there stomach. I know it takes aprox 5/6 healthy bluegill/perch for a healthy portion of fish per person. So for a family to eat about 25 is a good number. It will feed most family a good dinner and there will still be plenty for the next time.. and the other familys that might want a fish dinner.. I also relize that some places it really wont hurt the population much at all to keep more than you need.. I sure would like a well balanced fisherie where there is the perfect amount to sustain there population even under heavy presure. This is why the f&g put in as many trout as they do in twin problem is no one fishes for the trout because the bluegill are easier ffor shore fishing..
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