I've said this before on another reg discussion, but people confuse the slot size for managing fish when it's really meant to manage people, and the amount of pressure that people put on a fishery, which in Alberta, can be a lot depending on the lake.
That being said, what RavYak is suggesting is a minimum size limit to protect the fish up until after they've had a chance to spawn a few times, and then pair that with a slot size that hopefully protects fish over a certain size, so hopefully you'd get a few big fish that go through the slot. I think it's an interesting idea, I like it. But like others have said, you can tell when you're fishing a minimum size limit lake.... the fish can be pretty scarce once you reach that magic number.... So I wonder how many would actually make it through at the end of the day. Good experiment to try, anyway.
Then you've got the enforcement issue, people pinching those tails extra hard on one end and trimming the tails on the other to stay in that size limit.... Somebody in this thread suggested more officers on the landscape, but that's not exactly free and easy either. There are no magical solutions to ecology, friends.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MrDave
So you are complaining about not catching 50 pike a night anymore? At 5-10% release mortality, is there any wonder the pike population collapsed? How many others were doing that?
That guy who has all the university education, probably knew what he was talking about. Not like those walleye you are complaining about ate them. What reason do you have for those pike dying?
Reread what you wrote. To me, it looks like you are a big part of the loss of a pike fishery. Reminds me of the old farts I grew up with. "We used to haul home gunny bags full of pike. Fishing sure isn't what it used to be....."
|