Quote:
Originally Posted by RACKER
I have always have kept the larger perch.I do not understand how the perch populations get depleted by sportfishing.With most lakes having a limit of 5 you would have to have every angler on the lake during the ice season take home their limit everytime they went out to put a dent in the population.I am not knowledged in fish biology so I would gladly like to hear from people that have scientific proof that fishing for perch has been proven to dessimate fish stocks.I have seen proof myself that shallower lakes winterkill fish and this makes sense that populations take a beating because of that.Another question I have is why a lake such as Wizard lake that has thousands of little perch and a very healthy pike population that there are no larger perch to be found regularly?
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Perch populations (as most other fish populations) are depleted typically due to mismanagement. One of the biggest issues is the blind trust a sportsman puts into regulations and one who assumes it is anothers responsibility to manage the resource. Regulations allowing the harvest of any size of a species guarantees that the larger fish, which are more often than not mature breeding females and are typically in an older age class, are removed from the genetic pool of that fishery due to anglers keeping the biggest fish they are allowed to keep. Overtime, the largest fish with the best genetics, which would have allowed their predecessors to obtain a similar size, are all removed from the water and the mean size of fish within the population shrinks overtime, slowly overtime. If this occurs unchecked for a long period than the age class and genetic structure of said fishery becomes permanently altered or stunted. Now, unfortunately many people do not understand what a healthy fishery is as it is a subjective topic,let alone how to manage it, so they assume it is up to the government to make changes to the fishery and make possible the ability to catch the same trophy fish now as it was back in the day. If anglers knew that keeping every "good sized perch" was ultimately destroying their beloved fishery, they would most likely put back the big fish to spread their seed and enhance the fishery and keep the middle sized fish instead. The only way for this to occur is for the regulations in AB to be altered substantially. As for winter-kill, fisheries go through natural cycles, stocked or not, which depend on winter-kill for regrowth and regeneration, similar to a forest fires rejuvenating characteristics. No matter, the onus lies on the sportsman to educate themselves and put into practice the best of conservation practices regardless of the regulations; that is not to say disregard the regulations but when given the opportunity to keep a limit of 5 fish of any size of a species, use mindfulness, and choose wisely.