[Outdoorfanatic]

What I was referring to is the reg that disallows taking illegally stocked fished from a trout lake. Biologist say that perch illegally stocked in a trout pond will reproduce and will out compete the trout for food and habitat. So then someone puts in pike to get rid of the perch, however they also get rid of the trout. Yet it is illegal to keep a perch or pike that aren't supposed to be in the trout pond. Why not allow people the extra fishing opportunity and at the same time keep the pond exclusive to a trout fishery. Cow lake used to be a trout lake until perch where illegally stocked and then to manage the perch pike followed and now all there is is pike.

And no I'm not advocating tags on a put and take fishery. I'm suggesting that offering greater freedom on walleye tags where family groups ie: dad and kids or grandpa and grandkids or even friends kids are concerned would allow more opportunities to kids which is what the original post was concerned with. Example if dad drew tags and kids drew tags and grandpa drew tags as long as all those folks where fishing together why not allow the kids to hook and land and keep 8or9 out 10 of those fish. Who really cares what hook what fish bit or who tagged what, as long as all those people are together and all the fish that left the lake had a legal tag. Not to mention the fact that biologist arbitrarily pick hook mortality rates and a lot an automatic 25%/year reduction in walleye tags year over year from one net index to the next. This formula is ridiculous.

And we used to be able fish for whitefish in April at Pigeon Lake.

The point is if we create more opportunities the fishing pressure will spread out the kids will gain a greater variety of experiences and individual lakes will see less overall pressure. However the current policy is to intensify the regs so it becomes more predictable where anglers will focus time and effort. This makes it easier for the C.Os to concentrate their efforts and fill ticket quotas.