Slot sizes do work great for the simple reason that the large fish carry on breeding and the genes for the large fish get put back into the population of smaller fish, some of which make it through to breed for years to come.
BUT, there are big fish that are well past their prime, being the 9 pound plus, 20 year plus fish, that just end up being kept by the Square Hook Crowd.
After a fish has been breeding for so long, the egg fertilization potential simply drops off, and there is a lot less recruitment anyways.
How about trophy tags for lakes that use a slot size, so that the resource does in fact get utilized, and does not just go to a select group that do not have to put the over size fish back like the rest of us.
The balance of the age structure will still continue with no difference because after 20 years, there has been ample recruitment of the gene pool from these large fish for multiple generations before the large fish is removed from the age class.
Drewski
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