09-03-2014, 11:16 PM
[quote utahgolf]
But as soon as a fishery starts growing big fish, the word gets out and pressure increases exponentially. So saying current regulations grew the big fish so keep it the same, really isn't the whole truth if you don't factor in pressure before and after. Yuba is a prime example! No one was really fishing yuba, yuba starts growing big and plentiful fish under very little pressure. Then the word gets out...[/quote]
Lee's Ferry is a better example. In the 70's rainbow trout were growing to 15lbs regularly -- without any type of forage fish, by the way. Word got out, as good fishing typically does. Popularity increased, and anglers screamed for protection of those big fish. Guess what? Protection came. Today you can't find a 20" rainbow trout. Why is that? pressure? No. It's because there is no harvest. Too many fish. Protection ruined that fishery.
Yuba is no different. Pressure only affects a fishery if anglers are keeping too many fish; ie: is the bottleneck angler harvest? Can the pike reproduce faster than anglers can keep them? That's the DWR's fear at Yuba, and it isn't a far-fetched idea. We've seen it happen over, and over, and over again. Yet anglers continue to say the same thing: protect the big ones!
Look at McGath on the Boulder. Same thing. People started to worry about all those big fish getting harvested through the ice. So, anglers cry "foul!" and get regulations changed so that ice fishing is restricted. Fast forward to today, and what do you have? Smaller average size fish in McGath. Why? Because we protected something that didn't need it.
Why do you think so many lakes are being proposed opened for ice fishing again? Because the protection anglers asked for isn't helping the fisheries.
History has a bad habit of repeating itself. Too bad.
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But as soon as a fishery starts growing big fish, the word gets out and pressure increases exponentially. So saying current regulations grew the big fish so keep it the same, really isn't the whole truth if you don't factor in pressure before and after. Yuba is a prime example! No one was really fishing yuba, yuba starts growing big and plentiful fish under very little pressure. Then the word gets out...[/quote]
Lee's Ferry is a better example. In the 70's rainbow trout were growing to 15lbs regularly -- without any type of forage fish, by the way. Word got out, as good fishing typically does. Popularity increased, and anglers screamed for protection of those big fish. Guess what? Protection came. Today you can't find a 20" rainbow trout. Why is that? pressure? No. It's because there is no harvest. Too many fish. Protection ruined that fishery.
Yuba is no different. Pressure only affects a fishery if anglers are keeping too many fish; ie: is the bottleneck angler harvest? Can the pike reproduce faster than anglers can keep them? That's the DWR's fear at Yuba, and it isn't a far-fetched idea. We've seen it happen over, and over, and over again. Yet anglers continue to say the same thing: protect the big ones!
Look at McGath on the Boulder. Same thing. People started to worry about all those big fish getting harvested through the ice. So, anglers cry "foul!" and get regulations changed so that ice fishing is restricted. Fast forward to today, and what do you have? Smaller average size fish in McGath. Why? Because we protected something that didn't need it.
Why do you think so many lakes are being proposed opened for ice fishing again? Because the protection anglers asked for isn't helping the fisheries.
History has a bad habit of repeating itself. Too bad.
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