11-19-2014, 08:22 PM
[quote drowning_flys]Wouldn't it be better to have a no fish over 20 and 5 or 6 under, if its going to be a trophy fishery again the big fish need protected and the little ones reduced. [/quote]
this here ^^ is a problem. The problem is that the majority of anglers simply do not understand fish biology. So they come up with a "deer" type management idea: protect the big ones.
the problem with this is that you never end up with any big fish to protect, and thus your slot is no good. If you have too many fish, average size will continue to go down. Eventually, you have a lake full of small fish with NO big fish to protect.
Get the population size down. How do you do that?
A. reduce stocking
B. if reduction in stocking isn't enough, then you must increase harvest. You cannot increase harvest by protecting fish.
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this here ^^ is a problem. The problem is that the majority of anglers simply do not understand fish biology. So they come up with a "deer" type management idea: protect the big ones.
the problem with this is that you never end up with any big fish to protect, and thus your slot is no good. If you have too many fish, average size will continue to go down. Eventually, you have a lake full of small fish with NO big fish to protect.
Get the population size down. How do you do that?
A. reduce stocking
B. if reduction in stocking isn't enough, then you must increase harvest. You cannot increase harvest by protecting fish.
[signature]