Thread: Fishing Pressure

Originally Posted by Ranger690

I think if people would not keep fish for friends and old people, there would be more fish in the lake.

I can only speak for myself. I feel it's the change in the ethics of sportsmen, and women, that have changed our fisheries like they have. The "Me First" attitude of some just doesn't work. I was raised in a Scouting family, and Dad was a big proponent of conservation. Teddy Roosevelt was his all time favorite President and Mans Man. All this affected the way I look at the outdoors. Take what you can use and no more. If you want to give to others for whatever reason, do it from your share. Raping a fishery by going outside the laws put in place for all of our benefit is inexcusable. I'll not have any impact on my place in the hereafter by doing for others that can no longer do for themselves, but I was raised to think that we take care of one another without expectation of return. There will be a day when I can no longer do for myself, and I expect no one to do for me as I have for others, but I will know I did what I was taught and told to do. Friends only get a small share of anything from me. It isn't my place to supply them with what they don't go get on their own. But to get back to the original point of the post, from the way I think and do things, my take has little effect on the grand scheme. Those that take without need do affect the fishery as a whole and need to rethink their approach to what we all share.

Agree regarding technology. But fish still need to be hungry. We can all do our part...nothing wrong with bringing some home. I mostly catch and release.

Harvest is conscious motivated. Harvest is similar to table manners. Electronics are a convenience kinda like toilet paper. Outside this, I have no opinion.

Every state's Game and Fish Commission hires , what I assume are, quality biologists. In most cases, it is their
life's work. When change is needed, they change the law. I abide by it. Other than that unless they ask for help,
it never crosses my mind.

I do think fishing pressure can help panfish, crappie and bluegill specifically. If you don't take out quite a few they will become stunted and that is a hard situation to overcome. Generally if you have decent fishing pressure, the fish can grow faster and top out at a bigger size than in bodies of water with almost no pressure.

I have seen the other side of this too, at Truman Lake. 10-15 years ago it was much easier to pull limits out of the lake than it is now. We do fish harder now and in bigger crowds than in years past for the same or less number of fish kept. While we don't always limit out like we did, it does seem like the fish that are caught are bigger in size, since they have less competition for food.

It would be interesting to look at the weight of the fillets from 10-15 years ago to the weight of the fillets now in the total take. Weighing the meat might show that even through we've kept less fish, the bag of fillets might be close to the same weight. Less fish kept, but bigger fish overall.

Regardless of all the electronics & other gadgets there will only be a small percentage of the folks you see out feeshn that are actually capable of consistently catchn a limit of crappie.....most are just in the way....
I agree with warmouth.....keeping the population in check will help with the overall size of the feesh.....

Originally Posted by stormcloud

Every state's Game and Fish Commission hires , what I assume are, quality biologists. In most cases, it is their
life's work. When change is needed, they change the law. I abide by it. Other than that unless they ask for help,
it never crosses my mind.

Well said.

If we don't need them, I release them. I threw back a 2# yesterday that was full of eggs. Hopefully I can catch one of her offspring in a couple of years. I think Lake Washington could use a smaller limit. 15 like COE lakes should be OK. 15 11-12 inch fish is a good day fishing and pretty god limit per day.