Tnpondmanager. I cant give you eveidence of the St. Johns being over fished because there is none, it doesnt exist, its not being over fished. Im not going to give evidence of other small lakes being over fished becasuse you are right, some may be. But not the St. Johns.

Lets do some math here, just to show how large this fishery is compared to other lakes and break down how many fish i kept per square kilometer and lets look at the results.

OK, here we go. The St. Johns River is the longest river in the U.S. state of Florida and its most significant for commercial and recreational use. At 310 miles (500 km) long, it winds through or borders twelve counties, three of which are the state's largest. With a drainage basin of 8,840 square miles (22,900 km2), the St. Johns is one of the major interior wetlands of Florida.

Now lets look at the lake that has also been refrenced here several times, KY Lake. Kentucky Lake is a major navigable reservoir along the Tennessee River in Kentucky and Tennessee. Created in 1944 by the Tennessee Valley Authority's impounding of the Tennessee River by Kentucky Dam,[1] the 160,309-acre (649 km2) lake is the largest artificial lake by surface area in the United States east of the Mississippi River

Ok, so the St. Johns river system where I kept the 130 something fish is 22,900 square Kilometers, KY Lake is only 649 square Kilometrs. So if you divide 22,900 by the 130 fish I kept you get about 1 fish kept per 176 square Kiloeters. Ok, now take that 176 Kilometers and divide it by the size of KY Lake (649 km) which is MUCH smaller and you get 3.68.....lets just round it up to 4 for your benefit.

This simple math shows that the 130 fish I kept over 2 trips is the same as going to KY Lake and keeping 4 fish over 2 trips. Yes, you read that right. So if you think that keeping 130 gills a year out of the St. Johns is overharvesting then you would also have to agree that keeping 4 fish per year out of KY Lake is overharvesting. Now accusing me of overharvesting really seems silly doesnt it?

Bottom line is all the lakes you are refrencing are mud holes compared to the St. Johns. KY Lake is so small compared to the St. Johns that it will fit inside the St. Johns 35 times. Lake Okeechobee which you have said several times that "if it can happen on the Big O it can heppen anywhere" will fit inside the St. johns 12 times.

So for those of you who are reading this, be known that logic and common sense cannot be used in this thread. When someone is so deeply intrenched into thinking no matter what they are right, a reasonble arguement goes out the window.

For those who fish KY Lake, if you are keeping more than 4 big bluegill or crackers a year out of the fishery you are overharvesting according to the opinion and data here. Now, how many of you actually believe that keeping 4 a year is over harvesting?