The following is an excerpt from a published study conducted and written my MDWFP Biologist Keith Meals.
In fisheries that lack harvest regulations, an increase in catchability, fishing efficiency, or both will result in increased exploitation. In contrast, for regulated fisheries a common argument is that increased catchability or efficiency will simply reduce the time needed to catch a limit, but as long as the limit is
not exceeded the increased efficiency will not produce increased
exploitation. The fallacy of this argument lies in its assumption
that all fishers harvest the daily limit. Limits are not set such that
each angler can harvest a limit daily. In reality, only a small proportion of fishers harvest their limit regularly; therefore, limits
(particularly if generous) may not effectively reduce exploitation (Noble and Jones 1999). Crappie fisheries use bag limits
to prevent a small fraction of skilled or lucky anglers from harvesting exceptionally large numbers of crappies and to signal
that crappies are a valuable and limited resource (Scalet et al.
1996). Given that most anglers harvest fewer fish than the bag
limit, any increments in harvest rates will produce increments
in fishing mortality rates, although the proportionality of these
two rates depends on the level of compensatory mortality (Allen
et al. 1998). Our study results suggest that lower bag limits could
help to control exploitation of crappies, but reducing exploitation with bag limits alone would require the bag limits to be
set at a level that is unacceptable to most crappie anglers (Dorr
et al. 2002).
