Is it just for conservation that the fish are released? .. or do people just not want to eat them with all the heatlh problems associated with them? Alot of the poor dont care, but how many of them are really reaching their limits anyway? Basically teh manageemtn plan above says that few anglers reach their creel limit anyway but they did show that 1% of people kept their limit in 87'. I do think that number will be more lower today due to Hg problems... ahh ... wasting time, its an interesting read though. Anyway, Ill just say i do support more limits but have no problem if people keep their limit of fish to eat as i have faith in the DEP guys to make a good decision on optimum yeild that represents the CT angler.
#587796 - 11/25/0512:39 AM
Re: Creel limit for Bass
Bass Rebel
Member
Registered: 08/08/05
Posts: 1397
Loc: Watertown, CT
Chris, I've kept 6 fish the whole season, the 6 that started all this, but that doesn't matter if it was only 1 fish, seems 1 fish is 1 to many for some people.
Jim, I'm all for changing the creel limit for winter (Ice Fishing) months, my reasoning for this? Well if you change the creel limit to 2 or 3 fish a day, then people will just keep more fish per day and there won't make a difference. For example lets say I fished on Sat and I caught 5 fish currently and decided to keep them, if I then fished on Sunday they would all go back in. If the limit was changed to say 3 fish and I caught 3 on Sat, chances are if I fished Sunday and caught 2-3 fish I'd keep them too...so nothing would have changed. Myself, I usally only keep 4-6 fish an entire season, so a creel limit wouldn't hurt me in the least if it was 2-3 all year long I'd just get them spread out over the season. Now ice fishing is a different story, and this is just my view because I don't ice fish, so it would be different for people that don't fish during warmer months and only ice fish I'm sure. But if the creel is limited during those months then they would have to go out in the cold for more days to get more bass which would probablly not happen. Again a creel limit all year long lower then what it is I don't think would be effective on what your trying to accomplish. Do you know what the percentage is of people that C&R against those that LEGALLY keep is? Not sure myself, but I bet it's pretty high, meaning that the overall percentage of people keeping bass to eat legally is probablly relatively low and not a threat in the least to the fisheries. Those that go out and harvest above the limit, and also multiple times above the limit during the year can and do I'm sure affect the fisheries. That's why DEP has a creel limit in effect, they know what's best for the fisheries. Again I'm all for a creel limit in the winter months and would be happy to help out on getting that changed any way I can.
#587802 - 02/14/0602:27 PM
Re: Creel limit for Bass
KWK
Member
Registered: 01/27/03
Posts: 4607
Loc: TN
The problem as I see it is three fold;1)micro managing every body of water by the DEP is out of the question.2)There are social issues involved which can not placed into neat little statistical niches.3)I believe the DEP has done enough surveys over the years to determine the overall effect of tournaments,sportfishing in general,ice fishing and fishing during the spawn(I personally will not site fish a bedding bass)I have to give the nod to the bioligists.Perhaps it is time for a mail in survey at seasons end for all license holders(or quantifying percentage),plenty of empirical data exists from other states but again the differing "social "issues come into play,apples and oranges so to speak,you can not compare fisherman in Texas to their counterparts here in CT.here there are lots of people who fish trout only,less pressure on other species not stocked on a regular basis.I do have one question,if it is recomended generally not to eat fish from the housatonic why is there even a limit on bass,even the one meal a month thing scares me,yikes.
Previous Topic
Index