09-09-2010, 10:27 PM
I understand what you are saying; I've seen it at Lake Powell with the stripers. They were skin and bones and sick.
But I still think on most lakes the size of fish is directly related to the amount of time the fish to grow more so than the biomass of the lake. You don't have to be a biologist to know that when a 10 inch bass is killed it will never grow up to be two pounds. I understand what your saying about the irrigation reservoirs and the water level fluctuations and draining, however I happen to live about a mile away from one of those lakes and fish it four or five days a week. I have watched the cycle of fish growth for many years, (they are more like pets than fish to me), anyhow they are healthy and fat even in high numbers until word gets out and they are quickly killed. This is when I hear people say that they are overpopulated and need to be thinned out. I guess fishing just can't be good. I can guarantee that those fish were no where near being overpopulated. It seems to me that people want to ruin a good thing by keeping and killing the very thing that they are there to enjoy.
As for the pictures, there are a lot of factors besides fish population to make one fish healthy and one fish skinny. Time of year, water temps, disease, and old age, we'll even look that that fish when we are old it's true.
All I'm saying is don't kill the fish just because you've found a place with great fishing, you may never get it back.
One last thought to the trout guys, Do Rainbows at Daniels just stop growing when they reach 18-19"? Or do you think they are kept below 20" by harvesting them? Just saying....
[font "Times New Roman"][/font]
[signature]
But I still think on most lakes the size of fish is directly related to the amount of time the fish to grow more so than the biomass of the lake. You don't have to be a biologist to know that when a 10 inch bass is killed it will never grow up to be two pounds. I understand what your saying about the irrigation reservoirs and the water level fluctuations and draining, however I happen to live about a mile away from one of those lakes and fish it four or five days a week. I have watched the cycle of fish growth for many years, (they are more like pets than fish to me), anyhow they are healthy and fat even in high numbers until word gets out and they are quickly killed. This is when I hear people say that they are overpopulated and need to be thinned out. I guess fishing just can't be good. I can guarantee that those fish were no where near being overpopulated. It seems to me that people want to ruin a good thing by keeping and killing the very thing that they are there to enjoy.
As for the pictures, there are a lot of factors besides fish population to make one fish healthy and one fish skinny. Time of year, water temps, disease, and old age, we'll even look that that fish when we are old it's true.
All I'm saying is don't kill the fish just because you've found a place with great fishing, you may never get it back.
One last thought to the trout guys, Do Rainbows at Daniels just stop growing when they reach 18-19"? Or do you think they are kept below 20" by harvesting them? Just saying....
[font "Times New Roman"][/font]
[signature]