11-15-2013, 06:11 PM
I am not really sure on what you mean on the ice fishing pole numbers. I don't know what the one day in May would be, but if I remember the total # of ice fishermen was around mid 4 thousandish and it was a small fraction of the year's fishing effort.
As I understood it the figures were for the total number of fish caught and the total numbers of fish kept. I don't know whether having 5 poles was any real advantage in catch rate. I can remember a number for per angler or angler hours in the ice season. More poles might increase the catch per hour of effort, but it still seemed to be equal or below open water catch rate, but I don't know for sure.
I know that the size of fish kept was about the same as open water and the total harvested was less than for the opening weekend in May. They will do another creel survey on the ice again this year.
I think that the way F&G sees it, is that mainly the total harvest or catch and release numbers are the ones that affect management of the fishery the most. Catch rate per hour is more of a "customer satisfaction" issue.[:p]
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As I understood it the figures were for the total number of fish caught and the total numbers of fish kept. I don't know whether having 5 poles was any real advantage in catch rate. I can remember a number for per angler or angler hours in the ice season. More poles might increase the catch per hour of effort, but it still seemed to be equal or below open water catch rate, but I don't know for sure.
I know that the size of fish kept was about the same as open water and the total harvested was less than for the opening weekend in May. They will do another creel survey on the ice again this year.
I think that the way F&G sees it, is that mainly the total harvest or catch and release numbers are the ones that affect management of the fishery the most. Catch rate per hour is more of a "customer satisfaction" issue.[:p]
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