01-16-2014, 10:05 PM
[quote utahgolf]
so there's no biological harm in releasing trophy fish? But in doing so, it increases the opportunity for anglers to catch that trophy multiple times? I don't see that as bad.[/quote]
There is no biological harm in harvesting them. Don't forget that side.
There is plenty of room for arguing that releasing big pike DOES provide a biological harm.
Sport fishing opportunities, those of catching trophy pike, will increase with additional mortality (ie: harvest) of all size classes of pike. That is a fact. In a healthy system, when a trophy sized fish is removed by harvest another fish QUICKLY replaces that fish and fills the void, thus replacing the trophy fish with another trophy.
The opposite is true in an unhealthy system -- a system where not enough mortality is happening and smaller fish are flooding the system. In that system, when a trophy sized fish is removed it is replaced by multiple small fish with slow growth rates.
So, again, we need to promote harvest and keep growth rates high. With high growth rates you will have more, and more large fish to replace other large fish that are harvested. The argument of "release it so others can catch it" becomes irrelevant because there are enough healthy fish waiting to fill that niche left open by the removal of the harvested fish.
Do you want Yuba to have fast growth rates where smaller fish grow to large fish in a short time period to replace harvested large fish? Or, do you want Yuba to have slow growth rates where large fish die of starvation and small fish never reach trophy potential? It's up to you.
[quote utahgolf]... But every fishing mag, fishing show where they fish trophy waters, articles I read etc, all say release the big bruisers!!! and keep the smaller ones if you want to eat them, SELECTIVE HARVEST.. [/quote]
Who's saying this? The guides. The sponsers. The tournament champions. But who do you NOT hear saying this? The biologists. The managers.
Our biologists, concerning Yuba, have pushed to have a 20 pike limit with 1 over 36". They have done this with the idea of providing a trophy pike fishery for as long as possible. Keeping your limit of pike at Yuba is beneficial to the health of that fishery. The long-term trophy status of this lake depends on mortality of pike. If you want to keep this lake as a trophy fish destination, then harvesting some pike should be promoted and not discouraged.
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so there's no biological harm in releasing trophy fish? But in doing so, it increases the opportunity for anglers to catch that trophy multiple times? I don't see that as bad.[/quote]
There is no biological harm in harvesting them. Don't forget that side.
There is plenty of room for arguing that releasing big pike DOES provide a biological harm.
Sport fishing opportunities, those of catching trophy pike, will increase with additional mortality (ie: harvest) of all size classes of pike. That is a fact. In a healthy system, when a trophy sized fish is removed by harvest another fish QUICKLY replaces that fish and fills the void, thus replacing the trophy fish with another trophy.
The opposite is true in an unhealthy system -- a system where not enough mortality is happening and smaller fish are flooding the system. In that system, when a trophy sized fish is removed it is replaced by multiple small fish with slow growth rates.
So, again, we need to promote harvest and keep growth rates high. With high growth rates you will have more, and more large fish to replace other large fish that are harvested. The argument of "release it so others can catch it" becomes irrelevant because there are enough healthy fish waiting to fill that niche left open by the removal of the harvested fish.
Do you want Yuba to have fast growth rates where smaller fish grow to large fish in a short time period to replace harvested large fish? Or, do you want Yuba to have slow growth rates where large fish die of starvation and small fish never reach trophy potential? It's up to you.
[quote utahgolf]... But every fishing mag, fishing show where they fish trophy waters, articles I read etc, all say release the big bruisers!!! and keep the smaller ones if you want to eat them, SELECTIVE HARVEST.. [/quote]
Who's saying this? The guides. The sponsers. The tournament champions. But who do you NOT hear saying this? The biologists. The managers.
Our biologists, concerning Yuba, have pushed to have a 20 pike limit with 1 over 36". They have done this with the idea of providing a trophy pike fishery for as long as possible. Keeping your limit of pike at Yuba is beneficial to the health of that fishery. The long-term trophy status of this lake depends on mortality of pike. If you want to keep this lake as a trophy fish destination, then harvesting some pike should be promoted and not discouraged.
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