01-17-2014, 06:34 PM
[quote Dog-lover]
The Boulders has a bonus of 4 Brook trout from a whopping
3 lakes that no one claims are the result of a successful management plan.
I appreciate your willingness to contribute your knowledge , very educational and enlightening.
Harvest is the bulk of the plan for Powell and the Boulders[/quote]
Hmmm...the management plan of Powell and Yuba are very similar. The whole point of a liberal harvest of stripers at powell is the hope that fishermen will take enough home that more of the stripers will have enough food to make it through the summer and become big stripers (And you know which stripers especially need to be harvested? All of them!) Doesn't that sound exactly like Yuba? Hopefully, by killing enough of the pike in Yuba more of the small pike will make it to be big pike!
Also, the Boulder Mountain lakes have seen the exact thing we are warning against at Yuba--anglers were so concerned about protecting big brook trout about 15 years ago that regulations were suggested and adopted at RAC meetings that would "limit" the harvest of big fish. What has been the result? Fewer big fish! The problem is that harvest has been so limited that now we have too many fish...luckily, on the Boulder the fix is much easier than at Yuba. The "bulk" of the plan on the Boulders is not harvest, but stocking rates. And, since fishermen have begun harvesting fewer fish, stocking rates will probably be adjusted to keep fish numbers low enough and growth rates high enough to create "trophy" fish.
Also, I would say that some of our slot limits for bass lakes are not doing any good to help grow more big bass....and, in fact, perhaps our best smb waters have no slot limit but a liberal limit of 6 fish!
Quite a few years ago the problem with many of our fisheries was that there was too much harvest and fish were harvested before they could grow big....now that pendulum has swung in the opposite direction and many fishermen are so concerned with releasing fish--especially the "big" fish--that we are often NOT harvesting enough fish!
The harvest component of any fishery is a huge part of any management plan...disregarding that component doesn't make any sense. All fishery management plans take that component into consideration before any regulations are set.
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The Boulders has a bonus of 4 Brook trout from a whopping
3 lakes that no one claims are the result of a successful management plan.
I appreciate your willingness to contribute your knowledge , very educational and enlightening.
Harvest is the bulk of the plan for Powell and the Boulders[/quote]
Hmmm...the management plan of Powell and Yuba are very similar. The whole point of a liberal harvest of stripers at powell is the hope that fishermen will take enough home that more of the stripers will have enough food to make it through the summer and become big stripers (And you know which stripers especially need to be harvested? All of them!) Doesn't that sound exactly like Yuba? Hopefully, by killing enough of the pike in Yuba more of the small pike will make it to be big pike!
Also, the Boulder Mountain lakes have seen the exact thing we are warning against at Yuba--anglers were so concerned about protecting big brook trout about 15 years ago that regulations were suggested and adopted at RAC meetings that would "limit" the harvest of big fish. What has been the result? Fewer big fish! The problem is that harvest has been so limited that now we have too many fish...luckily, on the Boulder the fix is much easier than at Yuba. The "bulk" of the plan on the Boulders is not harvest, but stocking rates. And, since fishermen have begun harvesting fewer fish, stocking rates will probably be adjusted to keep fish numbers low enough and growth rates high enough to create "trophy" fish.
Also, I would say that some of our slot limits for bass lakes are not doing any good to help grow more big bass....and, in fact, perhaps our best smb waters have no slot limit but a liberal limit of 6 fish!
Quite a few years ago the problem with many of our fisheries was that there was too much harvest and fish were harvested before they could grow big....now that pendulum has swung in the opposite direction and many fishermen are so concerned with releasing fish--especially the "big" fish--that we are often NOT harvesting enough fish!
The harvest component of any fishery is a huge part of any management plan...disregarding that component doesn't make any sense. All fishery management plans take that component into consideration before any regulations are set.
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