skibo5 wrote:
100 people keeping 3 fish a day, 2100 fish a week. Imagine if 2100 fish were kept out of your local creek on a weekly basis. I do agree that they can keep whatever they would like if those are the rules, but I do not feel like it is necessary. I do not care as much for people keeping non stocked fish, but when something needs to be placed there, I think the resource should not be so abused. I would not mind seeing the limit lowered to 2 fish, personally I would like it to be 1 considering you get 10lb fish up there. I usually would be fine with a 3 fish limit for people but considering how low the number of fish were in the creek, compared to years past was, I will stress my opinion.
Sure there are a lot of fish in the creeks, but I love it. Taking a first time steelhead fisherman or my Girl friend up there and watching them catch a bunch is a treat.
Imagine if a million fish were stocked into your local creek... Oh wait, they are, in the Erie tribs (plus or minus 100,000)! Let's assume for the sake of argument and round numbers that the fish are in the stream from September until the end of March (7 months or about 213 days). Let's assume a 90% predation rate, meaning only 10% of those fish return (I'm uncertain what the actual return rate is - anyone?). Over that seven month period, you'd have to have about 156 people keeping their limit EVERY day of that time period, to wipe out the run. And knowing that the fish density in the streams will be somewhat of a bell curve, those assumptions for catching fish won't hold for the first month or so of the season, and will tail off in the last month as well. And you'd have to have a hearty bunch of meaters to be out there every day, catching fish when the streams are blown out completely, or when the snow flies on some of the winter days, and also discount the fact that some people who catch three fish release them all.
Those kinds of stocking numbers could support a weekly harvest of 2100 fish in the peak months of the steelhead season.
While the catch rate for steelhead is something like 0.5 - 1 fish/hour, which I understand is high, I simply don't think that there are enough people catching and keeping the fish to majorly undermine what the run is supposed to be - a contrived sport industry. I'm confident there is only minor spawning that occurs (although I'd bet that a stream I fished last year produces a few wild fish each year). If anything, we should be railing against the walleye who have a far bigger impact on the number of fish that don't return, than we do.. When it comes down to it, its still a stocked fisherie. If it was a wild Atlantic salmon run, you bet I'd feel differently about everyone keeping their limit.
And with that being said, I do my part to support those that have to have their fix and keep their limit each day, and dutifuly return my stocked catches..and then walk the streams that don't have the hordes of anglers, or the upper sections of stream off the beaten path, and target the survivors that managed to run the gauntlet..