fish lake

[sdstroker]

Limits do help conserve the fish population I think and people will travel to get on a bite as crazy as it sounds.  Hell I drove 400 miles round trip this weekend for 20 perch and 5 wally's.  I will be the first to admit I am part of the thundering crowd's...   I like to enjoy my weekend catching fish, not staring down an effing hole at a bobber or camera wondering if their is anything in the lake or the fish are cooperating.  By the looks at the 200 plus people with plates from all over the eastern half, I must not be the only one that fishes the hot bite.  I know it is far more complicated than just enforcing limits, but at least it helps conserve a little.  Can you imagine the fishing we would have if we could still take 50 perch or 8 wally's??? 

[TLA]

Well hell, if limits are gonna solve the problem of more fish lets do it right and go down to 1 fish of any kind per day. Just think how great the fishing will be then. Probably no crowds either. That'll work damn well, won't it? Sure it will.

Ever seen a lake full of adult 5 inch crappies or 6 inch perch that are 5 yrs old. I wonder how that happens? Just a tad bit of sarcasm there.

Limits are a solution that seems ideal and doesn't work. Slot limits work better. Go read some fisheries biologist reports and see the relationships between everything and everything that can go wrong. Want more fish then stop letting farmers use herbicides and pesticides that get into the water and cause algae blooms which kill fish.

Until all the reasons there are fewer fish are taken care of limit size is going to matter much. It's a whole eco system and it all has to work together for there to be as many fish as we all want.

Leave the limits where they are and take the technology away and you'll have good fishing again. Then the amateurs won't be able to catch limits of fish at will. Lol, it's another overly simplistic solution but IMO it would work better than changing limits. Stop filling in wetlands for farm land as the wetlands are water filters for the lakes.

Lowering limits is a band aid, not a cure. If we don't find the cure limits will be one, eventually. Paid fishing in private ponds and lakes will probably be the wave of the future. Each pond owner will be able to optimize fish catching potential because they are going to control the environment their fish live in. They will be able to set lower limits or slot limits of their own choosing. Fishing will be good but it won't be in the wild as we know it now.

[Brian]

Well in todays age of fishing technology, I think the lower limit is the answer.  Obviously you are not going to take away the technology from the people. 

[gunner]

I agree about the technology but where do you draw the line just eliminate flashers and cameras or do you take the augers and poles with reels?  Take it back to hand augers and stick poles?  that would suck

[TLA]

Well in todays age of fishing technology, I think the lower limit is the answer.  Obviously you are not going to take away the technology from the people. 

Lol, why not? Most of em couldn't catch a fish without it. BTW, there are a few places in this country where you can fish and no motor or electronics are allowed. To me that disproves the can't take away the technology. People wait in line to get into the tech free places because the fishing is so good and the average size is a lot bigger.

BTW, what you gonna do with all the lakes where a ten perch limit is to many and with all the lakes filled with stunted perch because 10 is way to few?

All I can tell you is there's way more to it than fish limits.

Genner, Nah, just take away the elctronics that make it so easy for people who really don't know a damn thing. Lol,pretty soon the fish will have no more privacy than we have. Damn camera's everywhere.

Wonder how long it's going to take GFP to figure out that for a few grand they can completely camera Thompson for all of our safety and security and to catch people breaking the law. Oops.

[pbc]

I agree with TLA on take away the technology.  Give me an ice bar, ice dipper, bucket, and a little bait and I'll show up every day.  I watched a couple of guys drilling holes and using a sonar or camera just looking for fish - never did put a line in the water.  Some sport.

Why not lease the lakes to a private operator who could charge whatever - give the GFP a cut - and control the thundering herd.  I would rather do that than waste our national resources driving up and down the road.  Four hundred miles at the tax reimbursement rate is about $200 plus a nights motel for $50 to catch 20 perch get you somewhere around $250.  So I could pay $50 a day and be $150 bucks ahead of you.  So what do you think - lease them out?

[BigA]

I am all for the no technology fishing (because that is what I do now with hand augers, dead sticks and no camera).  Bring back the good ol' days.  But the camera's do have a benefit.  If people are out there and see fish, there are more likely to come back and keep fishing a lake (for a reasonable amount of time).  As a result, small towns near these lakes should get a most in the economy.  It gives people some advantages in fishing, but that is still not catching. 

Onto limits and slots.  Lakes are all different as it was pointed out earlier.  People still will drive to a lake that has a hot bite even if the limit is 10 (look at the northern unit of SD --> Waubay, Reetz...).  People are coming from all over to catch fish up there, with a lot coming from Sioux Falls.  I think 10 is a good limit, especially the size that SD provides us fishermen and women.  If it is a bad limit, it will show up in the lake survey nets during the summer.  If fish are starting to become stunted, then the limit could be raised, but if the results show a good population, the limit should stay (especially in the day and age when there are 200+ people on lakes during the weekend, which there was this last weekend, I counted.)  Slot limits could also work, but that also run the risk of stockpiling fish under the minimum size.

And I am kind of curious about you said TLA about “tax money pays GFP employees”.  According to their website (http://www.sdgfp.info/Wildlife/Budget.htm) , only 7.2% of their budget could possibly come from SD residents.  Otherwise, everything else comes from license fees and Federal Aid, mostly in the form of Dingell-Johnson Act and Pittman-Robertson Act (which are taxes on outdoor related items, fishing, hunting, and some camping --> for those who did not know that).  And as the Department of Game, Fish, and Parks, I believe the governor picks the head.  I am not sure about the 7 man board, but I believe they are picked by the department head.  But there are certain restrictions though, a certain number has to be from west-river and a certain number has to be of the opposite political party of the department head.  I am not trying to call you out here, just trying to bring out other information.

[Slip Bobber]

I agree with TLA on take away the technology.  Give me an ice bar, ice dipper, bucket, and a little bait and I'll show up every day.  I watched a couple of guys drilling holes and using a sonar or camera just looking for fish - never did put a line in the water.  Some sport.

Why not lease the lakes to a private operator who could charge whatever - give the GFP a cut - and control the thundering herd.  I would rather do that than waste our national resources driving up and down the road.  Four hundred miles at the tax reimbursement rate is about $200 plus a nights motel for $50 to catch 20 perch get you somewhere around $250.  So I could pay $50 a day and be $150 bucks ahead of you.  So what do you think - lease them out?

PBC

I agree with TLA on take away the technology.  Give me an ice bar, ice dipper, bucket, and a little bait and I'll show up every day.

 

Technology isnt going anywhere - we are creatures of innovation, get used to the idea.

I watched a couple of guys drilling holes and using a sonar or camera just looking for fish - never did put a line in the water.  Some sport.

I fail to see the distaste in drilling holes and using electronics to find fish prior setting up shop.  Some sport??  Maybe you ought to take up golf -- now that's a sport eh?

Why not lease the lakes to a private operator who could charge whatever - give the GFP a cut - and control the thundering herd.

 

Sure lets make all the hydro units private - and restrict access, utilization tools, hours of operation, limits, - We'll call it canned fishing....that's a great idea.  As a matter of fact - lets just turn over our lakes to the government, we'll regulate the #### out of em, tax you for using em, tax you for taking fish, and tax you for parking.

I would rather do that than waste our national resources driving up and down the road.  Four hundred miles at the tax reimbursement rate is about $200 plus a nights motel for $50 to catch 20 perch get you somewhere around $250.  So I could pay $50 a day and be $150 bucks ahead of you.  So what do you think - lease them out?

I dont have a clue what your talking about here.  Wasting national resources?  You mean oil / fuel?  I can just about guarantee you the fuel in your tank is not a "national resource"...in addition - what ice fisherman burn in fuel over 10 YEARS in South Dakota doesnt amount to what our presidential candidates will burn in there campaign jets TOMORROW.  You want to talk about a waste....  

 
To be honest, with a few exceptions,.. I think most on this forum are a little coo koo, this thread is a testament to that.  If I didnt know any better - I'd think this was a (insert neighboring state here) forum.   

Just calling a spade a spade.

[BigA]

I couldn't agree with you more on those selected quotes and responses.  I guess this is what it comes down to when people aren't catching fish.

[pbc]

LOL ---

Slip- who do think owns the lakes - the government.  It certainly ain't you and I.  And the same folks that own the lake are publishing more and more guidelines for each body of water.  Why not just lease the lakes out like they do the State Games Lodges?

On technology - ever here of Farm Island?  Take a firearm out there and shoot some deer - see what happens to your technology.  'They' (the same ones that own lakes) let you use a bow and arrow.  For that matter take your firearm into a State Park and start hunting - see what happens. 

No one has any other answer for the thundering herd except reduce limits - but that doesn't work on Waubay, Reetz, etc. (BigA).