Do you practice 'Selective harvest'?

[yooper]

I love nothing better than a meal of fresh beer-battered walleye; to me it is pure ambrosia!

But I am also a firm believer and staunch supporter of 'Selective Harvest' when it comes to fishing.

Personally I have a self-imposed limit of 21" when I walleye fish. Anything larger than that gets tossed back. I feel we owe it to the resource to let the bigger ones GO! The smaller ones are better eating, anyhow.

Those big fish are the spawners and the future of our natural fish stocks. A 6 lb. walleye averages 9 years old; while a 10+ lber. is in the neighborhood of 14 years old. I think its a cryin' shame to kill something like that, especially when there are plenty of little ones around.

Don't get me wrong.... I don't begrudge anyone from keeping a hawg for the wall. I just am damn glad to see that there's a growing movement amongst the fishing community to let the big one's go!

Here's a 7 lber. thats still swimming around the St. Mary's river:

------------------

VEGETARIAN: Indian word meaning 'Bad Hunter'

 

[Deacon]

Nice fish Yoop!
I don't fish for walleye (the river here is full of sauger which, I understand, are kissin' cousins to a walleye, and lots of guys fish for them. I agree that they are mighty tasty.
My fishing is limited to fly fishing for trout in the creeks and I rarely keep any of the ones I catch. I love to fish, love to catch them, but also love to let 'em go. Guess that makes me a "selective harvester" in a sense. I've got to tell you, though. If I caught a really big trout, say in the neighborhood of 4 pounds or bigger, I'm not about to let him go! Guess that makes me a member of the "non-selective harvester" club.

------------------

 

[Delw]

Nice fish yooper. The selective harvest I set for myself on bass Is follows for the wall mounts.
largemouths
1 between 6-7lbs
1 between 8-10 lbs
then 1 for every lb over 10 lbs.
small mouths is
1 fish over 4lbs
and 1 or 2 over 5lbs

My daughter gets her first largemouth mounted thats 5lb or more then she has to follow my rules hehe. smallmouth are the same as mine.

I dont like bass that much(to eat) I love crappie, trout,salmon whitefish etc


Delw

 

[Terry aka Coydog]

Yooper, I love them walleye. Nice picture. Nothing better than beer battered walleyes.



------------------
Live to Hunt-Terry aka Coydog.

 

[DKO]

i personally would rather eat specks (crappie) than bass so catch and release is standard pratice unless its a monster.Here in fla we have slot limits for specific fish such as red fish and snook min. 17" and no larger than 27" this helps maintain healthy populations and these slots are strickly enforced!!!

------------------
Genesis 27:3 Now therefore take, I pray thee, thy weapons, thy quiver and thy bow, and go out to the field, and take me some venison

 

[ShaneFl'06]

Yooper 99% of all Bass go back and 99% of Specks stay in the boat.All catfish over 8inch's stay in the boat.Most Pan fish go back anymore except huge knot heads(stump knockers) and Frisbie Gills(Blue gills).

DKO you can't beat fresh specks when it comes to fresh water fish!!!

 

[yooper]

Man-o-man what I wouldn't give for a meal of fresh crappie!

Once in great while we'll catch 'em in the spring, but your odds are better of winning the lotto as opposed to catching 'specks'.

Its been over 25 years but I can still see and taste the crappie my grandma would pan fry. They were scaled and gutted, then drenched in flour and fried crisp in the pan..... the skin was the best part!

I wish you guys would quit talking about 'em!

------------------

VEGETARIAN: Indian word meaning 'Bad Hunter'

 

[Sparkman375]

Trollin', Trollin', Trollin'...Walleye! Hey nice fish Yooper dude! Who IS that w/ them rugged good looks....what a mug!
I hear ya on the catch n' release thang, save the resource. I personally would rather keep PERCH! (and Northern Pike). Lakes round this state really getting touchy when it comes to Walleyes. My favorite lake, Winnibigoshish, went to 17-26 immediate release! keep one over 26....I'd rather have a graphite repro. and a nice pix! Mille Lacs lake went to 14-18 can keep, all else goes back, except you can keep one over 28! Again, graphite is my choice. The Mississippi river bordering WI. allows ya to keep Wally if he's 15" minimum. I usually keep Saugers about 12-16. Them little hornies are cross-breeding w/ Walleyed and we now have Saugeyes! No kidding. Spotted dorsal like Sauger, w/ white-tip tail like Wally.
The best eating fish...? Crappy a good choice...but Winter eelpout tail! Theres a delicious treat...poor mans lobster I tell ya, w/ melted butter. Why, once I knew this guy who .......:

Sparkman the fishin' magician!

 

[Delw]

Nice fish yopper and Ilove2hunt.

Yopper Here in az you can catch 100+ crappie a night thats for each person on the boat. they average 2lbs each and ya get alot at
3lbs. Anytime ya want to come down look me up

Delw

 

[AK Roadkill]

We don't got no crappie, no bass, no catfish, no walleyes, no bluegills, no perch...and you guys always heard Alaska fishing's great. Oh,yeah, there's the salmon, the pike, the salmon, the grayling, the salmon, dollies, the salmon, the halibut, the salmon...etc.

I don't keep a lot of fish, a couple kings, a few silvers every year. Once in a while I'll keep a pike or two, and I keep as many halibut as I legally can. I don't object to eating a couple dollies or char, either. I have never kept a grayling, and probably won't. Out of the hundreds or thousands of fish I catch every year, I probably keep a dozen or fewer.