01-21-2011, 03:59 PM
guideman -- you're still failing to acknowledge that sometimes mortality is a good thing - whether fish are kept of not. In some of our special regulation waters (Kolob has been mentioned already) harvest of fish is so low that bait regulations are allowed simply so that fish mortality is increased. Regardless of whether or not the fish are kept or let go, bait fishing can help with fish mortality where harvest may not be high enough. Think Middle Provo River. This section was previously artificial flies and lures only with restrictive harvest regulations. Why? Nobody kept fish at all, no matter what the regulations. So, bait fishing was allowed with the whole idea being that some mortality was needed -- whether the fish were kept or not, some fish needed to die!
As for Strawberry -- plenty of comments have already been made stating the the current regulations must be working, because there are plenty of large fish for the angling hoards. Don't fix what ain't broke.
So I guess the big question here is: Which lakes with slot limits that allow bait fishing have a problem with too high mortality rate of those slot fish? I can't think of any.
On the other hand, maybe a lake like Paragonah Reservoir (a reservoir with a self-sustaining population of wild rainbow trout) could use a regulation change that allows ONLY bait fishing with trebble hooks? There are plain too many fish in that lake, and higher mortality (whether or not anglers keep the fish makes no difference) could actually improve the average size of fish in that lake.
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As for Strawberry -- plenty of comments have already been made stating the the current regulations must be working, because there are plenty of large fish for the angling hoards. Don't fix what ain't broke.
So I guess the big question here is: Which lakes with slot limits that allow bait fishing have a problem with too high mortality rate of those slot fish? I can't think of any.
On the other hand, maybe a lake like Paragonah Reservoir (a reservoir with a self-sustaining population of wild rainbow trout) could use a regulation change that allows ONLY bait fishing with trebble hooks? There are plain too many fish in that lake, and higher mortality (whether or not anglers keep the fish makes no difference) could actually improve the average size of fish in that lake.
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