Quote:
Originally Posted by MikeF-NH
I'm sure Dan would concur that the current fishing drought is not because of the derby but is because of the state of the stocking program over the past few years with very small smolt being stocked and almost completely eaten.
|
I concur with this 100%! The derby is / was not the cause of the salmon demise in the lake. With that being said, I do disagree that only the 200 boarded fish during the derby impact the lake...I would quadruple that amount due to the amount that die due to mishandling, hook wounding, etc, etc. Those unknown numbers cannot be discounted. In years past the lake could easily handle this culling of salmon annually as all age classes were strong. Not so now.
With the missing age classes and salmon numbers so low now I just wish they would have reconfigured the derby to not include salmon as a prize fish. The lake has more lake trout than it knows what to do with, People fish the bottom for lake trout, not the upper water column where salmon are in Early June. They should have made lakers the prize fish and the impact would have been less severe in my opinion. I also feel by doing so would have made more people aware of the issue going on. As hard as I have tried to make people / fishermen aware of the issue, it wasn’t enough...
I want to be perfectly clear on something...I am not a biologist, we have spoken to the state and their biologist and in their opinion the derby has a negligible effect on the salmon numbers....while I may disagree with this, they are the ones we pay to safeguard our resources and Biologist John Viar in particular I have a lot respect for! What I don’t understand is the first derby on the lake was started to reduce salmon numbers due to over stocking and a shortage of smelt in the lake. Back then the State bragged how successful the derby was in reducing salmon numbers and helping the lake regain the smelt population and salmon age classes. Why is it different now?....
I have a love hate relationship with the derby. I feel it brings out the best and worst in people. Unfortunately as soon as you add money and prizes to anything the dark side rears its ugly head. I guess I just could never understand why you need to add money and prizes to take your family fishing.... I wish everyone fished the derby the way Mike F does. He is class act sportsmen and enjoys the the derby for the right reason! Not everyone fishes it like Mike though...
As far as guides go, my opinion is there is only a few of them (good ones) on the lake. Most of them teach their customers how to handle fish and the importance of catch and release and when to cull a fish. Right now if the guides are catching two salmon per outing, that would be considered good...only believe 50% what is posted on some of these fishing related chat rooms! Fishermen are known liars! ��
Dan