Who is in favor of slot limits

[dean nelson]

There are thousands upon thousands of fish coming out of the river right now. It has never seen pressure like this where it's not going to end anymore. Every spring there will be hundreds of people. I don't think ndgf is use to that and someone can not say there is not damage in our population coming from this. This system is going to get ran into the ground. When every from the desert to cannon ball these spots are getting wiped out daily. Its kind of tough for these fish to stand a chance. When there is 40 boats choking off a whole section of the river how does a fish get past that with out getting caught. At least a slot would protect some of our trophy fish to have a chance to swim up here do their thing and come back down south.

Of good lord you have got to be kidding me!;:;blahblah this river has been hit like this for DECADES! The river and oahe have only one problem when it comes to reproduction and that is it tends to produce to many walleyes. The fishing per acre of water on both lake and river is so small it crazy when compared to many lakes in MN. And as far as how a fish could get by all those boats you ever dive with walleyes or run an underwater camera and watch as waves of fish pass by because they are not in the mood. Oahe had length limit after the flush of 97 but the game and fish removed it.....you want to know why. Because the year where we had the worst size structure of spawning females with most fish under 15 inches turned out one of the biggest years hatch since the lake was filled. This lake has never been close to being fished out....we just need to stop sending the bait fish to Nebraska!

 

[camoman]

I am going to start keeping my share of the limits of 4-6lb fish and I hope your kids never catch fish out of this river in years to come cause we didn't preserve it

Very few people are keeping those size fish. I guess you can be the next guy that gets scoffed at at the fish cleaning station because you're destroying a population of fish...

 

[riverfisher]

Very few people are keeping those size fish. I guess you can be the next guy that gets scoffed at at the fish cleaning station because you're destroying a population of fish...

I see it all day everyday

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Fisherman's lines are but a drop in an ocean compared to natural mortality in walleyes. you could ban fishing all together, and the walleye population will continue just as it always has, riding an up and down roller coaster based on water levels, predator populations, nutrient levels, spawning conditions, etc... By slot limit logic, if you banned fishing, the walleye population would be nothing but ten pound pigs, but thats not how it works. Very few walleyes have the ability to reach 8lbs, even with optimal conditions, just like i dont have the ability to be 7 feet tall.

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Id be interested to see how many photos of 4-6lb walleye limits you could post in a season.

Lately been throwing back 3-5 of them each day I go out so I could be getting a lot out

 

[dean nelson]

Yes I'm very a war of 08 and 12 but after those year the pressure diminished. After 12 was the flood. What I'm saying is, is from here on out we probably will not see a diminish in fishing pressure. In 14 it was pretty quiet for boats once every one learned they were not easy limits.

Same thing in 94,95,96 and 97! Back in 96 I think it was i counted over 200 boats between expressway and main street bridges. A guy could have damn near walked from Mandan to Bismarck across the boats. Go look up population studies and fishing pressure surveys and educate yourself on it for awhile then come back and tell us how the eyes are being destroyed.

 

[MSA]

Ive been listening to guys cry the end is near on this topic for 25 years, with a slot being the only savior. In those 25 years the only thing ive seen improve, or worsen walleye fishing was water and forage levels, and a slot would never save a fishery from low water.

 

[dean nelson]

A good percentage of those oahe walleyes become Missouri river walleye. Just,much easier to catch because they are much more concentrated. Here's my question do you think of North Dakota put the same as south for the Missouri which would be one over 20 inches if you guys say it would not help. It sure as hell wouldn't hurt anything either. These fish are getting murdered right now. I'm pretty sure of that tagging study they are doing as of last year 20 percent of those had been caught. Those are just tagged ones. We have never seen this system fished this hard so people can say it doesn't hurt the system but time will tell.

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So let's say this spring 50 to 60 thousand walleye get taken out which I think it will,be more. That didn't hurt a thing?????

What do you say let's do the math. A large walleye can produce up to a half million eggs. Now let's say their survival rate is 1% so meaning 99% of them die before having a chance to reproduce. So we're looking at needing to see if we can somehow scrounge up 10 or 12 eyes to cover your whopping walleye decimation you predict is coming. Ah hell I'm feeling generous so ill let you have a thousand walleyes just to make sure we cover the difference. #$%^&>

 

[sl1000794]

I have what I think is a great solution to the discussions on slot limits and bag limits - Don't eat frozen fish. I know that people that have to travel farther to fish will disagree, and OK. But if you live close or fish every week, don't keep fish to be frozen!!! That's my policy on Metigoshe.

Steve.

 

[iceeyes]

Ok Dean think if you say 10 to 12 walleyes per female make it to big enough size. Of we could protect the females until they spawn think of how many more we could have. All of these fish coming up are trying to get up to spawn but are not being able too.

 

[Kurtr]

I am going to start keeping my share of the limits of 4-6lb fish and I hope your kids never catch fish out of this river in years to come cause we didn't preserve it

My dad was catching fish in the 70's so I don't think you will have any effect at all but keep riding that high horse.

 

[shorthairsrus]

Mil lacs good example of uncontrolled harvest with poor stocking efforts. The ones in the net were taken regardless of slot.

 

[DirtyMike]

200 boats from state line to Bismarck, 4 lines in (estimate based on 4 people in each boat), that's 800 baits in the water. 800 baits to an unknown amount of fish in the water. There are plenty of fish that swim by those baits. If you guys want slot limits, go over to Minnesota. As someone said earlier, shutting down the season during the spawn would be much more successful than a slot limit. On the other side of the coin, if there are that many more walleyes in the system, that means less forage which turns into a lower population due to forage constraints. Nature does a fantastic job of population control.

Topics like these are the ones that gain traction and end up making us all want to kick ourselves in the arse at a later date.

 

[Kurtr]

Ok Dean think if you say 10 to 12 walleyes per female make it to big enough size. Of we could protect the females until they spawn think of how many more we could have. All of these fish coming up are trying to get up to spawn but are not being able too.

It doesn't work that way you need to take some fisheries classes. You need forage and water. The way it is going this year water might be tough to come by. Don't worry there are plenty of fish going up the grand,Moreau,Cheyenne and other tributaries. Do you realize how big Oahe is on any given day at the three boat ramps beside Mobridge we have more boats going than you are talking about now.

 

[Bowhunter_24]

I'm neither for or against slot limits. But I have a few questions for the arm chair biologists on here.

1. Do minimum size limits "work"? If I fishery is full of 10-13" fish. Will not keeping those help?

2. What can a slot limit hurt? Besides realesing fish that are too big and having them die later.

comparing keeping pig walleyes and shooting trophy bulls is very funny. And I'm not even a biologist

 

[eyexer]

No slots I don't personally keep many fish over 20 but if that's all I'm catching I'm going to take some home. Slots don't work just look at Mille lacs:;:stirthepot

slots have nothing to do with the issues at Mille Lacs. Mille Lacs has been devestated by the net. ;:;banghead

 

[Bowhunter_24]

To clarify I don't want a slot. I wouldn't care if someone had a limit of big females at the cleaning station. I've carved up plenty of females. I'm just asking questions which I don't know the answers.

 

[eyexer]

the bottom line is you can't make a blanket statement saying slots "don't work" or "do work". There are many things that come into play to determine if slots work in a given body of water. Slots may work for one body of water and not for the next. And they may only work for a period of time to protect a certain age group of fish, etc. But simply saying slots work or don't work is idiocy. They work for at some times/places and not at some times/places. Mille Lacs is a classic example. They've had slots on there for many many years. Some years they've had some of the best fishing you could imagine. Other years not so much. The past ten years you could catch so many ten pounders it's been ridiculous. But the whole program was entirely dependent on how many fish the natives took via the net. And taking 500,000 lbs a year out of any lake will pound it to the ground eventually.

 

[Account Deleted]

Every year same argument. And what I'm noticing now is it is the same type of guys making the argument, the guys that fish 100+ days a year keeping limits everyday. Riverfisher, I thank you for your fishing reports but here's the deal, you've done more "damage" to the system in the last week than I will do in an entire year. And that's just fine. The river will have its ups and downs like it always does based on forage, available habitat, etc.

 

[Pinecone]

imo, slots can work, until the gfp plucks it up. Remember the glory days on oahe "90's" big fish everywhere, then it went to a daily limit of 12 dinks. or you could have my closest pond Orman, and you can keep one over 18" and three under 15" yep, been like that for years! now you see 10" dinks at the cleaning station all the time. anyway somebody send me some walleye

 

[MSA]

Basically, until the walleye mortality rate goes above a certain percentage, there is no need to tighten regulations. I don't remember the exact numbers, but that mortality rate has never been close.

When was the last time walleye stocking was needed and done on the Missouri?

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imo, slots can work, until the gfp plucks it up. Remember the glory days on oahe "90's" big fish everywhere, then it went to a daily limit of 12 dinks. or you could have my closest pond Orman, and you can keep one over 18" and three under 15" yep, been like that for years! now you see 10" dinks at the cleaning station all the time. anyway somebody send me some walleye

That had everything to do with water and forage levels, a slot would not have affected Oahe's current situation in the least.

 

[Bri-guy]

In the right circumstances and the right fishery, slot limits could work (see Lake of the Woods, Lake Vermillion, and Lida). The G&F have repeatedly said they are not appropriate for our lakes, and I believe them. The size limits they tried in ND several years back were all failures. Ashtabula is a MUCH better walleye fishery today than it ever was during the size limit years.