So guides are increasing, buying equipment maybe land and turning a profit and catching fish.
North Dakotans are spending money fishing/camping/gas/ local establishments and catching fish.
I can see the problem here … should probably put together a grass roots petition and lobby it to lawmakers to close Devils Lake every other year to fishing, this way the lake has time to reproduce saving money for the G&F stocking it and all these people spending money trying to catch fish out of it … I mean that is essentially what most of you are saying… #skyisfalling
I'm not advocating for any less guides or fishermen. If guides area already documenting clients and catches though, it'd be plenty simple for them to snap a pic and text or e-mail that to G&F biologists. I would think it'd be a more consistent data set than what they currently get from weekend creel census takers.
If I were to be granted 1 wish regarding the management of the Devil's Lake basin it would be a SIGNIFICANT increase in active enforcement of just the laws and regulations we already have. Aggressive active enforcement of ANS and bag/possession limits would be a great 1st focus. G&F checkpoints at Lakota, Cando, corner of Hwy's 1 and 20, 2 and 281, 57 and 20, 57 and 281.
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Living in DL i constantly hear people bitching about the guides keeping too many big fish. So, you're saying you now want them to report this and then use their size numbers to brag and advertise about? All these guides in a contest all summer and winter to log the most and biggest fish averages. And this will help how?
By giving fisheries biologists a consistent valid source of catch/kill data. If guides are already keeping the data, it's no thing to snap a pic and text/e-mail it to a G&F repository for the data. In return for providing the data to G&F, the guides have useable data. In my simple little mind, I figure those who are unwilling to send a text/e-mail of data they should already be keeping up to date, might be those most guilty of allowing their clients to skirt regulations. In other words, weed out the slobs. A guide with a real mind for business and maximizing their profits would already be building their own excel sheets with most of this data anyway. "Over the last 5 yrs, the trend has been that the best time to be here for #'s of fish is between X and Y dates." Or, "If you like to slip-bobber, come @ this time, if you want to troll cranks, our best weeks are A-B, if you want to cast cranks or plastics the peak is weeks M-O, and our biggest fish are taken between W-V dates." Imagine how much extra one could charge a client by not only telling them what they want to hear, but being able to show them the data to back it up.
