Those guys that are killing a limit of eaters killed fish that could potentially spawn for years and years. How long do 10 lb + fish have left. The fishery will be just fine.
I’ll agree to disagree because you’re missing the point. The typical angler is out to catch their limit and head in, they kill maybe 10-15 eyes depending how many are fishing in the boat and they’re using the fish for table fair so they aren’t going to waste. Tourney guy prefishing might put a 100 fish in the boat each day and they keep none most of the time. I’m willing to bet more than 15 a day don’t make it……and those are just completely wasted. Especially this time of year, when a substantial amount of the fish are 35+ feet deep. Mortality rate studies show somewhere between 10-30% mortality rate from 30-45 feet of water.
I’m not the slightest bit concerned about the fishery or the couple handfuls of big fish they drag in for weigh in, it’s more about the numbers they pull prefishing at this time of the year when several of them will fish deep. We have plenty of local tournaments that pull more fish throughout the year.
If you want to talk spawning, that 28” eye is going to lay about 5 times the amount of eggs a 17” eye will drop. How’s that work into your calcs………
Honestly, I could give a shit to sit here and argue the nonsense and without going further into the snake pit, the real point is it’s hard to ignore what happens during late season tournaments on the big lake which apparently is just fine, but when the everyday anglers and weekend warrior do the same they would get absolutely chastised by the NDA community and angling peanut gallery for releasing fish from the deep or keeping a big fish through the season. It’s the double standard that’s the issue at hand.
