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<blockquote data-quote="Riggen&amp;amp;Jiggen" data-source="post: 202069" data-attributes="member: 564"><p>In general trophy size fish have different genetics.&nbsp; Not all 8 year old female walleye are going to be 10lbs.&nbsp; Some may stop getting bigger once they reach 7lbs.&nbsp; The main reason to keep trophy fish in a body of water or river is to keep trophy genetics propagating.&nbsp;&nbsp; I am skeptical about the fertility claim because back in college all the professors, DNR and G&amp;F officials said that mid sized fish were the most fertile.&nbsp; If possible you should always strive to keep a wide range of age classes of all fish species in a lake or river (common sense).&nbsp; This way you will always have genetic diversity and healthy fish populations.&nbsp; A lake that depends on stocking efforts by DNR or G&amp;F officials will eventually produce a cookie cutter fishery.&nbsp; By that I mean that the fish will experience the same growth and mortality rates.&nbsp; The reason for this is that they typically always collect eggs in the same spot at the same time year after year.&nbsp; They are missing the fish that spawn later, earlier, deeper or shallower.&nbsp; This is why natural reproduction is so important.&nbsp; You can definitely see this trend on Sak when we get several drought years which lowers the water levels, which reduce natural reproduction.&nbsp; Until the high water comes back you have several years of catching cookie cutter walleyes that were stocked by the G&amp;F.</p></blockquote><p></p>

[QUOTE="Riggen&Jiggen, post: 202069, member: 564"] In general trophy size fish have different genetics. Not all 8 year old female walleye are going to be 10lbs. Some may stop getting bigger once they reach 7lbs. The main reason to keep trophy fish in a body of water or river is to keep trophy genetics propagating. I am skeptical about the fertility claim because back in college all the professors, DNR and G&F officials said that mid sized fish were the most fertile. If possible you should always strive to keep a wide range of age classes of all fish species in a lake or river (common sense). This way you will always have genetic diversity and healthy fish populations. A lake that depends on stocking efforts by DNR or G&F officials will eventually produce a cookie cutter fishery. By that I mean that the fish will experience the same growth and mortality rates. The reason for this is that they typically always collect eggs in the same spot at the same time year after year. They are missing the fish that spawn later, earlier, deeper or shallower. This is why natural reproduction is so important. You can definitely see this trend on Sak when we get several drought years which lowers the water levels, which reduce natural reproduction. Until the high water comes back you have several years of catching cookie cutter walleyes that were stocked by the G&F. [/QUOTE]

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