Sorry to anyone I offended. I wasn’t trying to be pretentious or preachy. Perhaps there’s no way better way to discuss a bite. I just thought the particular phrasing on the original post seemed to emphasize a group of anglers potentially trying to keep a bite quiet. I dunno. My problem I guess.
Yes yes… there isn’t much room out there!
I assume you fish Pepin… and fish in general… the schools of bigger saugers and walleyes run predictable areas. Many of those areas are hard to fish with numbers of boats fishing different baits at different speeds going different directions. Sure one could probably move around and find their own school, before the rest of the boats start to fall in on them…
I only posted to point out the irony of proudly outing a bite that others had been quiet about. And then preaching that sometimes you just have to go try… after seeing numbers of boats out fishing the same spot days before you got there and posted THEIR spot on a well-known and far reaching forum and then claiming it for your own.
It’s bad form IMO, and makes the thread look bad.
I find it odd how little is being posted for as many boats as I saw out there last SAT. More fishing boats than I have ever saw on Pepin AND the fish were biting very well. Just goes to show there’s nothing like finding out for yourself.
Or it just goes to show you there’s nothing like keeping a bite quiet… Sounds like those other boats were staying pretty tight lipped. Nice report, but you probably screwed your own fishing. Bites can be pretty fleeting in August!
I find it odd how little is being posted for as many boats as I saw out there last SAT. More fishing boats than I have ever saw on Pepin AND the fish were biting very well. Just goes to show there’s nothing like finding out for yourself.
Or it just goes to show you there’s nothing like keeping a bite quiet… Sounds like those other boats were staying pretty tight lipped. Nice report, but you probably screwed your own fishing. Bites can be pretty fleeting in August!
From my experience this year, if you go to the river with a mindset of catching them a certain way, ie dragging Dubuque rigs against the current, you are asking to strike out pretty hard. Nearly each day has been different for me, and I’ve almost always had to change what I was doing several times in order to stay on any sort of bite.
There’s not a real hard fast rule about which fish should be kept versus released.
For those who keep limits of 14-15 inch walleyes, please realize that virtually no female fish in this size range have spawned. In order to ensure that each female from a year class has had an opportunity to spawn at least once, you really need to wait until their 19 inchers. Pounding 14-15 inch fish BEFORE they’ve reached spawning size can have some pretty horrible effects (the argument against slots).
The legal fish argument needs to stop. I could go out and keep 6 fish of any size every single day and be within the law. But if enough people do that, the fishery suffers and everyone gets screwed. I also think most of these catch and kill fisherman have an illegal amount in their freezer, or give away fillets which we all probably do, but is also illegal.
People complain about Indian netting and cormorants, but don’t bother changing their own habits. If you want to be able to keep a limit of 6 occasionally, you better be doing your part and limiting yourself to 3 most other days, otherwise the government eventually will.
Saugers are different than walleyes in how their biomass is distributed. I don’t think you run into the problem of female fish being taken out prior to hitting spawning years. I don’t see the need to keep a fish that has been sitting in the river for 8 years, but I won’t lose sleep if someone does. I’m more concerned with the guys that go day after day and keep limit after limit of any size.
This is my first post to this forum. Very interesting perspectives from across the board. I feel like a lot of the disagreement stems from the fact that we tend to have very general regulations that are uniformly applied over very specific situations. For example, the limit for walleye and sauger is 6 with a minimum of 15″ in length for eyes. This is as true during the April spawn when anyone can catch a limit or a big one as it is during August when fishing can be tough and limits are rare.
The daily limit of 6 is also generally applied whether you’ve gone out every day for the last month, or if this will be your only trip of the year.
The possession limit is 6 whether you eat every fish fresh, freeze them, mount them, or give them to your neighbor so you can go catch more.
You can see how much harvest variation there can be while staying within the law. During August, the limit could be 25 or a 100 on many bodies of water, and the harvest level would not change. The problem to me, is that when fishing is easy, it exposes the resource to those who would abuse it.
If you usually struggle to catch fish, it’s hard not to keep a limit when the fishing is good. If you probably won’t catch a walleye again all year, it’s tough not to want a freezer full. The temptation to exceed possession limits or go back out for another limit is there for those who fish rarely and catch even more rarely.
Personally, I don’t have a problem with the guy who comes down and keeps a limit of maybe the only 6 eyes he’ll catch all year or the guy who catches, keeps, and eats a 25″ because it’s the biggest he’s ever caught. Their impact is minimal. Guides usually take out those types and bring economy and help spread conservation ideals, so hats off to the guides. I consider myself a conservation minded angler, and I promise you, I’ll keep way more than 6 walleyes this year. So who is really having a greater impact, me who fishes several days a week, or the guy who keeps everything he catches the 3-5 times/ year he goes?
To me, the problem lies with those who fish as often as me or more, and also look to fill out every day. A lot of these guys are retired, or laid off. They are excellent fisherman and always on top of the bite by virtue of being there everyday. I don’t know how many are legal if you check the freezers, but legality isn’t really the point. Some have equated legality with morality or ethics. However, there is a big difference between following the law, and taking advantage of it. If you consider keeping anything within the scope of the limit ethical regardless of size, how often you fish, or your use of the resource, then you can never complain about a “deadbeat” taking advantage of welfare, or corporation taking advantage of a tax-loophole, or a farmer taking advantage of a subsidy, or a criminal going free on a technicality. There are ALWAYS people that are going to take advantage of, abuse, and seek ways around the letter of the law. Don’t sugar coat it or condone or congratulate those who do it.
At the same time, understand that not everyone out there who keeps a limit or a big fish is abusing the resource. The fish you see them keep may be the only ones they eat all year, or for several years.
Also, this is not a ‘Sippi issue, it takes place on lakes and rivers across the state for many species, basically whenever there is a hot bite.
