Yes, I consider myself a "conservationist". When I did fish twice a week, I released more fish than I kept but the main reason....like Chas said.....you always leave the area better than you found it.

The last 3 or 4 years that I turkey hunted, I carried nothing but a video camera. I enjoyed the sport even more than when I was whackin' 'em, yet, never took away anything from the resource.

Remember this one, Bruce? :smokin:

I really just don't "need" to edify myself with limits anymore...........
Don't disagree with folks that take em. Just don't want to clean them all.

I do keep three to four bags in the freezer at all times.

And when I am invited to go on a guided trip I keep the limit. Figure it's paid for...........usually cook those at the office for the gang

ok heres the problem with limits. Its gonna be an argument no matter what they set it at. but limits are limits and 25 is a great limit. Reasons:
A)bioligist know way more than us on the subject and they know what will keep the ecosystem in good working order. you have to have balance. too much either way is a bad thing
B)all yall that fish 3 times a week, yea keeping 75 fish per week is rediculous, you personally will never eat that much. But for the folks that fish 5 times per year, 125 fish to eat on the whole year isn't that much.
C) people been catching fish for years and I haven't noticed any fishing changes like, oh man we used to murder em last year but this year we not catching any, thats because people are catching too many. I've been fishing G.I. for years and every year I have the same results regardless of the amount of new anglers added to the mix. What about the days when there were no limits, we sure still catching a bunch of fish still today even after theyd keep as many fish as they caught.

If you've ever read the trout masters book each speck releases tens of thousands of eggs every year maybe even hundreds of thousands(id check but my friend has the book) if you go by that, think about the hog explosion and fish will make many many more fish per year than a hog can make hogs. now I know alot of the fish become food for bigger fish but still theres more than enough to go around. And if you want trophy trout, change your tactics and fish for trophy trout. Your not going to catch trophy trout by fishing for schooling trout.

If I bring in more fish than I can keep, I invite my parents over to eat.
I don't fish enough to hurt the population.

sorry
 

My apologies,.............that read back to me like I was a *****..........

Can be, but wasen't trying this time

Frankly, I am not sure a rod and reel can hurt the population.........

Some people catch them and give them to family, friends, etc. while others think that catching limit after limit proves how good a fisherman they are. They couldn't be more wrong.

I give my parents fish. THey don't fish. They want fish. I give them fish when they ask for it.
No problem.

Right on Salty!!

I like making small packs and giving them to my older nieghbors.
Two couple that used to fish like crazy but have a little long in the tooth to go.

Old guy is a PIA but I still like to help him

Props to you and peddler. Nothin' unethical about what you're doing.

I did, that's why I started fishing offshore. You could catch lots of fish, they were just small. Before the weirs, there was no problems catching big fish and lots of fish. When they installed them, the shrimp and fish went to crap. That's when the shrimpers went to gill netting. They were not making anymore money shrimping and couldn't afford bigger boats to go offshore. Gill netting was very easy and you made lots of money.
Before the weirs, the Texas boats would come over there to shrimp in the lake on opening weekend cause their season opened on a different day.
Both sides of the lake was always full of boats shrimping.
The lake was deeper then and the old jetties stuck up out of the water a lot higher. Jr's cut was just big enough for 1 butterfly barge, now it is big enough for a ship to go thru.

That's pretty much the story all along the coast. The fishing in Breton Sound is 1000X better now than before the net ban. Trout in the 3-4 lb. range are rediculous out there now. Even though nets weren't set in the Sound, they hammered those same trout inside and, like W said about the reds, they never made it outside.

The net ban is the single greatest thing that has ever happened to Louisiana's fishing.....aside from W gettin' into wading.

You & W would be wrong on this issue.....the trout fishery is suffering. Facts will be made known before year end. Then I'll expect a big "I'm sorry and was wrong" from many posters on this board. :*****:

Like Forrest Gump: "Thats all I'm gonna say about that!"

When fishermen are smokin' redfish like they are at them wiers....it has to take a toll sooner or later.

I think becoming a conservationist is something that rippens over a period of time. I know when I was young it was a numbers game, getting a limit, hunting and fishing for everything, how fast can I limit out...that type of thing.......but as you grow older it's more of ... slow down relax and enjoy everything nature has to offer type thing, it doesn't matter if you catch anything or kill anything, just nice to be part of it......Oh, and this morning, a pair of wood ducks entered the nesting box that is in my backyard.....that's was just as fun as watching them come in the decoys.

I am addicted to spicey fried fish. I gotta get my fix when ever I can.
I don't wanna kill the fish just to kill them.
I'll eat any fish that ain't too bloody or oily.

,

wait, i see what you did there.....even though I too read the thread!

:withstupid:

I dont see how you can think the trout fishery is suffering. The last couple of years has been some of the best fishing there has been, maybe not for big trout like it was but as far as catching numbers of good fish theres no problem.

just wait....just because your tire is full of air now doesn't mean theres a leak in it and it will be flat in a couple of days.

Chas.... There is no way you can convince me that you can fish out trout with rod n reel.....you can destroy your estuary and deplete fish but not rod n reel.... I would have to see hard facts and evidence....not ifs,or stipulations

I think he means it goes hand in hand...depleted habitat along with sport fisherman, guides, shrimp boats, oyster boats, pollution, mothernature (could be some others) will in the long run deplete the population.

I have fished big lake a longtime.... Yes we have some erosion problems but were also laying rocks to prevent this....

As far as our Marsh....Man can not protect it like mother nature.... We are destroying it our selves by controlling our waterways.....you can't control water from its god given course but what the hell do I know.... I just fish out here

:eek:

:confused:


stipulation; a condition, demand, or promise in an agreement or contract.

W, stop butcherin' the English language! :smokin:

Them marshes don't hold near the shrimp and bait it did before the weirs.
The Specks don't go up in the marshes anymore either. Cause the marsh
stays full of fresh water now.

The ship channel is what caused all the erosion.

Thank you Sulphite for trying to make him understand. Its a lost cause with that one. Don't worry W, you'll get your stipulations soon.:rotfl:

Not near as much as when I was a young man. The things I see the weirs helped out are crabs and Flounder. They killed the shrimp population back there. If you think there are a lot of shrimp in there, you should have seen it before the weirs and the first couple years after. I can hook you up with a couple fellers who used to shrimp the private marshes. They will tell you what it did.
And after Rita, when the levees were blasted open, there were suddenly a buttload of shrimp back there again. Fix the levees and the shrimp fall off again.
Everything eats shrimp. More shrimp, more healthy fisheries.
There should be a better way to fix the marshes than to block them off.

Flounder and Reds are always pretty good back up in there.

Yeah that was some good fishing...trout were were in there thick...

do we let the marsh erode or do we protect the fish? Do we protect people, property, roads or the fish.

We have chosen to change mother nature with the ship channel...but regardless marshes etc will change over hundreds of years without human interaction.

:*****:

the ship channel is also why the trout grow so big

the reason why people aren't catching as many 8+ lbers is b/c people are KEEPING THEM

not as many knew how to fish for them as nowadays, too many texans

yep! Ship Channel big part of mystique of Big Lake. Direct line from gulf to the flats helps those trout get big!

Lots of pressure from many anglers, not just texans, but Houston, TX, one of the US' largest cities is just 2 hours away. They are over here often. Just call a taxidermist in Houston area and ask him where most his trout come from!

So when God created the marshes around big lake were they intended to be fresh or saltwater marshes??????? Is a marsh not a main food supply? I guess I missed that science class when we were told that we needed weirs to control our saltwater marshes!!!!

My dad still often tells stories of when they used to go to "Black Lake" and rent a boat and paddle out to catch white perch all day long. He said it was a big fresh water lake....

W....You trying to cross mojinate this thread with your weir thread??

The levees and canals etc have changed the "natural" marsh...therefore it does not follow the natural course of nature. The marsh is killed by too much salt water and erosion occurs. thus leading to land loss, leading to a hurricane wiping out all coastal areas.

Is this correct?? Yak or Heavy?

IDK...Making my head hurt...:spineyes:

Wow...thats crazy.

My dad caught a tarpon on a sparkle beetle at 210 with 10lb test on joe lanzas hole

you are correct sir! if you think about it anything above the coast should not be saltwater at all. there is no river of saltwater flowing from north to south so there are no natural saltwater marshes above the beaches of louisiana.

Go into Gordons Drug Store and talk with George Paret. He always talks of those stories. Hell, they still catch tarpon in Galveston and in Grand Isle/Venice. Wish they still swam the lake!!! Man could you imagine throwing a big topwater in the summer at Long Point and having a tarpon explode on it!

I think I would crap my pants.

Any of you ever notice the 2 big Cypress stumps in Turners? My dad used to tell me when he was a kid, they caught many bass in Big Lake.

On the other hand, I vividly remember sitting at the mouth of West pass and catching our 100 fish in a few hours many weekends while they were netting tons of trout in West Cove.

There are not the fish in the Calcasieu Estuary that there was 30 or 40 years ago.

the stumps like these? or smaller? i've never seen them..

Smaller. The tide has to be way out for them to be seen

Tarpon still go into Lake P. during the summer.


And to add to med heavy, there will be an article in Cajun Outdoors in march that i wrote that is a VERY simple explanation,

but.

there is a natural process, before the damming of the mississippi river, the cheniers and marshes on the west side of the state were formed from huge mudflats that would develop on the coast, then be vegetated, then the "beach" would be reworked causing a new barrier island "cheneir" and the process starts over and over again.

many people dont understand that erosion is a natural process, but the problem is is that we as humans have stopped the rebuilding functions

thats what I was trying to say!! good explanation Yak!!!!

Where are these located?

I have seen the ~3 foot dia. "rock" that is out west of the island in Turners. I see boats up on plane over near that rock....just waiting for one of them to hit it.

Well I'm convinced cmdrost is a democrat, he believes everything he reads or hears. Spend a little time out there on the water you talk about so much and see whats really going on. Theres no problem at all, and thats been proven by all the good reports, fish storys , pics ,and guide testimonals saying that lake is great shape. Your just like obama and algore and wanta cause problems and try to fix something that needs absolutely no help at all!!!

The old 85 year old man across the street from me said he was catching Specks in Prien Lake when he was a kid. There had to be salt water up there.