Big Lake revisited
 

In the big trout shoot out in July 2001 there were over 1500 fishermen.
The big trout was 10.2 lbs. The youth division was won w/ an 8.09 lb trout.
A trout needed to weigh 6.76 lbs to make the top 10 and 6.25 to make the top 20.
The winning trout and most of the big trout caught were caught drifting the lake w/ topwaters.

Although i don't live on the lake and fish it very little. This seems to point the finger at W's favorite folks .Oyster fishermen. With the destruction of the reefs ,even if the lake still has the same numbers of trophy trout (which i doubt) there is less habitat for the same fish which means it gets pounded by everyone that knows where to fish.
Am i wrong ? And do the folks that live , fish or guide on the lake feel that
stopping oyster dredging is the only way to bring back this type of catching???

its not just a BL issue but state wide, its just more noticible at BL because it is more sensative to changes in the environment

in my opinion oyster dredges are the new gill nets and need to be treated as such and banned. they should be made to go back to tongs or hand collecting of oysters so you don't tear up the environment doing it and devoiding whole areas of oysters. these boats work an area until they can no longer find enough oysters to fill the bottom of the basket before moving to a new area, there is no sense of leaving anything for the next crop. they strip areas bare and come back later to reseed just in planned zones to be raked at a later date. there is never any intent or willingness to replace what is taken, its just about planting a bed of seed oysters in one spot to strip bare again like planting a garden.

everywhere I see oyster dredgers working there is never good fishing in that area again because there is nothing left but soft overturned bottom muck that has nothing to support life or hold fish.

even the crabbers move their traps out of the area after the dredgers scrape the bottom clean because it leaves a dead area behind that even the crabs avoid.

if nothing else these dredgers should be made to seed 10 sq miles of public unleased land for every 1 sq mile they dredge.

Believe it or not some dredging is actually beneficial, I think big lake should only allow dreging every 4-5 years for 1 year. It will increase the size of the reefs and allow them time to regenerate.

I agree Meaux... And most knowledgable fishermen and guide's will agree.

I have said this over and over

1 once ever 7 to 10 years it will break up muscles off oysters and spread out but not year after year after year after year


As of right now Big Lake don't need to see a oyster dredge till 2030

I remember that year. I caught a 6.26 and barely made top twenty at 18th place.

Just curious as to where these numbers came from.

Get out your boat and walk in west cove 500 yards as that's all you need to know

I was referring to the very specific Time frames that you were throwing out.

Because it took 50 years to build up like it was and only 5 to destroy the core

So actually need to stop for 50 more years

I'm sure I've missed this conversation at some point in time.... But here's my question.... why not just fill the whole lake with artificial reefs and give up on natural?

replacing nature is not a solution, its just putting a band aid on a broken leg. you cant treat BL or anyplace else like an aquarium that just needs something added to replace whats destroyed and that will fix it. artificial reefs take years to start to come close to the same life support systems of the natural reefs that are gone, its a lot more to it then just the fish you might see hanging around a new structure.

are they supposed to grow the fish in tanks to be sure they have the correct food supply to grow to trophy size and release them as needed too?

as you record the fish caught each day you can release one to replace it :rolleyes:

now maybe, just maybe if you start releasing tons of baitfish every day it would replace the lost food chain that the bait fish need to flourish and naturally give specks all they can eat then it might reverse the decline in fish size but at what cost and will you agree to pay to continue to do this for the next 100 years?

outlaw oyster rakes and the problem goes away, they cant strip out oysters faster then they can grow and they cant strip whole areas bare because they are picking or tonging by hand so they will always miss a lot that will be left behind. the problem is the rakes are just too damned efficient just like the gill nets were and just like the gill nets they remove more then they leave behind until over time, nothing is left. it took years before the scale of destruction caused by gill nets was realized, before that they made the same timeless argument that there are too many to be effected in any real way by what the fishery is doing