Management of wildlife should be based upon SOUND scientific evidence, not politics. The resources on public water bodies and land is for everyone in the state, not a select few. Unfortunately, this 'trophy' mentality has come along mainly from Bassmasters and Buckmasters and tv shows. The whole point of the management of public wildlife 'should be' to manage for healthy wildlife populations in order to 'take' (kill and eat) and not to catch and release, not to grow big antlers, but to kill it and eat it. If you want to grow big deer or grow big bass or grow big squirrels then put up a fence or build a pond. Bass fishing is lost, deer hunting is lost, duck hunting is right behind it, I just want what is best for the resource so that it is left behind better than when we got to use it.
I also believe that the numbers of trout caught by rod n reel is not even 1% of what dies by dolphins, sharks, other trout, pelicans, and other natural factors, so the limit could be 100 and it would really not matter that much.
This limit change should have never happened, but it did, and it will likely be very very hard to get changed back. I have only fished there for 2 years so can't chime in on much about Big Lake but I know how wildlife populations work and think management of wildlife should be scientifically driven. LDWF has very competent biologists and if we are going to ignore their EXPERT opinions then what is the point of even having biologists? Anyone can go out and shock fish and measure them, but it takes someone with some knowledge to assess the numbers and look at the trends and figure what is happening and what needs to happen, they went to school for this very thing. Its a sad day when a few stakeholders can make decisions for everyone.
I would really really like to see something like the magnuson-stevens act be placed across the state for ALL our wildlife for the state. This act makes sure that the management is scientifically driven (although it is not perfect and has not reallly been enforced, but it is an excellent tool if used properly) and rules and regulation changes would be due to scientific evidence that supports the best management for OUR resources, not because a few people want to shoot big bucks or catch big bass
:sent from iphone while at the office!
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