There goes the slot

[Smalls]

Originally Posted by saodma

Well I see this as a sad day for Vernon. The lake is great and in a few years will be just another Bun****s or Anacoco. Small fish will be the norm. There are plenty of placed to catch a mess to eat. Slots do work just look at Lake Fork. It is funny that Mississippi, Texas and Arkansas all have better Bass fishing for size than LA. We can not manage fish to save our lives. Vernon needed more forage not a no size 10 fish limit.

But if they were leaving too many fish, which sounds like the reason for the change, couldn't that be a reason for insufficient forage? What is easier to do, directly increase forage by releasing 1000s of minnows and other bait fish? Or removing the slot limit and allowing any fish to be kept?

[MathGeek]

Originally Posted by Smalls

But if they were leaving too many fish, which sounds like the reason for the change, couldn't that be a reason for insufficient forage? What is easier to do, directly increase forage by releasing 1000s of minnows and other bait fish? Or removing the slot limit and allowing any fish to be kept?

Right. One scientific requirement for slot limits to be effective is that there needs to be sufficient forage (relative to the population) for individuals to maintain fast growth rates.

If growth rates are limited by lack of forage, slots don't work because most of the population can end up stunted.

Another scientific requirement for slots to be effective is that mortality within the population needs to be dominated by harvest. If non-harvest factors dominate mortality, restrictive slot limits don't preserve individuals to breed or be harvested later at a larger size, but to die of some non-harvest cause instead of being enjoyed on the table.