11-11-2004, 11:49 PM
Tyler-
Sounds like you had a great day on the Colrado. Congratulations.
I agree with you that an actively fished natural bait fished in moving water need not result in higher mortality than fly and lure fishing. However, lots of bait fishermen don't know how to fish that way, unfortunately. For still waters, I'm sure there is higher mortality from bait due to the passive way that most people fish it. So in lots of places I think protection of the fishery benefits from fly/lure only restrictions. I do agree with you that fly fishermen need to examine the ethics of hitting the river undergunned in tippet size, etc.
I think the biggest task we anglers face in Colorado is educating a lot of the fishing public that our waters simply will not support a lot of harvest if we're going to have a decent quantity of bigger fish. Catch-n-release or very limited harvest is going to have to be the norm on a lot of waters, especially the waters that will support natural reproduction or where the fish will survive the winter. There are too many people fishing and not enough quality waters to have it work any other way fror the future. That's my 2 cents worth anyway.
[signature]
Sounds like you had a great day on the Colrado. Congratulations.
I agree with you that an actively fished natural bait fished in moving water need not result in higher mortality than fly and lure fishing. However, lots of bait fishermen don't know how to fish that way, unfortunately. For still waters, I'm sure there is higher mortality from bait due to the passive way that most people fish it. So in lots of places I think protection of the fishery benefits from fly/lure only restrictions. I do agree with you that fly fishermen need to examine the ethics of hitting the river undergunned in tippet size, etc.
I think the biggest task we anglers face in Colorado is educating a lot of the fishing public that our waters simply will not support a lot of harvest if we're going to have a decent quantity of bigger fish. Catch-n-release or very limited harvest is going to have to be the norm on a lot of waters, especially the waters that will support natural reproduction or where the fish will survive the winter. There are too many people fishing and not enough quality waters to have it work any other way fror the future. That's my 2 cents worth anyway.
[signature]