In some circles you’re only a good fisherman if you can catch a limit of trophy slab crappie, bull gills, or super jumbo perch. In some, it’s all about the numbers, how many pounds of fish you have put into the freezer. While in a very small minority you get praise for returning those trophy fish back to the water after a few pictures and measurements.
Because of these views, we, as fisherman feel the need to pick sides on where we stand. Some make this choice based on peer pressure, others from misguided advice, and a select few, keep an open mind and learn and evolve their views as information presented. No matter which category you find yourself in, we will always have one thing in common, the ambition to catch large fish. So how do we as fisherman cure the problem of stunted fisheries.
Sure, it is easy for us to point a finger at management and pass the buck. *It’s all the DNR’s fault they are to blame for all of these 4 inch bluegills I catch every time I go out fishing.* Its the guys who keeps too many fish every time they go out.* To tell you the truth I could fill volumes with reasons and who to point the finger at. Doing that will not solve a darn thing. What we need to start doing is talking about how we has a group and can fix this. That includes the DNR, USFW, Outdoor Industry, and even the poorest of poor fishermen.
But before we can start to fix the problem we all have to understand the reasons why we have stunted fisheries. Most stunted fisheries today are not caused by natural phenomenons, they’re being caused by the human phenomenons. When you remove to many of a certain class of fish you are setting the lake up for stunting.
Let me explain this idea further for you.
In any given body of water you have a certain amount of fish it can support, this is commonly referred to as biomass in the lake. The total biomass should setup in the shape of a pyramid, where every level is just large enough to support the next level up the pyramid (this is mass not numbers of fish). At the bottom of the pyramid you have baseline food sources, such as Benthos. Benthos encompasses your micro organisms, mussels, aquatic insects, etc. On the next level we have food fish, which are minnows and young of the year. On the next level you have low-level predators these will feed on everything in the lower two levels the benthos and small fishes. Above that you have mid level predators which feed on the two levels below it. By now I am sure you get the point. This is a basic concept that even grade school children will understand. The primary factor in stunted fish is “food sources” at different stages in life and growth.
Reproduction is next in line. In a given body of water there is a very limited amount of spawning habitat. That habitat can only support so many spawning fish. Now, that number is solely dependent on the size of fish that is within a given system. Those larger spawning fish will command more spawning room and spread out further in the prime spawning grounds. This is nature’s way of controlling how many fish can successfully breed in a given system. This in turn will keep year classes in check and level most years. There will be some years where a body of water will have a bummer year class, it happens.
So what happens when you remove one of those breeders out of the 
system? If you remember above I mentioned something called biomass. If you take, say a 10 inch blue gill, out of a lake, something is going to take its place. That will generally be a few smaller fish equal to that fishes biomass. Within each fish species in a body of water you have a range of sizes. The best way to think of the different sizes is like a diamond. In a healthy system, at either end of the diamond, you will have both extremes of size related to one an other.. Now, if you were to remove the fish that are in the top of that diamond you begin to see the diamond widen. You will start to see more and more fish in the mid size classed breeding successfully. These mid size class fish require less room to spawn cause of their size. Which in turn gives you more successful breeding every year.
When this happens too many years in a row you have an over abundance of smaller fish in the system and they begin to over browse food sources. This begins to directly affect the fish during their early key growth stages. Which results in smaller fish. Now, if that body of water can not reproduce and recover at a high enough level every year, you could begin to see the biomass capacity begin to decline. Which means it will support less fish.
At this point I haven’t yet to touch on genetics. I feel genetics are directly related to the top of the diamond within each fish species population. At the top of that diamond you have the biggest, fastest and strongest in the gene pool. If you hunt whitetails you may understand this. This plays a big part in growing larger specimens within a population. The best genes are found in the largest fish in the system. Remove enough of them on a constant basis and you will help produce fish that can not grow to larger sizes.
How can we can manage our fisheries? Selective harvest! Again, 
this is something you whitetail hunters might understand. We have to limit what we take and the size we take them at. This is where things get very complicated with fish. All species have different year classes that are their prime spawners. It is not always the largest fish. Take walleye for example, even though a large 10 lb plus female may have more eggs in her. She has a lower percent of viable eggs. As she has aged she has lost the ability to produce quality eggs so we come back to the fact that she is so large she commands a larger area to spawn.
Knowing all of this, how do we go about selectively harvesting our catch?In a prefect world each lake would be studied yearly. Bag and size limits would be set based on those studies. This could even mean a restriction on how much fishing pressure a giving lake can have. But unfortunately we do not live in a perfect world.
What is a fisherman to do? I personally believe, after studying this topic, I will continue doing mostly catch and release fishing. I do keep fish sometimes but that is usually to supply my father with a few fish dinners. He is getting up there in age and is getting harder and harder for him to go fishing and keep up. So what am I going to do is limit my catch when I do keep fish. This comes down to knowing the lake I am fishing.
Larger systems can generally handle a few more fish going home, and I do not have to be as selective with fish I keep. Now on smaller bodies of water, maybe I would limit the amount of a certain size fish I can keep within in my limit. Or maybe I will just cut my limit. Say, instead of keeping those 25 crappies I will only keep 15 or fewer fish.
Me doing that alone is just a drop in the bucket, and in the grand scale of things may not do much good. But if a group of fisherman start to follow the same self-governing rules. That will begin to have a greater impact. Then they will spread that to other fisherman outside their group. Think of it as the 100 monkey theory. In that theory, you teach a small group of monkeys something, soon one by one more and more monkey will learn to do that. Monkey see monkey do! When you reach the “100th ” monkey, you have the entire population suddenly doing the same thing.
What I hope you all get out of this is if you want better fishing, get involved and educated. It’s time we all begin to learn the lesson of real outdoors stewardship. We have lost sight of that in this rat-race, greed hungry world.
Coming soon!
Part two Fixing fisheries that are stunted.
I want to hear from you! Share with me your thoughts on this, do you agree or disagree with me and why.This is a very important topic currently throughout the country. Leave your comment below or e-mail me.
Also thanks to my friend Fish Chaser for lending me a few pics.
nice article
It really is difficult to get practiced persons on that matter, you sound like you no doubt know exactly what you are writing on! Thx
Excellent info! And dead on the $$$! Now we just have to convince people to C&R!!! Something i dont foresee happening in my Lifetime.. Might be easier getting a spaceship full of astronauts to mars 😉
My experience would say that insufficient harvest leads to stunted populations. There either needs to be a sufficient predator species or angler take. The higher the angler take the more feed is left for the remaining fish to grow and not be stunted. Short of a fish ‘pill’ you can’t control spawning. So given a certain population the only controllable variable is the take. So take and if you have to make it small fish. That way you and I can feel good as I will keep the big fish while you remove the stunted ‘small’ fish.
If we have to rely on angler harvest we still have a problem within that system.
PLEASE send me part two when you have it, awesome information, keep up the good work, and thank you for sharing this information if only a small percentage will understand that is a BIG step in the right direction as we MUST start some place
Dave you can stay up to date with everything on here. Here is a link to all the ways you can get that right away when I get it done.
http://outinmichigan.com/2011/02/14/ways-you-can-keep-update-with-oim/
Whats your opinion on selective species harvest. I have witnessed lakes and people where for instant walleyes are takin home and everytime a northern is caught, they are thrown back. In not too long the lake is over run with northerns. I don’t have anything against northerns. I take them home too. I’ve just seen so many people throw back the fish they don’t like and take usually the walleye home.
Dan,
With out knowing the body of water you are talking it is really hard for me to give you my opinion on what is going on. But a few things come to mind. I would have to wonder is this a Stocked walleye population in this system, cause if it is the reproduction success of those said walleye may not be to great. The body of water is healthy enough to handle them but isn’t the right water for them to spawn. I know of a few lakes like that here in Michigan. You also could just be seeing a banner year class or two for northern pike.
Or we can be looking at the whole biomass thing. If you remove to many of one thing something else will take it places. It could be that the biomass from the walleye that are bing taken out is being filled by the northern pike faster then the walleye can recruit back into the system. This is a really complex issue that has a lot of factors to it. I am going to try and cover them has best has I can in part two of this. Who knows it might even have to do a part three. Q&A type thing.
Thanks for reading and stay tuned.
Youre a real deep thniekr. Thanks for sharing.
This is good information, a correct analysis, and best of all – all of a sudden, we’re seeing a lot of this kind of stuff popping up on the web. It’s GREAT!
At Recycled Fish, we’ve been pounding this drum for seven years now, and it seems like the concept is starting to gain traction with thanks to important voices like yours, Justin.
The idea that “anglers need to put as much pressure as possible to help keep a body of water from stunting” is dead wrong. The truth is that the size class that anglers are willing to remove is the wrong size class to be removed.
The analogy that I make in seminar after seminar is that I’m a little squirt – just 5’8″ tall. Take Shaquille O’Neill. He’s at least 6’8″ tall. So why is he so much taller? Because he’s older, right?
No way! Because he’s GENETICALLY bigger.
So who will have bigger kids, me or Shaquille?
Shaquille, of course!
It’s the same with fish and every other critter. The longstanding concept of “keep the big ones and throw the little ones back” has genetically selected the worst breeding populations in our waters year after year after year.
The best thing we can do for our waters is to limit our harvest, and when we do harvest fish, to do so from mid-sized fish in the population, always turning the biggest ones back.
When you look at it from the perspective of genetics management, it makes perfect sense.
Another part of the equation is harvesting invasive species always, panfish sometimes, and very rarely predators.
Another truth: no matter how good we get at C&R and Selective Harvest, it will never solve the problems facing our fisheries, because our lifestyle runs downstream. The stuff we do every day – what we put on our lawns or whether we have a low flow showerhead, whether we recycle and buy recycled, whether we turn off the lights when we leave the room – this matters to our waters just as much as what we do when we’re at the lake. Our lifestyle runs downstream.
More on all this at http://www.RecycledFish.org.
Justin – we NEED you as an ambassador. I would love it if you’d e-mail me. fishrecycler[at]recycledfish.org.
Great adventures,
Teeg Stouffer
i love it
Great article! Observations are right on in my book. Thanks for writing! If I can help w. your imagery or graphics, hit me up!
Thanks Justin!
Maybe you’ll want to put a twitter icon to your site. I just bookmarked this blog, although I must complete this manually. Just my advice.
There is one top right part of the page just below my header
You can also set up a Email Subscription. So that you will get an e-mail when I add new post. That is on the right hand side of the page.
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Great to hear.
I admit, I have not been on this webpage in a long time… however it was another joy to see It is such an important topic and ignored by so many, even professionals. I thank you to help making people more aware of possible issues.Great stuff as usual.
Thanks
Thanks for post. It’s really informative stuff.Hope to learn a lot and have a nice experience here! my best regards guys!
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Now and then I’ll stumble across a post like this and I’ll recall that there really are still interesting pages on the web.