Pueblo Res.

[Art/Co]

Give me a hint,
During tht last two weeks I fished Pueblo Res three times and overall I caught and released 45 walleyes all under the 18'' limit. My question again that I asked this past spring is that why would you want to close the walleye season during June when you can't catch a keeper in the first place. Not that I want some fish for the table , but it would be nice to keep something if you wanted. Am I fishing wrong or is that these fish are stunted? The 12'' smallmouth that I caught that were full of spawn sure seem to be. Then the DOW stocked I think they stated 160,000 stocker trout in Pueblo so now the walleye now have to even compete more for food.What gives? So has anyone fished Pueblo as of late and caught any walleyes over 18"?

[Neal/Co]

I hear ya Art. Eric and I fished Chatfield on Saturday and caught 19, not one was a keeper. I really hope they goto the slot limit at Pueblo. protect everything from 18 to 25 inches and thin out the hords of smaller fish. I have no problem releasing the slot sized fish, but I would like to keep a couple of small males every once in a while. I like to eat a few fish and make no apology for it.

[Art/Co]

Ditto , Neal . Maybe some day nextyear I'll have you guys down here for fish fry....but don't laugh if it's only wiper....

Art

[dkooser]

The theory (don't know that I agree with it) is that June is the "high" pressure month on the walleye and having only catch and release during that time would prevent us dumb exterminator like bionic sportspeople from completely cleansing the lake of walleye.

Why have those knotheads set "commercial" fishing limits on a lake like Pueblo when 2 walleyes of average size (16 inches) provides enough fillets for 1-2 people? If they keep the present size and bag limits they might as well change the daily bag limit to 3000, if you can't catch one you sure cannot catch more. Plus the DOW could dupe more visitors into coming to Colorado by bragging of 3000 fish per day bag limits. I suggest that they allow 2 walleye per licence per day with 0 fish kept within a given slot limit. If they feel the lake is being cleaned of eyes, just widen the slot on either end.

Over regulation with blinders on for change is easier for them to enforce (of which they do a poor job) than implementing intelligent fisheries management techniques.

[Neal/CO]

Well said Dave. Another thing no ones mentions is the boom bust cycle the Shad go thru. Right now all the predators in the lake are fairly healthy because we are riding several huge shad hatchs in a row. Can anyone remember how skinney all those 16 inchers were about three years ago? What happens when the cyle swings the other direction and you have all these small eye's and wipers to feed? Not to mention the untold numbers of stunted Smallmouths and the 130,000 rainbows they just dumped in. What goes up must come down!

[EricCO]

LAST EDITED ON Jun-19-00 AT 02:51PM (CST)[p]Would you stop fishing a lake for walleyes if it was catch and release only? I wouldn't.

I think closing it the month of June is fine. If the slot limit was 18 - 25 we would have all limited out on the under 18" side, but maybe that's because every fish that is over 18" is getting raped from the lake (Case and Point: the few legal fish I catch end up in my freezer). Protect the 18 - 25 fish and just imagine what the average walleye caught will be. Allow the angler to take home 2 under 18" fish per day, release of 18" - 25" fish, and one over 25", and fellas I think we may have a better fishery. If the above slot is approved, the first couple years will be hairy because of the abundance of under 18" fish now being taken home.

I have lost all faith in any agency of our government to make decisions based on what is truly the best thing to do. The DOW sure hasn't done anything lately to change my mind. They may be proposing a change based on something entirely different than making it a better fishery.

I fish to catch them, not to eat them. Sometimes a few may end up in my belly, but I really like Chipotle burritos better anyway.

Something needs to change or we will end up with warm water Elevenmile's and Spinney's.

[Art/CO]

I think slot limits are a good idea ,but for closer I can't say for sure. Maybe a lower limit on walleye for that month. I like to fish for trout ,but why dump a million walleye fry in one month and then a month later dump in over 100,000 hungry trout? And I am sure those 9" shad had a feast. Oh by the way, has any one caught any small walleye( 6-12")this year by chance at Pueblo?

[Neal/CO]

If those were the McConaughy strain rainbow that they usaually stock in Pueblo, there will be some impact on the whole lake. The Mac strain developed in Big Mac are minnow eaters. They grow big and suspend over the thermacline in the summer, eating shad. Alot of those 130,000 stockers will survive and adopt that finding strategy. That will put even more strain on the shad. I used to fish Pueblo every Febuary and March, when I got sick of ice fishing. I have caught lots of big bows up to 5 lbs there while the water is cold. And I have caught lots on leadcore during the hot summer months suspended below the shad. I guess what I am saying is keep every trout you catch. It's a viscious circle, right now there are to many shad, but when the circle swings the other way, there are going to be alot of mouths to feed.

Have you noticed an absence of small walleye's in the 4-10 inch range?

[EricCO]

I would really like a non DOW biologists opinion on the whole thing before I can argue any side. I can only go off of what I know from fishing the lakes.

Some lakes need people to take out fish and some don't. To me it seems that Pueblo might have too many small walleyes not allowing them to grow, so letting people take under 18" might help the lake, of course it might not.

To sum up my opinion, I just want something to happen so we all catch big walleyes right off of a topless college cheerleader swim beach.

[Phil T.]

They may have solved your problem, although unintentionally. Trout make really good forage for walleye, make them grow fast. My state finally decided that trout fry were too expensive to feed to walleye and northern pike. They don't mix the stocking like that anymore.
I'm not sure about rainbow trout, but we had a federal fisheries manager who used to prove that the stocked chinook salmon weren't responsible for walleye declines. Salmon refuse to eat anything with a hard fin ray, much less a sharp gill plate. Put perch or walleye fingerlings into a salmon tank, and the salmon would mouth them and spit them out.

[Neal/CO]

Unfortunately the 130,000 rainbows are 10 inches long, so they won't provide much of a windfall for the walleyes or the wipers.

[EXNJ]

Try 12 MILLION fry. Pueblo received 12 million fry (.2 inches long) in 1999 and was scheduled for the same this year. I am not sure how many trout it has received so far this year but the walleye might have grown to large for the 10 inch trout by now. From talking with the Colorado Fishing Federation over the past year, it is almost a certainty that the slot limit will go into effect around 1/1/01. The remaining question is the closure in June. I personally think that is a bad idea. If you are a good enough fisherman to deal with all the water and jet skiers in June and still catch 4 walleyes, you deserve to keep them and maybe even earn a medal or that topless cheerleading swim beach Eric wants. It is crazy out there in the summer.. The boats do make for good mud streak fishing though. My 2 cents. Lou