AquaMan
03-20-2001, 09:51 AM
Have any of you heard this or did I just fall off the truck???
>>>
At a time when most state agencies are tightening walleye bag limits, one of the nation's premier fisheries has opened its arms to anglers who want to fill their freezers with fish.
Anglers who fish on South Dakota's Lake Oahe this year are allowed to keep 14 walleye a day, as long as some length restrictions are honored. Each fisherman is allowed to possess a three-day limit of 42 walleye.
In an effort to make fishing at Oahe even more attractive, a nonresident angler can purchase a special permit for $20 that is good for the entire year as long as he fishes exclusively on Oahe. If a nonresident wants to fish in other South Dakota waters, he must pay the normal $59 for a nonresident permit. He then would not be required to purchase a special Oahe
permit in order to fish there.
"We want people to come and catch lots of fish," said Wayne Nelson-Stastny, a fisheries biologist for South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks. "Our one-year record harvest is about 500,000 walleye. We'd like to triple that this year."
Oahe's fill-the-freezer message is being heard - and heeded - throughout the Midwest. Tony Dean of Pierre, S.D., delivered the catch-and-keep news on his television show a couple of weeks ago.
"When the people at the Pierre Chamber of Commerce came to work the following Monday," Nelson-Stastny said, "their answering machine was full with 218 messages. They fielded another several hundred calls that day.
"Guide bookings are up, and lodging reservations have increased. If you want to book a guide or make a reservation for a motel or lodge, you might want to do it as soon as possible. People are coming, which is good. We need a walleye harvest right now."
The problem is that Oahe has a near-record number of walleye that are having a tough time grubbing out a living because the smelt population has crashed.
"Our predator-prey balance is out of whack," Nelson-Stastny said. "We're really high on predators now, and our most abundant predator in the lake is the walleye. There are a lot of mouths to feed and not much to feed them with."
In addition to keeping walleye, Nelson-Stastny said anglers are also being encouraged to keep other species they catch. The daily limit is 25 for white bass, five for smallmouth bass and three for northern pike. There is no limit on channel catfish.
Prior to 1997, things were going just fine for Oahe's walleye. They had plenty to eat and the growth rate was good. They grew to an average of 14 inches after three years, and by five years they were 19 inches long.
The smelt population, however, began to skid out of control about that time. The huge reservoir - it is 220 miles long and covers 315,000 acres - contained 44 pounds of rainbow smelt per acre in 1996. By 1999, there were only 2 pounds of smelt per acre.
"Our walleye population, though, scarcely dropped," Nelson-Stastny said. "But because they didn't have much to eat, their growth rate really slowed down. A 3-year-old fish now is only 12 inches. They're not reaching 14 inches until they're 5. It's going to take about 10 years for them to reach
that 19-inch mark.
"The natural mortality hasn't increased substantially yet. But it has become almost a stunted walleye population. We have an awfully lot of 12- to 15-inch walleye that are just making it. They're not thriving. All the signs pointed to the fact that the walleye population was going to go downhill. If we had done nothing, our walleye population eventually would have declined
substantially."
The liberalized limits likely will be in effect for only a year or two and are aimed at reducing the lake's high number of 12- to 15-inch fish. Of the 14 walleye allowed each day, 10 must be under 15 inches. Four can be longer than 15 inches, but only one of them can be 18 inches or longer.
"We're not taking the population down to zero," Nelson-Stastny said. "But we do want it to be reduced, and the catch rates will decrease in a couple of years. There will be considerably fewer walleye then, and the prey fish - primarily smelt - will start to bounce back. The walleye then will have food, and they won't bite as good for fishermen.
"That is two years down the road," the fisheries biologist continued. "When the catch rate decreases, we realize we're going to take it on the chin for reducing the walleye population. But that would have happened anyway because
they wouldn't have had anything to eat. This way we're giving people a chance to harvest walleye that would have died in a few years anyway."
The angler catch rate when the predator-prey relationship was in balance was one walleye every three hours.
"That was the Oahe standard," Nelson-Stastny said. "One walleye every three hours for 1996 and prior. But from 1997 on, anglers are catching a walleye every hour. The catch rate is three times as fast following the crash of the smelt population. The catch rate is incredible right now - and we want people to take advantage of all those hungry fish."
<<<<
This sounds too good to be true. Hmmm...sounds like they are going to be very busy out there.
AquaMan~~~~~~~~~~~~~
.·´¯° --- "It all begins and ends at the water's edge"
>>>
At a time when most state agencies are tightening walleye bag limits, one of the nation's premier fisheries has opened its arms to anglers who want to fill their freezers with fish.
Anglers who fish on South Dakota's Lake Oahe this year are allowed to keep 14 walleye a day, as long as some length restrictions are honored. Each fisherman is allowed to possess a three-day limit of 42 walleye.
In an effort to make fishing at Oahe even more attractive, a nonresident angler can purchase a special permit for $20 that is good for the entire year as long as he fishes exclusively on Oahe. If a nonresident wants to fish in other South Dakota waters, he must pay the normal $59 for a nonresident permit. He then would not be required to purchase a special Oahe
permit in order to fish there.
"We want people to come and catch lots of fish," said Wayne Nelson-Stastny, a fisheries biologist for South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks. "Our one-year record harvest is about 500,000 walleye. We'd like to triple that this year."
Oahe's fill-the-freezer message is being heard - and heeded - throughout the Midwest. Tony Dean of Pierre, S.D., delivered the catch-and-keep news on his television show a couple of weeks ago.
"When the people at the Pierre Chamber of Commerce came to work the following Monday," Nelson-Stastny said, "their answering machine was full with 218 messages. They fielded another several hundred calls that day.
"Guide bookings are up, and lodging reservations have increased. If you want to book a guide or make a reservation for a motel or lodge, you might want to do it as soon as possible. People are coming, which is good. We need a walleye harvest right now."
The problem is that Oahe has a near-record number of walleye that are having a tough time grubbing out a living because the smelt population has crashed.
"Our predator-prey balance is out of whack," Nelson-Stastny said. "We're really high on predators now, and our most abundant predator in the lake is the walleye. There are a lot of mouths to feed and not much to feed them with."
In addition to keeping walleye, Nelson-Stastny said anglers are also being encouraged to keep other species they catch. The daily limit is 25 for white bass, five for smallmouth bass and three for northern pike. There is no limit on channel catfish.
Prior to 1997, things were going just fine for Oahe's walleye. They had plenty to eat and the growth rate was good. They grew to an average of 14 inches after three years, and by five years they were 19 inches long.
The smelt population, however, began to skid out of control about that time. The huge reservoir - it is 220 miles long and covers 315,000 acres - contained 44 pounds of rainbow smelt per acre in 1996. By 1999, there were only 2 pounds of smelt per acre.
"Our walleye population, though, scarcely dropped," Nelson-Stastny said. "But because they didn't have much to eat, their growth rate really slowed down. A 3-year-old fish now is only 12 inches. They're not reaching 14 inches until they're 5. It's going to take about 10 years for them to reach
that 19-inch mark.
"The natural mortality hasn't increased substantially yet. But it has become almost a stunted walleye population. We have an awfully lot of 12- to 15-inch walleye that are just making it. They're not thriving. All the signs pointed to the fact that the walleye population was going to go downhill. If we had done nothing, our walleye population eventually would have declined
substantially."
The liberalized limits likely will be in effect for only a year or two and are aimed at reducing the lake's high number of 12- to 15-inch fish. Of the 14 walleye allowed each day, 10 must be under 15 inches. Four can be longer than 15 inches, but only one of them can be 18 inches or longer.
"We're not taking the population down to zero," Nelson-Stastny said. "But we do want it to be reduced, and the catch rates will decrease in a couple of years. There will be considerably fewer walleye then, and the prey fish - primarily smelt - will start to bounce back. The walleye then will have food, and they won't bite as good for fishermen.
"That is two years down the road," the fisheries biologist continued. "When the catch rate decreases, we realize we're going to take it on the chin for reducing the walleye population. But that would have happened anyway because
they wouldn't have had anything to eat. This way we're giving people a chance to harvest walleye that would have died in a few years anyway."
The angler catch rate when the predator-prey relationship was in balance was one walleye every three hours.
"That was the Oahe standard," Nelson-Stastny said. "One walleye every three hours for 1996 and prior. But from 1997 on, anglers are catching a walleye every hour. The catch rate is three times as fast following the crash of the smelt population. The catch rate is incredible right now - and we want people to take advantage of all those hungry fish."
<<<<
This sounds too good to be true. Hmmm...sounds like they are going to be very busy out there.
AquaMan~~~~~~~~~~~~~
.·´¯° --- "It all begins and ends at the water's edge"