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Protect the Panfish Too


huskiesplayer15

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Do people now in this day and age where we preach c&r, do we need to inact a season to protect the panfish when they are spawning? People say no but then why are the limits dropping? i know we didnt need 15 crappies and abucketful of sunfish but whould having a season help a lake that much? How bad would the economic situation react? If you had a choice what would the season be? If my opinion means anything i would say from ice-out to three weeks later or just open it all on the 15th. Just stirring the pot.
Best Fishes
Chris

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Personally I don't believe closed season's accomplish much good and are moslty a farse as far as a legitimately conserving the resource. The important thing is not closing a season but encouraging selective harvest and catch and release fishing which are two things that make a great deal of difference.

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I personally don't agree with the closed seasons. other states around us except wisc. have no closed seasons and thier fishing quality seems to stay the same.

It seems to me the dnr in this state only wants to sell a Lic for fishing and hunting, but doesn't actually want you to harvest anything! Look at Mille Lacs they loosen up the restrictions up to 20in and up to 22in in july. Why not start off at 0-22in and 1 over 28in? Because people would actually catch fish and eat them, Ohh Noo.

This spot of the country is the only one with a huge opener whoop-la, because its such a big deal. We only get so long to fish or hunt before they close the season again.

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Yep, that is exactly right. The season closes, only so there can be an "opener." This generates ALOT of revenue for buisnesses as well as the state. When I was in college we did a research project on this very topic in one of my fisheries classes. We looked at the economical impact of creating an opener and it was astonishing. For some reason it gets people to really spend $!

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i don't think the resorts do any better with an opener then they would with a continuous season. I do however think we could have a year round season if we protected the ( most productive size spawnig fish slot limit)on each diferent fish spiecies. i dont know what that is but im sure someone dose(DNR ours and other states) thats my 2 cents on that.
i do think things have to change if i want to catch fish with my daughter like my grandparent caught with me.i try to throw all the fish i can back unharmed ( some just arnt going to make it) they go to my grandmother. it makes me sad to see limets of fish being taken from lakes.

CPR & C&R is the only way our children will se fishing as we did when we were kids

like i said earlyer thats my 2 cents

------------------
Troutman72

CPR <(((<

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Guys we are living the "good old days" now. Fishing is as good if not better than it has ever been in lots of lakes. Its because of things like slots, closed season and CPR. I cant fathum being able to fish walleyes in April on my favorite river. Itb would be a slotterfest.
Yes opener brings tons of money. But closed seasons are protecting our spawning fish. We need them as well as people using common sense and CPR.

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It's funny this question about closing season on panfish comes up.
I bought my fishing license today. One of the questions I was asked was, Do you think panfish season should be closed during the spawning season?
I answered yes.
For one reason. As Northlander put it. It is a slotter fest in the spring. We need to put a little faith in our DNR. They are only doing what they believe is going to preserve our resources.

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I think that we are getting close to the day that panfish should be considered for protection during the pre-spawn period when they congregate in large numbers in confined back bays, inlets, etc. There are some places in the metro where they get hammered in the weeks following ice out through the middle of May. It seems that once they are spawning in late May and June they are much more dispersed and possibly less vulnerable.

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Typically the panfish spawn two to three weeks after ice out until the second week in june, sunnies usually spawn in 68-72 degree, lot of factors come in also, rain water has an influence current in the lake, how deep the lake is etc, but generally there is a six week period that covers the entire month of may,end of april and start of june. Thats what I have been told. Since i started the post i beleive that it should be closed, now is the time for conservation let them spawn and then let them be fair game. However though people have been doing it like this for years of not having a season for them , so i leave my trust with the dnr, i for one though think we should close the season.
Best fishes
Chris
Best Fishes
Chris

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Generally speaking, the DNR does an excellent job managing the resources for both quantity and quality. But occasionally they do get handcuffed by political issues or legislative dictates. The prime example is the walleye opener. It used to be set on a date when the spawning fish had finished and the sows weren't so vulnerable and accessible to hordes of fishermen. But the legislature stepped in and set the opener strictly to allow resorts and other businesses to take advantage of an extra weekend of frenzied fishermen willing to fork out lots of cash. Most of the time it doesn't really make a difference, but my point is that the resources are best managed by those trained to get the most out of it while preserving it. Not by politicians driven by the desires of those in quest of the almighty dollar. The pot needed a little more stirring.

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We shouldn't be concerned about protecting spawning panfish. Sure spawning panfish are easy to catch. There are a number of times during a year when panfish are concentrated and vulnerable. What we should be doing is establishing more restrictive harvest and slot limits on certain bodies of water.

Only a small percentage of spawning panfish need to be successful to keep a lake full of panfish. The issue in some lakes is anglers repeatedly going home with bucket loads of the larger fish. Instituting slot sizes, minimum sizes and maximum keep sizes will help keep the population balanced and keep most of the fish in the size anglers like to eat. It will also give the lake a chance to produce some trophy fish.

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No way should we close the panfish season! Selective harvest should be taught. We should have something similar to the hunter safty course for fishing, to teach young (and some not so young) anglers proper etiquet on the water, at the ramp,with the high-tech. equiptment, rules, regs, etc. etc. etc. Some lakes are full of stunted panfish and should have a 30 fish limit. If the fish are under a certain size it makes no sence not to keep them. (Why do you think freeze-out lakes are all of a sudden, one year full of monster fish?)Besides on the runt lakes you need 30 to make a meal. I would like to see a slot for panfish. Like they have for most game fish. Only on the small side of the slot you could keep a lot, middle slot fewer, and large side very few if any kept. Keep the runts and let the big ones go! Eat fish! It's good for you.

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Big thumbs down for closed seasons for panfish. Gills and crappies don't spawn til after opener anyhow, so closing the spring fishing would not protect spawning fish.

Crappie and bluegills are in the shallow warm bays after ice out spawning- that is a big misconception! The reason they are there is because the water warms up there first prompting plankton and insect activity, which attracts bluegills and minnows, which attract Crappies, they are there to feed. Crappie usually start spawning in mid may, gills in June. I have seen gills bedding in july.

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I second what northlander said. Well put good man, well put. We are seeing special regulations on panfish on many lakes in the state that will protect different size and or numbers of fish we catch. We are a part of an ongoing experiment. There are many great and diverse lakes that produce all season. Man I love MN

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I have to agree with Northlander. Open seasons would work if you could get people to handle releasable fish well, but way too many people rip the hook out of gut hooked fish as opposed to cutting line. Catching higher numbers of spawning females means a possibility for a higher number of dead spawning females.

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By the time most panfish are spawning we are usually into open season for larger gamefish, and most people don't even target them then.

If your saying we need to close the seasons when fish are easier to catch because we will completely fish out our lakes, then how is it that other states around us don't have closed seasons and they still have fish? Why stop there, lets make everyone fish with cane poles, and ban depth finders,gas motors, and all tackle but a worm and hook. All these items help us get fish right?

I pay hundreds of dollars each year in Lic. fees for hunting and fishing; I thought they were taking that money and using it to restock lakes so there is plenty of fish to catch. If we are throwing all our fish back then the lakes will become overrun and stunted growth will occur.

Maybe I am in the minority here actually wanting to eat fish I catch and not get my fish from McDonalds.

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I live in ND, and although the season doesn't close here, I'd be in favor of a closed season. I've seen way too many times on lakes here when the walleyes are grouped up for spawning, people are loaded up on these spots and taking way too many big reproducing fish. For the most part, I don't think it's the guys on this forum that need to be told about C&R, it's others that feel the spawning time is when they can go and catch large numbers of big fish and keep them.

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I would becarefull in what you ask for in having closed the panfish seasons.there is a great majority of people who are from the metro area that frequent this forum. Most all of the metro lakes are chuck full of stunted panfish. we hear this complaint often.Yes there is a few lakes that are knowen to produce big panfish,BUT be prepared to do alot of sorting of runts to find those.Most metro lakes that dont receive enough or any preasure at all have stunted fish in them.With that said ,isnt the seasons for the most part closed totally(for lack of preasure) on the metro lakes ?Shoots the idea of closed seasons right in the rearend for producing bigger fish Dont it ? this is not just a panfish problem either. Selected Harvest is the right way to handle it in my opinion. Some lakes to NEED to get pounded by fisherman or cleaned out naturally(froze out)to improve the fish size. It thins the population and the remaining fish will have more feed and room to grow bigger. The idea of limits based on the lenth of fish kept is a rather interesting idea and should maybe be tried.
Theres my 2cents worth
P.S. to the Gent who said what the Panfish are realy doing in the frist weeks from ice off.. My Hats Off To You!!! Just like good hunters ,, good fishermen learn their prey! grin.gif

[This message has been edited by rockhardinmn (edited 03-04-2004).]

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I like fishface5's response. We have slots for a lot of game fish on a lot of lakes/rivers. Why not pannies too? Each eco system is different and needs to be mangaged different. That's a given, but ya those 4" crappies on tonka don't put up much of a battle compared to the 7"! LOL!

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