Bigger Fines for Poaching Needed!

[Pauken23]

Growing up in Minnesota with (yes) a 1 pole limit it took me by surprise to see 2 poles in Ohio/Michigan and more some other places. In all honesty, if I were to tell you where the populations hurt the most it's Minnesota... People go nuts for fishing there so yes there are tons of over fished lakes. I guess the difference is talking about landlocked smaller lakes compared to Great Lakes. IMO the United States and Canada have come to pretty good agreements as to how many fish each country can take. Commercial fishing takes all the fish in the agreement in Canada but (correct me if I'm wrong) in the US where it's only sport fishing we don't take our agreed upon limit. So... keep the limits on fish in place but why limit the poles? Also, why not up the limit on fish 1 per person? If Canada is taking their whole limit why shouldn't we? I don't know the exact numbers and am basing this on what I've read from multiple sources. Set the rules and regulations to fit the numbers of fish in the lake and keep everything healthy. Along those lines, why do regulations always seem to stay the same? IMO they should be changing every year if managed correctly. Guess the government doesn't really care... There are those who DO care in the government but just look at all the fisheries in this country and the lack of oversight. I feel like I could do a better job of setting rules and limits than the government. I guess the bottom line is the US spends our money elsewhere and it's up to us as fisherpeople to manage the populations ourselves. Along those lines, I feel that we all need to take stock of where we're fishing and what kind of fish we are catching and be responsible. It's up to us as the government doesn't have "remaining" funds...

[dansdad]

I for one agree with the 2 pole limit. I go fishing to "relax" and have fun. If I went strictly for the fish I would save the $150-$200 a weekend I spend on gas, worms, etc, and stop off at Port Clinton fish company and buy some fillets and still have beer money left. If I could go out every day and catch my limit in an hour it would become pretty boring! As for the limits it wouldn,t bother me a bit to see the walleye limit kept at 4 for a few years if that would help to get the population back to where it was in the 80's.

[branhamautomotive]

I for one agree with the 2 pole limit. I go fishing to "relax" and have fun. If I went strictly for the fish I would save the $150-$200 a weekend I spend on gas, worms, etc, and stop off at Port Clinton fish company and buy some fillets and still have beer money left. If I could go out every day and catch my limit in an hour it would become pretty boring! As for the limits it wouldn,t bother me a bit to see the walleye limit kept at 4 for a few years if that would help to get the population back to where it was in the 80's.

There are times I go out personally to relax, but other I am out there to get my fish. With a couple kids under 5, there are days I only have 2 or 3 hrs to fish but not 8. As stated before fishing should also be about skill, and I go out by myself and I can keep up with 3 or 4 or more poles and drive safely, the extra poles would help me to get my legal limit, get in and spend the rest of the day with my family.

The law makers are in a tough corner a lot of times, trying to keep with everything from all sides.

I don't want to see an increase in limits, I would like to ppl be able to keep the 14" fish that get gilled and are going to die and feed the seagulls. Course ppl are going argue then there is nothing to stop ppl from getting a limit of 14" fish. And this is true, but we all know there is not much meat on 14" fish so I would think that fact alone would help prevent that. But I don't see the since in having to return a fish I know is going die, just to get another in its place. That's the same as taking the extra fish out lake anyways.