tjm

See, they kept turning the little ones loose and ate (or mounted) all the big gene pool. It's easy to see why all we got now is fiddlers, that is all our predecessors let go. Blame Mark Twain and his buddies for all the small fish left nowadays. Never read about the guy guy that caught 100# plus fish and turned it loose to reproduce, nope they mounted all them genetics.

I've always said that limits should be set to a maximum size to keep. Say no keeper small mouth over 15" or whatever. The keeping of the biggest fish hurts in a couple ways. We are removing both the eligible brood stock and the genetics required to grow that big. Keeping only small fish removes the runt genes and utilizes fish that would normally be eaten by the lunkers that some one now has mounted on a wall, releasing small fish only increases the probability that the small fish genes will be passed on. Once was a 4 1/4# brown in my little creek that over a three year time I caught and released over fifty times, one day I watched as a fellow caught her and and kept her on a stringer in hot sunshine where she was looking unfit to eat by the time he left the area a few hours later. The same group threw back several of those 11 1/2" fish that will never get any bigger than 11 1/2" due to genetics. All according to law, but she will never spawn again. My thoughts are that trophy fishermen deserve to ruin our fisheries, they spend the big bucks to so, and that the agencies involved in setting size limits want smaller fish.

I thought walleye were nonnative, I have read that some place in the past?

And the gravel guards really work? I've looked at those in the last couple years and been skeptical that they would stay down when the gravel runs over shoe top deep. I never liked having to deal with all the hassle of putting on and taking off multiple pieces two or three times a day either when jumping from one spot to another, either. Cabelas lists a lot of different options in the catalog but the store near me sure don't stock much. How do those booty foots go by shoe size are the feet stretchy or do you wad the extra up? Guess I need to make a point to look closer at them, mostly been just looking for a boot foot that would fit me half way. Currently in pvc and oversized sneakers, but that is meant to be temporary.

So, how do you keep the sand and pea stone out of those separate boots? I haven't bought new chest waders since about the time Simms started in business, but back in my younger days I surely preferred boot foots and canvass. Opened this thread because I'm getting tired of wet wading and thought I'd look at what there is out there these days.