C&r Vs Gigging

[Guest]

deleted

[Chief Grey Bear]

But you all loved the idea when you first heard about it. You complained that the MDC was doing nothing. Now you all are pissed because they are.

[Gavin]

You cant stop it now. I'm sure that the tag survey is having a short term effect...but they are doing it to assess harvest rates. If harvest rates are high it will increase the possibility of future regulation changes.

[Al Agnew]

Yeah, it'll probably turn out to be a good thing in the end, but I gotta think their results might end up being a bit skewed because of all the extra people fishing for those tagged fish. Well, if so they'll be skewed toward more pressure, rather than less.

[Chief Grey Bear]

How are they going to know how many are fishing for them? All they are going to know is how long it took someone to catch it and how far it has moved, if at all, from where it was tagged and released. Actaully the longer it takes, the less pressure it will look like.

[Gavin]

Increased pressure will increase the tag return rate but I dont think that matters much. The main focus is on what anglers do with those tagged fish after they catch them, not how many people are fishing for them.

[Chief Grey Bear]

I guess I read it wrong a couple of years ago when the MDC said it would also give them an idea of how much pressure there was on smallmouth.

[Al Agnew]

It depends upon the rate of tag return. Tag 100 fish, and if 50 tags are turned in the first week of the season, it shows that there are a lot of fish being caught, hence a lot of pressure on the resource. The results would be skewed because the reward is attracting more anglers than would otherwise fish that stream, catching more of the fish than would otherwise be caught.

[Chief Grey Bear]

Sorry Al, I can't respond. I some how made this personal.