Halfordian Golfer wrote:

Do you have any studies that show that harvest increases the quality of
a trout fishery?

Willi

Yes.

I love to flyfish every place that allows it but can hardly stomach
the places that don't allow it.

Think about it. Would you rather fish:
the X Fork of the You Know....or the Frying Pan?
The Roaring Fork, or the Frying Pan?
The Elk or the Taylor Reservior Tail Water?
A Wyoming Beaver pond or Cheesman Canyon?

I say that tongue in cheek but, it's also intended to ring somewhat
true, but you must define quality for it to make any sense at all and
quality for me includes isolation and fish that act wild.

Don't take it from me, though, take it from John Gierach who talks
about when the St. Vrain became famous for a short period of time when
it became C&R. The parking lot filled up with cars but the fishing
was, more or less, as it always had been. When it was made normal
again, the cars left and it stayed the fair to middling creek that it
is.

This is with a 4 fish limit now: the fishing can be excellent. If it
were to get crummy, or if we wanted to tweak it, we could make it 2.
This is with no size restrictions, we could add one. Also, these are
browns. Very wary.

Your pal,

Halfordian Golfer


I agree that in Colorado, the designation of C&R (or most special regs
INCLUDING your "selective" harvest with its slot limits) often leads to
over crowding and I tend not to fish those waters for that reason.

But that DOESN'T answer my question. In some of your posts you assert or
at least imply that "selective" harvest will improve the quality of a
fishery (those large fish eaters etc). Can you show ANY study that
showed that harvest of any type improved the quality of a self
sustaining trout fishery? I can show you study after study that
demonstrate that reducing harvest can improve a fishery.

Willi