"Willi" wrote in message
...
Wayne Knight wrote:
//snip//
sorry, delayed harvest may be the latest "greatest' thing in trout
fisheries
"management", imo, there is something seriously wrong with stocking an
area
and desiginating it C&R only.
I agree with your sentiment. C&R seems stupid to me in a put and take
fishery.

I'm not as familiar with eastern waters as I am with those in the
Rockies, but it seems to me that there are numerous waters back east
that are being stocked that could be better managed with less stocking
and possibly more restrictive limits. Montana did a series of studies on
the effects of stocking in waters that have good natural reproduction
and found that the stocking of catchables actually reduces the number
and size of the fish in those waters.


I understand the sentiment, but delayed harvest waters that are stocked in
October can be a blast to fish in in the spring. Access generally is not
very hard and after a few months in the stream the fish are fun to catch.
It's not as psychically rewarding as catching wild fish in a remote spot,
but if you have limited time and want to have a pretty good fishing
experience, it's not bad. They are especially good places to take youngsters
who are learning to fly-fish.

Frank Reid and Allen Epps posted great TRs earlier that were good
descriptions of spring-time fishing in delayed-harvest water. Don't know
that their stream was D-H, but the experience appears similar.

I suspect that most people who are taking fish do so in the summer, so
designating the water as C&R only in the winter probably prevents few of
them from fishing, but it does provide an attractive opportunity for fly
fishermen. The result, IMO, is an overall larger number of fishermen in the
course of a year, and more sales of licenses and fly fishing tackle (and
more much-needed tax revenue for the fish & game department) - revenue that
would not have happened without the delayed-harvest program. It may also be
true that streams within commuting distance of major metropolitan areas lend
themselves to delayed-harvest programs.

Bob