I dont' know what it is, but everytime I go to WI and fish I always see dead fish on the ice, most of the its little perch guys just throw on the ice for the birds as they catch them. This weekend there was a bunch of okay bluegills and 10 inch crappies all over. My father in law who lives in WI says lots of guys there will just start throwing them on the ice and when they leave take the biggest ones for their limit and leave the rest lay or stuff them back down the holes. To be fair I've yet to see this in MN but i'm sure it happens. I need the WI TIP number on my speed dial, infuriates me.

That would be real frustrating to see and that's not the way to get a limit. I think it's call culling and is illegal. Once you put that fish on the ice, it's pretty much going towards your limit.

Ethics man, Ethics where have they gone? The few always reck it for the rest of us! Hearing that saddens and hurts me. One of those could have been the new record and father or mother to thousands. I hope I never see that!

Ethics, that is a new one... Seams more and more likely you will find someone causing problems than someone behaving.

birds gotta eat too

Ethical???

But I would make sure first that you know local regs.

For example, when I lived in MI, numerous lakes would NOT have a creel limit on them for crappies/sunfish/perch. The only reason for that on certain lakes is that the lakes were stunted and held way too many fish for any to grow to a decent size.

When the COs were spot-checking you, they would actually advise you to put the small (less than 4") fish on the ice and leave them. Removes the fish, helps the health of the remaining ones, helps the fishery, and let the eagles feed on something other than Micky D's fries.

Actually this can be harmful for the lake. If the carcass remains on/in the ice until the ice thaws, the decaying fish in the water adds nitrogen and ammonia to the water, both of which increase green algae in the water. Same thing occurs when people catch rough fish and through them on the bank. The nitrogen & ammonia leach back into the water. The best thing is for people not to be bar stool biologists, but to simply release any fish you don't plan to take home with you.

I have faith in the COs, if they say to do this, I would. I trust their knowledge over mine any day.

Im definitely going to defend this practice but Im not sure we should throw the whole state into one group whether it WI or any other state. We get a few groups of nonresidents that fish here in the winter and they have been more than good stewards and very personable people too.

COs are regulations enforcers, not fish biologists. I wouldn't trust anything they have to say about helping a lake, only about what they say regarding the law.

It's a terrible practice, IMO. Managing lakes thru regulations is the only way to o. You can't have some people off doing their own thing, going off rumors that Bob the CO told them it was the law, or your cousin Vinny heard from his local F&W biologist that it was the best thing to do


I agree though, some lakes just have stunted fish - and most of the time, you just can't change that, it has to do with the ecology of the body of water - the fertility, water chemistry, fish species present, etc

I know that some people might not agree with me but I have seen this work. I lived on a lake that was stunted for 15+years full on 2-3" perch and 4" 'gills. The state removed the wanton waste reg for the lake and advised people to do the culling. Their stance was that is was cheaper and didn't involve the paperwork for killing the lake. No need to restock. Within 2 years the fishing improved greatly. They still want you to cull everything under 4" but that doesn't seem like a problem as you can't catch a perch under 10 or a 'gill less than 6" if you tried.

Sometimes the best practices aren't always the most socially acceptable.

lakerunner, what time period are you talking about with both of your MN and MI recollections? Just curious what epoch of fisheries management was in operation at the time.

da_chise:

I've never seen it here in MN and all of my recounts are from my days living in MI.

I just moved here from MI in 2004 so the MI dates were from 1976 until then.

that's funny...very true...but funny

I understand that, and I never would take lake matters into my own hands by deciding to start culling a lake. However, I do believe that CO's have good connections regarding these issues, and would only act to benefit the lake in question. I highly doubt any CO would say something like that if it wasn't recommended by someone with knowledge on the topic. I will stand by what I said earlier, I trust what the CO's have to say.