WyattDS said:
Just curious, if you "get rid of the dinks" in a lake then what fish become the large fish in the future? At some point every good fish was a dink, right?
This is a good point. Total extermination of all bass under the slot length would not be good because that'd kill any future stock to grow.
I'm guessing that when you read or hear people saying: "get rid of the dinks" they really don't mean they want to kill any and all bass under a certain length.
Most if not all the ABF anglers that fish Bastrop or any other lake want to preserve and manage the fishery so it continues to produce fish and potentially produce quality fish. Key word: Manage
Removing some of the under the slot fish would definitely help manage the fish.
Feel free to contact Steve Magnelia, a fisheries biologist in the Inland Fisheries Management division of TPWD for our area.
My curiousity is peaked as well so I just called and talked to Steve on the phone and will relay his professional insight.
-Go out, have the tourney and eat those unders. It's not going to hurt at all and would help. He may even join us out there.
-Why, becuase not enough people retain unders on slot lakes. So the slot management practice really isn't working to it's full potential becuase fish that need to be thinned out aren't being thinned. On Bastrop the majority of fish grow to 18 inches and stop. Yes, there are overs here and there but fewer becuase the over abundance of the unders. He did go on to say that Bastrop seems to be "OK" with the problem but over the long run it can be bad for a lake. He stated Georgetown as an example.
I'd say the biggest thing I learned from our conversation was that slot limits work. However, for it to really be effective we need to protect certain sized fish as well as manage or thin out other sized ones to preserve and improve the fishery as a whole.
All that said, Lets do it!!
I'll email Steve with an invite when everything is finalized.
