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i would disagree with you on that one legal is not always ethical!
also agree legal is not always ethicallaw cannot cover every circumstance.as long as you eat your catch and dont waste it i dont have a problem with the ethics,
it is legal to take shoots at a deer that is 400 yards away but not ethical for most hunters to do so!
With selling fish I don't think the "times are tough" reason plays affect. It's a pretty expensive hobby regardless of how you look at it. Bait prices go up each year, augers aren't cheap, gas to get to and from your spot and I'm sure I'm leaving other parts out. Fish markets also have been going down each year. I know Tom's is paying only .50 cents a pound for 7-8 inch fish and 1.10 per pound for 8 inch plus. You'd have to really hit them good to catch enough fish to make a profit and stay within VT legal limits. If you're fishing with the intention to make a buck you really shouldn't be fishing in the first place because there is always the possibility of going home empty handed. If you're really struggling you wouldn't take that risk and if you're really struggling why would you sell food at 1.10 per pound max when no other meat is that cheap?I agree that fishing commercially isn't profitable. That's why I don't have a problem with guys doing it....there are very few who do it...but in talking to them, they say they need the money. In Lake Champlain, there is no limit on yellow perch. Still very tough to make any money.
an ethical catch is what you need to keep to make a meal if its within the legal limit for that water,I believe all commercial fishing in Vt,including LC, should be outlawed,period
The state pays biologists to regulate fish populations, and they should know what they are limiting. That's why we pay them. I think it's unethical to question anybody's legal "catch".
As far as the rest of the lakes in the state such as table 2 category I think a 8" size limit would make the world of difference.I see guys with buckets full of 4-6" perch and then b***h you cannot catch anything bigger.Gee I wonder why?I go after perch 2 or 3 times a year for one reason meat.The rest of the season I walleye and pike fish.But if we could get people to let them grow a little bigger before harvesting them the population could grow in size and volume.When it come to walleye and pike for me harvesting I probably catch 50-100 pike during a season and harvest 3Usually the ones I enter in Derbys, that's all I need.Walleyes I don't harvest more 5 or 6 per year and they are the smaller legal sized onesThe larger ones go right back down the hole.I'm the same way with smallies in the summer.Well that's my 2 cents.
champlain can support a commercial fishery because of its size. id say a good 90% of the lake doesn't really get fished all year. some guys just look for a crowd and hit the same spot every year, then wonder why they catch any fish. the guys making good catches and selling them have put in there time and know the lake, not just the popular spots. fishing with just hook and line, there will always be plenty of fish left for tomorrow. if you guys that cant find fish spent half as much time on the lake as you do on here you would have all the fish you want. enuff said I guess, I got two 7 gallon pails to go fill...
If you want bigger perch you should keep more smaller fish. By creating a larger minimum size like 8 inches you would slow down growth rates and bottleneck the population. By removing more small fish you lesson competition and a provide more food and space for the other fish to grow more. Fish are a product of there environment. More space and more food = bigger fish. You keep removing only bigger perch then on small bodies of water it can seriously effect the amount of big perch. On larger bodies of water like lake champlain angler harvest has almost no effect on the perch population. There are millions of perch in lake champlain. Smaller bodies of water are more susceptible to over harvest and angler pressure.
Biggest problems are people leaving small fish on the ice, and no different is the guys that rip the hooks out without care and then throw the fish back. I don't have a problem with folks selling their catch-isn't it better to keep the money within our state?
For those who find it unethical, what about commercial fishing for the invasive white perch? When those things are feeding its not uncommon to fill many buckets (5-6). That being said, is it unethical based on species being sold/harvested?
This is were i will disagree. Its my belief that yellow perch are a product of there enviroment, if they breed and hatch in malletts bay, they dont move from that area, they live there life there. So if you commercial fish malletts bay, what happens, the perch get wiped out of that area and it takes several years to bring back descent perch in malletts bay. Same with other popular area's on the lake. So in turn, it makes it a lot harder for us to find quality fish and quantities and then in turn have to litteraly hunt for them. Other fish in malletts bay that feed off of perch will be affected also.
How will they get big if you keep the smaller ones ?that makes no sense