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Author Topic: Hurshtown  (Read 7152 times)

bigr

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Re: Hurshtown
« Reply #30 on: Jul 03, 2019, 11:26 AM »
How many people are keeping walleye, regardless of what size they are?  It makes perfect sense that the average size should increase with an increased size limit.
I think most people that catch a legal size eye do keep them. Problem is from what I see you don't catch  near as many legal size now. Nor do you catch anymore of the smaller fish. Yes I agree it should make for nearly as many 16 inch fish as 14 but im not seeing that at all after what I think has been three or four years now.

1james11

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Re: Hurshtown
« Reply #31 on: Jul 03, 2019, 03:08 PM »
The size of the walleyes can't increase when people keep 13-14 inchers consistently.. I've had numerous people I've had to say something to, most of which didn't even know the size had gone up. I spend a lot of time on the lakes in the ne part of the state, and I can count on one hand the number of times I've seen a officer.

Spooled85

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Re: Hurshtown
« Reply #32 on: Jul 03, 2019, 03:37 PM »
I was at Mississinewa d**n , and there was guys keeping them 10 to 12 Inchers left and rite ! Till I called a CO and two of them was down there quick ! They wrote numerous tickets and the CO told me that same weekend there was some guys arrested for keeping illegal sized fish

RoeBoat

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Re: Hurshtown
« Reply #33 on: Jul 03, 2019, 03:55 PM »
That's ridiculous keeping walleye that size!

FWCanoeFisher

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Re: Hurshtown
« Reply #34 on: Jul 08, 2019, 07:21 AM »

they could have been ignorant and thought they were saugers /saugeyes?  no limit on those still.  you'd get the same meat off 10-12" eyes as you would a perch that size.

I hadn't realized that there was no size limit on sauger/saugeye!  I would have assumed that it was the same as walleye.  Learn something new everyday.

Spooled85

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Re: Hurshtown
« Reply #35 on: Jul 08, 2019, 07:52 AM »

they could have been ignorant and thought they were saugers /saugeyes?  no limit on those still.  you'd get the same meat off 10-12" eyes as you would a perch that size.
could have been the case but they was even told they was too small and they couldn't keep them before the call was made . But they still didn't care

Spooled85

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Re: Hurshtown
« Reply #36 on: Jul 08, 2019, 12:42 PM »
Ya I always chat with the CO's and they remember that . The spots I fish Its usually the same couple guys checking so usually once I get checked in the start of season they don't ask again. And they remember my boat lol I had one officer tell me there isn't too many boats like mine running around so that helps too

bigr

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Re: Hurshtown
« Reply #37 on: Jul 15, 2019, 11:36 AM »
People keeping under sized fish isn't the issue. That has always been going on even when the size was 14 inches. For every one that still breaks the law there are i'm sure many more that have been throwing under size fish back. I still stand by the fact the new regs aren't working as hoped.  Yes I do agree we need a lot more enforcement and a lot more of a lot of things that cost money our state is not able or willing to spend. I think our co's are doing a great job for the area they have to cover and the priorities decisions they have to make. I'm no biologist but I think our walleye for the most part start life out fast growing quickly to the 12 in size then dramatically slow and don't live long lives, maybe 5 to 6 years on avg. Most eyes never reach the 16 in mark before death of natural causes.

RoeBoat

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Re: Hurshtown
« Reply #38 on: Jul 15, 2019, 12:55 PM »
If the average life span of a walleye is around 15-20 years why would you think ours in Indiana are only making it 5-6 years?
I have no idea if the size limit is helping but it surely isn't hurting anything other than number of legal fish being caught.  Which seems like at some point should turn the corner if the fish in the body of water are reproducing.

bigr

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Re: Hurshtown
« Reply #39 on: Jul 15, 2019, 01:40 PM »
If the average life span of a walleye is around 15-20 years why would you think ours in Indiana are only making it 5-6 years?
I have no idea if the size limit is helping but it surely isn't hurting anything other than number of legal fish being caught.  Which seems like at some point should turn the corner if the fish in the body of water are reproducing.
I'm not sure if the avg life span of a Indiana walleye is 15 to 20 yrs or even what the avg growth in inches is for a Indiana walleye. What I see from the years since the regulation change is not yielding any higher number or legal size fish or even larger fish at all. As I've said before the only difference I have seen is fewer harvestable size fish. I don't think there is much natural reproduction in any of Indiana waters. The state really needs to continue stocking programs that seems to keep populations the same. I think for the most part our walleye fishery is a Put and take resource. At some point unless something changes we should go back to a size limit that allows for more take. I miss those 14 in walleye fillets. Once you get up to the 20 inch fish they just aren't as good to eat anyway. I hope things do change and a limit of 16 plus inch fish can be had as easily as the 14 plus inch fish used to be.     

Spooled85

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Re: Hurshtown
« Reply #40 on: Jul 15, 2019, 09:34 PM »
Fish hogger is correct on the walley hatches. Dnr had a post sometime in the last 5 months yhat they did a shock on bass lake and they found many small walley . That was in the range of around 4 inches . And said that the numbers that the my pulled up had to be hatchlings . Because there was no reported recent stocking of walleye and if someone had privately stocked it they would have had to spend thousands of dollars to do so

bigr

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Re: Hurshtown
« Reply #41 on: Jul 16, 2019, 05:56 AM »
I agree there is some natural reproduction in most our bodies of water that have eyes. I don't think its enough to maintain the resource over time. Stockings are required to improve the numbers. Yes you'll always have a few big fish but I'm talking about the avg harvestable size fish. I'm mostly a river guy so let me tell you what I have seen over 40 yrs of walleye fishing. Back in the early 70's the state stocked the three upper resi's with walleyes. They did that for maybe ten yrs until they decided there was no reproduction happening and the fishery was basically a put and take project and handed the restocking over to the property managers of the sally and missy to raise and continue the stocking in the resi's. The fish never really showed up in any kind of numbers in the resi's but did do very well in the river because they made threw the discharge. For many yrs the walleye fishing has been very good in the river even though no real state or local stockings are going on. It's all natural reproduction now but at the same time the fishing is slowly going down hill. Still very good when conditions are right but noticeable less than a few yrs ago when stocking continued. The whole state benefits from the stockings not just the lake since the Wabash basically feeds all areas of the state. Right now I'm seeing the least amount of harvestable size fish as well as much fewer fish over all. I believe there two factors, natural reproduction can't keep up on it's own and size regulation that prevents as much harvest.       

RoeBoat

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Re: Hurshtown
« Reply #42 on: Jul 17, 2019, 09:10 AM »
As far as the rivers go, I believe there are more walleye/saugeye present today than 35-40 years ago.  We fished them when I was younger and caught fish but not the limits of fish that have come in the last couple decades.  40 years ago I didn't hear much about walleye being caught on the St Marys where I grew up.   In 2003 while I owned a sporting goods store a gentleman brought in a 28" out of the same water.  There are several areas now that limits are caught each spring in the same areas.  Obviously these fish are reproducing and they also benefited from stockings on the reservoirs in the systems.

bigr

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Re: Hurshtown
« Reply #43 on: Jul 17, 2019, 10:20 AM »
I have no monetary gain from any of my reports just want to help people have as much fun as I have had over the yrs. The fishing has always been good for eyes and many other species as far back as I can remember. Problem was back in the early 70's when stockings really started showing up I didn't now how to fish for walleye since it was a somewhat new target for me and I was young. After a lot of years I've got better just by putting in the time. I think fishing for eyes peaked about 8 to 10 years ago and has steadily lessened since the big stockings stopped. The properties did the resi stocking until the last couple years. The  numbers are down not from my post that as far as I can tell hasn't increase the amount of pressure. I feel sure the river can't be over fished because of the quickly changing conditions that prevents fishing. The river is 530 miles long and almost every body of water drains in to it so some what i'll call natural seed reproduction is always happening. I do wish I could post pictures and have tried more than once to be able to get set up but it's not going to happen. If anyone wants to meet me or get a look at me be watching the Ft Wayne TV stations next week for info about the Wabash River Defenders cleanup event or go on line for info about  next Saturdays the 27th event. I also can be heard on a couple three local radio station from Friday to the 26th. We're always hoping for more volunteers. Pm welcomed. If you don't want to eat wild fish from a certain body of water that's more than alright with me but please don't think any less of me. I'm more concerned with what I'm getting from businesses than what I catch from the waters I fish regardless of advisories. And yes I know what they are. The waters that the river defenders have been testing  for a few years now are showing that the quality is improving from past testing done years ago. I believe that way more wild  fish were being consumed years ago from much worse water than we have now.         

Spencerville

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Re: Hurshtown
« Reply #44 on: Jul 25, 2019, 07:39 PM »
what does he charge Roe?  I heard he was guiding people up there.

I've only seen him by himself in his boat and his brother is there alot by himself in his boat also... rumors of him keeping small fish are false as well. I've seen him repeatedly throw back as many fish as I do.The way I see it if I didn't see it it didn't happen...

 



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