Fish population

[RUGER]

Ok my buddy and I were talking at work yesterday and this kinda came up.

We were talking about how many less fish (big bream) we caught last year versus the year before.
More specifically I still caught ALOT of bream but NOWHERE near as many big ones, larger than my hand.

Just because I am bored here is the question:

175 acre lake.
How many bream (7 1/2" and larger) would have to be caught out in one "season" to make a noticable difference in the fish caught the following year?

Probably an impossible question but I know how many he and I put in the freezer respectively 2 years ago and I know how many we put in this past year.

I guess maybe the better question would be, could a handful of people overharvest a fish like bream in a body of water that big?

I have a self imposed limit of 75 per year at a small pond I fish just to protect the resource and just wondering if there would be any need in backing off at a large body of water?

Yes, very bored.

 

[mike243]

I don't know if it would be possible to over fish any body of water but looking at the limits on nearby lakes then seeing the folks fishing you wouldn't think any wish would be left. With my luck the #s will only increase :rotf: . look at the methods allowed as in any amount of fishing rods allowed, use to you could only use 2 unless you had a sportsman lic then you could have 3, not sure when all that changed but getting 2 or 3 hung up when trolling is almost to much work. Also a lot of folks don't keep many fish ,I only keep filet size fish so only the biggest pan fish get a ride home.

 

[Okatoba]

My neighbor has a small pond that once had huge bream and shellcrackers,but it's gone bad, I think it's because we don't keep enough fish. Me and him are the only ones that fish it,I keep some and he never keeps any.

 

[Diehard Hunter]

A lot of factors at play in that scenario. What other fish are in the lake, how much cover is their, how many fish do people keep of the different species.......

I seriously doubt you could over harvest the bluegill. However, if there aren't any predators large enough to key on the blue gill, you may have an overpopulation problem. The fish many actually be stunted because you are not harvesting enough.

It would take someone with a little knowledge about fisheries and a seine, but your can could be determined pretty quickly and the time to do it would be march or April.

 

[rsimms]

As noted, it is IMPOSSIBLE to over harvest bluegill, especially in 175 acre lake.

In virtually every case where you are seeing under-sized bluegill, it's because they are over-populated.

You need to harvest MORE, usually lots more. Even if you only use them for garden fertilizer.

 

[RUGER]

Interesting.
Guess I will hammer down on them this year and see what it looks like next year.

 

[catman529]

You need to catch more bream, not less, if you're losing the big ones. You probably don't have enough predator fish like bass and channel cats to eat down the bluegill population. They get stunted easily because they reproduce like mice


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