what happend to the fish in the lakes why are there not so many anymore??

[TheOne]

well what ive come to relize is that ppl keep catching fish and keeping them all.you know if you the type of perso who does this you should only keep a cupple fish!! and let the rest go for outher people to catch like if you catch a big one it might be crazy to ket it go but think about it like this what if you were the fish??

[Bodofish]

We're not.

[felts_jf]

I have noticed that alot of lakes in WA either have size limits or a slot limit, this is for fisherman that like to keep there catch and either turn it into a meal or a trophy. If everyone didnt keep there fish then you would have alot of small fish in a lake that would eat up and take up food and cover for bigger fish. I am sure the specialist that come up with these size limits have reasoning behind it and not to just upset people when the fish they just caught is half of a inch to short, to keep or mount.

Jason

[tnj8222]

i hear ya man. i was fishing silver lake this weekend and there were these people from oregon. they were like i wish i was fishing in oregon. when we fish there we keep every single fish we catch if we cant eat them we use them for sturgeon bait. only thing i could say was good thing we are not in oregon, i like to catch keepers...

[Joe Heater]

I am all for conservation but if I catch a fish that is legal and I want to keep it to have a fish fry, sorry but I am keeping them. If my limit is 25 Perch and I wanna have a fish fry, I am keeping 25 Perch. I am not having a hard time finding fish in any of these lakes.

The lakes are not being depleted because too many fish are being kept. WIth all the slot limits and daily limits and possession limits it would almost be impossible to deplete this state of fish because of some hungry fisherman. You want to get a good look at a lake that nobody keeps fish in, go to Lake Cassidy. Have fun realing in 6 inch crappie, perch and bass all day. Good luck catching anything over that. I stopped fishing that lake last year, just horrible.

Just so I can get some clarity, are you not finding any fish with electronics or with your pole? Drive around these lakes with fish finders and you are going to mark fish everywhere. So they are there, you just have to find a way to catch them.

Good fishing.
Joe

[Drewp]

That's an interesting first post ya made there, TheOne.

[panfisher]

lakes also have a turn over rate. good fishing some years , bad others, i've fished many lakes that had a 5 year turn over. depends on the ratio in the food chain less food less keeper fish, more food more keepers, eventually the more keepers result in less food, as goes the cycle. this is just one factor of many of course. <')//<

[fish4brains]

Well I am in a mood tonight so here it goes: TheOne, stop worrying about what other people do legally and within their right and start worrying about your spelling and grammar! Oh yeah and obviously your fishing skills. I couldn't resist the flaming, he made it so easy. Plus you smell of PETA. tnj8222: Those people from Oregon you speak of are just ignorant, they give fishermen a bad name.

[ruthven78]

Its not all about catch & release. Sometimes released fish are injured and eventualy die. Also fish can die for natural reasons and from predators other than humans. One reason you see less fish is we have more people fishing period (due to population increases), less funding toward recreational programs (each year budgets have gradually declined for over the last 20 years give or take), less stocking by WDFW, illegal planting of fish like perch, bluegill, and bass in lakes planned only for trout, and *drum roll* poor hatchery technique. By poor technique I'll use the Colville Hatchery as an example. The lake the Colville Hatcher gets most of its eggs from is Kings Lake over in Pend Oreille County....I would guess it is around a 2-3 hours drive from the hatchery. So you will end up losing some of the eggs just in transport. When my grandfather managed the Colville Hatchery he tried to set up spawning traps at lakes in the colville area but was shot down by the district office because they were not "suprior" specimens...meaning ones of "high quality". I also have to wonder how much field research the hatchery biologists do these days. My grandfather fly fished nearly every lake he planted...this way he knew which lakes where having good turn over, fish growth, etc.

[ruthven78]

One thing people can do to increase numbers is to form fishing clubs and as a club sponsor net pens. The hard part is finding someone with a dock or access to feed the fish and if the pen is in an area where concern over freezing, they would also have to check on the aerator regularly. My dad is part of such a club and they have net pens up at Waitts Lake. If I had waterfront property with a dock I would do it. I heard the state will give you the fish for free, you are just in charge of feeding and making sure they dont get tampered with or winter killed.

[AaronE]

I'm fully a C&R kind of guy. I'm way too lazy to clean every fish I catch ;)

[raffensg64]

Relax, fella! It's July, for crying out loud! Very few of us are catching as many fish as we were 1, 2, and 3 months ago. The fish are still there. Right now they've got lockjaw due to warm days and water. It happens every year. Just be patient and get after them in September when things cool off. If patience is not an option, as is the case with most of us, then hit the rivers and high mountain lakes! It's real simple.....you've just got to be smarter than the fish.

[bigastrout]

I agree with raffensg64, be patient the bite will get better in september.

[krafty1]

Like some of you good folks have said. Lake fishing that is easly reached by the masses is always going to be hit or miss. For all the reason that have been posted. I love the challenge that this presents. It makes fishing the great chess match it can be. I am lucky that I get to fish all over Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Alaska. And the more rural the area the bigger the fish usually get. But I have learned that lakes closer to big population centers that ask those lil kids you see fishing. If it is your first time at that lake those kids are golden for information. They usually fish it everyday with the passion and ferver that sometimes we lose because of the responsiblilties of being a grown up. But They always seem to catch fish regardless of how hot a lake is. I think it always a good idea to swallow some pride and just ask questions. Good Fishing!!!!

[gpc]

I agree with krafty1 about the little kids. Another good thing about little kids is they will try anything, so some times they have tips that the experienced fisherman will never have because the idea is just plain crazy, but it catches fish. I have heard of a little kid catching a steelhead on Xmas tinsel, little kids catching trout on bacon and gummy worms, etc. All pretty "stupid" ideas to catch fish, but lets just leave it up to the fish as to what bait is "stupid".