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Allot of good points Link and others, fact remains all the other Salmon Lakes are doing fine as far as quality. So what is different with Winni ??? More fishing pressure, plain and simple. They are the same fish as most of the eggs were taken from Squam the past few years, not Winni. But yet they don't do well in Winni, whereas they do super in the other Lakes.
Putting in less fish will help, less went in last year due to availability.
I think Derby changes (and/or elimination) should be tried before 2 rods per boat is tried. The two rod thing will lessen the pressure for sure and perhaps help the fishery, but what are all the other ramifications that will come with it.
Fish and Game will try to give us whatever type of fishery we desire and that is exactly what they did with Winni. People wanteed a high catch rate and they got it, unfortunatly you can't have your cake and eat ot too.
Squam and some others are true trophy lakes, many skunks and very slow fishing, but it will give you a nice fish now and then. I don't think the average Winni fisherman would want that fishery for Winni.
Big John
my 2 cents on this...
by limiting boats to 2 rods, i think less overall licenses will be sold. Our camp brings in about 12-14 guys for the May Derby, 10 of those guys are once a year visitors, no need for them to ever buy a license under that change. I have to think hundreds of licenses (revenue) are sold just because of that Derby. Also, how many groups or 3-4 guys on a boat, especially derby weekend? thats the majority of what you see... so now instead of 600 boats with an avg of 4 guys, you will have 1200 boats with 2 guys (only due to neededing a witness, the rest of the year I will just fish alone as you all will). so lets double the boat traffic and fuel pollution in order to up the salmon ante... brilliant plan for whom ever thought of it!
My first thoughts on slowing down the catch/injury rate. 1. End the season Aug 30th... We all know Sept fishing is like sticking your hand in the goldfish tank at petco.... anyone can come up with 10 fish in 2 hours. and 2. have a few scattered no fishing saturdays... that will lesson the total amount caught each season as well.
Everyone blames the ice fisherman!! If we are killing and wounding all these salmon why not let us keep them? Nothing like seeing 400 fisherman April 1st crammed into a tiny area catching all these stupid salmon one after another!!
I agree with john, September can be slow, but there are no nicer days in the year than in September.
Also, I think many fisherman that are still working may only have Saturdays to fish (not my problem) Would not recommend any no fishing days.
Louis