• The total number of hours fished by all anglers combined, in a year, has steadily increased.

• Anglers have become more efficient at finding and catching fish.

• Anglers are more mobile and willing to travel to lakes where fish are on the bite.

Overharvest of a fish population occurs when harvest exceeds what the population can annually replace. Overharvest reduces the quality of a fish population for years to come.

There is a portion of each fish population that can be harvested each year without hurting its ability to maintain its quality, in terms of number and sizes of fish. The size of that portion changes annually based on past reproduction, fish growth and angler harvest.

For many fisheries, we are currently at, or have surpassed, a level of sustainable harvest. If we hope to maintain or improve the quality of fish populations, the impact of each fishing trip on fisheries resources must decrease. Imagine a fish population as a pie. The pie doesn’t become any larger as more people want a slice of pie. To prevent overharvest from occurring, each slice taken must be smaller.

On a daily basis, the maximum size of an individual’s slice of pie is set by the daily regulations. For an entire year, how large each angler’s slice of pie gets depends upon:

• How often they fish
• How many fish they catch, what sizes and how many they keep, and what they release on each trip

The key to maintaining and improving fisheries resources for the future is in the selective harvest of these resources on each and every fishing trip. Selective harvest requires that we make an effort to be aware of our personal impact on fisheries resources on both a daily and yearly basis.

• Does my chosen fishing method mean I might have to release fish I think will die to obey existing regulations?

• Why am I keeping fish of certain sizes?

• Could the species, number and sizes of fish that I am choosing to keep be hurting the resource?

• Do you always try to harvest a limit of fish? Is that an automatic goal of each fishing trip? Have a plan in mind for fish you keep before you go fishing or don’t keep fish during that trip.

• Ask yourself how many fish you need to keep to meet your immediate needs (supper that evening, etc.).

• If harvest regulations allow you to keep one fish over a certain length, do you always harvest that one fish if the opportunity arises?

• If you already have your possession limit of a species at home or in storage, do you continue to harvest fish to meet your immediate needs? (doing so is illegal)

• Having to throw out old fish from the freezer at the beginning of the next fishing season.

• Remember, keep in mind what your yearly impact is on fisheries resources and the reasons for possession limits.

• Be conservative with your daily harvest. You don’t have to harvest a limit. In fact, you don’t have to harvest fish on every trip to have a good time. If you are allowed one fish over a certain length per day, set your personal limit at zero fish over that length except for a once in a lifetime trophy.