Friday, 4 July 2014

Red River Catfish Guide In A Nut Shell

By Rosella Campbell


Formed in 1989, the technical committee of Red River Fisheries was to oversee the shared stocks of fish in this river. The goals included determination of populations of the fishes, come up with protection measures, develop standardized assessment on fisheries and develop future action plans. The red river catfish guide was adopted by both states that are around it.

Among the recommendations was a special regulation of protecting the population of the fish from large over-harvests. The possession limit of catfishes was set to a maximum of five with only one fish to exceed twenty four inches. This was made in line with the North Dakota 1990 fishing and the 1991 for Minnesota.

Population estimations were performed in series in order to determine the total population of those bigger catfishes which resided in this waterway. Intense carryout of this sampling procedures were partly aimed in determination of the 1990 impact on channel catfish regulations. The other part aimed in determining the population of this fish and the catfish size structure and population in Red water course.

Surveys on anglers have been undertaken by both states on the basis of this water body in a bid to determine its usage by local residents and nonresidents, harvesting rates, general location and season harvesting is usually undertaken, among others. Minnesota undertook creels for a period of four months on summer and then later the North Dakota undertook it during the months of open waters. The reason for this so as to determine impact created by experimental spring fishing.

In the 1998 springs, the procedures to assess the impacts that were to result by opening the river for fishing to the general public began. Prior to this, this waterway had been restricted in an aim to avert overfishing of specific species. So as to monitor on the numbers harvested, spring fishing adopted a series of restraints on quotas and sizes at the years between 2000 and 2004. The conservation officers of both states were mandated to put into effect these regulations.

Based on information that was provided by the anglers during the survey, the restrictive limits in the springs and the more liberal limits that were set in place for the rest of the year had very insignificant or totally no impact on the populations. The North Dakota department of game and fish proposed an all seasonal every day and possession limit without limitation in size. The new regulation was to be evaluated to check whether the goals and objectives set were being accomplished.

From the period of 1995 to 2001, the North Dakota department on game and fish collaborated with the Minnesota DNR in carrying out routine sampling of this Red water way. This whole project was aimed at determining the populations of this fish in general, the number and size structure of the various species and also serves in developing trend line that checked for changes in the population of the catfish.

The committee has taken steps in standardizing the guidelines on Red waterway in a bid to make fishing highly user friendly. Fishing regulation of any kind is to be based on logical biology, should be enforceable and ought to be evaluated in order to ensure fishing is getting better and very enjoyable.




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