Wisconsin's Changing Trout Population

Fishing A Learning Experience, Pass it On.
1

I have kept log books on trout fishing my area since 1975.

There was a gap from 1978-1984 “Army”

I started up again in 1984.

I have ZERO special training in trout management.

I average 130 times a year fishing for trout in those years I have log books.

In 1976 prior to going in the Army I went out 132 times and my log books say I caught 1,120 trout for the year.

In 2011 I went out 137 times and my log books say I caught 2,437 trout.

DOUBLE the trout.

I re-read my logs and did some size and stream comparison.

The BIG trout in 1976 were on average “SIX” inches longer than the big trout I caught in 2011.

My log books through the years show this quite clearly.

Is TRADING numbers for size an acceptable trade off for you?

2

Len,
That depends where on the scale you are. If you are talking about doubling the number of 20" fish over 26" fish, my answer would probably be, “Yes”.
If you are talking about trading 9" fish for twice as many 3" inch fish, no.

Ed

3

In 1976 were you fishing using techniques that would primarily target trophies? Trophy producing techniques usually result in fewer total numbers.

All things being equal, they usually are not.

4

If a system has a good number of big trout, the population will be lower and average size larger, because many of the smaller trout will be eaten by the big trout.

One possible scenario for what you are experiencing is that bigger fish have been more heavily harvested. That would result in fewer small fish being eaten by bigger trout, and so the overall population would increase as average size decreases.