WOW I didn't see that there were 5 pages to read - I'll have to catch up later.

I see Huskybass already said what I said.

Lots of great info and opinions. From what I see, every lakes bass population can be in a different place - too many variables in conditions, forage base, recruitment rates, fishing pressure, fishing mortality and of course harvest rates -- to have just one creel limit for an entire state and expect it do work the same in each body of water .

Would a 2 fish limit work if every angler that kept a limit, decided to fish there next year ? NO.

Would a 10 fish limit make any difference in a lake where no one keeps any ? NO

Tourney pressure on Candlewood has no negative impacts on recruitment there - but is that true of all lakes? I doubt it.

The current creel limits were set long ago and in need of review.

We need more "Lake Specific" management to expect better fisheries. To do that, we need a hell of a lot more fisheries biologists. That takes $$$ - and YES the money is there, but unfortunately it gets burried in the "general fund" and the DEP has to literally fight for it's own survival - and you can forget about expanding their presence.

I bet a dollar that they have our best biologists schlepping trout from the stocking trucks for 10 weeks a year because they are understaffed :rolleyes:

I think this creel limit discussion is very important and I think we as fishermen, need to make more noise in Hartford to get our moneys worth. Support the DEP - Don't demand more from them - demand more of them