Radical Fishing

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The wisdom of Nueltin Lake's regulations is demonstrated not only by its fantastic trophy-fish production but by the slowly spreading adoption of its policies in recent years. In Manitoba itself, and *in Nueltin's wake, literally hundreds of lakes and rivers are now governed by no-trophy or one-trophy rules. And in April 19go, Manitoba became the first province or state in North America to pass a law requiring barbless hooks for all its sportfishig. Several states and provinces including Wyoming, Montana, Minnesota and Ontario are now basing most of their sportfishing laws on policies specifically planned to protect big fish. Along the Atlantic coast, from North Carolina to Newfoundland, maximum-size laws now regulate the taking of two imperiled species, striped bass and Atlantic salmon. And the laws' growing acceptance is based not only on the biological truth that big fish (or big humans or big salamanders) tend to produce the biggest offspring but also on the simple fact that a trophy trout or walleye or black bass caught and returned to the water by one fisherman remains there to be caught by another.

But widespread and successful 'installation of maximum-size regulations on North American waters may depend less on the biological wisdom of the policies themselves than it does on the adaptability of fishermen and fisheries managers who have been jointly conditioned for a century or more to throw back the little ones. In addition, our species is conditioned by 5 million years of predatory experience: Surely we did not get to where we are today-the very top of the biological chain-because our caveman ancestors made it a practice to release the biggest fish caught during the day.

Indeed, lake manager Garry Gurke confirms that he's encountered a handful of potential customers who refuse to fish at Nueltin when they learn they cannot bring home a trophy. But, he says, the vast majority of today's sophisticated anglers not only appreciate and embrace Nueltin policies but, by putting moral pressure on their peers, help to enforce them.

And that was surely borne out by my experience one evening at Nueltin when, after several scotches all around, I complained once again about having to release My 22-pound lake trout (it had grown from the 18-1/2 pounds it weighed that morning). Immediately I was set upon by virtually every angler in camp as if the complaint itself were some kind of moral transgression.

"Jack," said Frank McCloskey, a retailer from Bradford, Ontario, "why on earth would you want to kill one of the big fish from this lake? Don't you realize some of them are old enough to be your father? Have you no respect for age?"

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