Wouldn’t limiting angler harvest altogether protect more of the big fish, leaving them in there to spawn and in doing so, improve spawn numbers?
It would seem like a logical approach – but unfortunately lots of research has indicated the abundance of spawning fish has no real bearing on individual year class strength. You can have lots of adult spawners, but if the conditions for egg and YOY survival are poor, year classes will be weak. Conversely, fisheries biologists have often seen fantastic year classes spawned by relatively few adults. While there is a relatively good correlation between year class strength and future adult fish, the reverse correlation simply doesn’t exist.
