jscheetz

I have to echo Bill's sentiments. My buddy and I got down to taney after midnight on Thursday and fished til 3:30. Not another soul there (granted it was 22 degrees) Was very nice and had many hookups and caught a rainbow and a real nice brown throwing rapalas. Then Fly fished on Friday wading in the vicinity of the #1 outlet mostly and down to rebar hole (which was under quite a bit of water all day). Started catching fish on scuds but then noticed that many of the rainbows were leaving eggs in the net so switched to a small orange egg pattern. Couldn't keep the fish off. Caught about 40 and they were all very nice fish - most in the 16 to 18 inch range. Actually bigger average fish than the last couple trips down there. So like Bill said - it's at least a small glimpse of Heaven when it's like this. (and I'm not even a guide) JS

Hey Phil, Maybe we need to do some sort of petition to get the attention of the MDC? Maybe if there were enough fisherman engaged in asking for the C&R area they would listen? I think as everyone has said that these fish are too vulnerable and frankly fairly easy to catch in the fall even if you are not the greatest fisherman in the world, so what would it hurt if the first mile was C&R. So sign me up - let me know if I can help. JS

Hey Leonard, Just to clarify - I am drawing a definite distinction between fishermen and meat-hunters. You are a fisherman, so when you want to take home a fish or two to eat that makes perfect sense - but the meat-hunters don't care about fishing, they don't support the sport, they don't try to "out-wit" the fish etc etc - they just go get a fish by whatever means they can and take it. 18" 23" doesn't matter to them. They take instead of give. So I just wish they would get their meat at the store instead of from the lake! JS

As I said it was right at dark and I was a distance away - and trying to catch a fish myself - but this was definitely a 6 pound plus fish as I could see it flopping. So I have no way of "knowing" that the fish was snagged - however, I would be willing to bet all I could come up with that it was due to the circumstances. So my point once again is that when the big browns are that vulnerable and are stacked up in a foot of water it makes it too easy for poachers to come down snag one and leave - there would have to be an agent right there right then in order to catch him - because since it is OK to take one out - you couldn't do anything to him as he was walking back to the car - so it is almost impossible to actually catch these guys. Does that make sense? So for me - I would like to see a catch and release only at least in the fall in the top part of the lake around the outlets - that way there would be no poachers that could walk back to their car in plain site after having just taken a fish by illegal methods because just having the fish would be enough to convict them. This wouldn't stop people from taking fish illegally but most of the things that I hear fisherman complain about on this subject relates to the virtually open snagging of fish in the fall. Sorry if I was unclear, hope that clears it up. JS

Well, I have ranted to Phil before of my disgust in the outlet #3 issue. Having watched a guy come down there right at dark with nothing but a spinning rod that could have brought in a sea bass and a stringer. I was 30 yards away and it was about dark, but before long he had a big brown flopping on the bank, and then left. It is so frustrating because if you are there fishing yourself you can't be watching others all the time - so it makes it hard to "prove" what you know is happening - meat-hunters. But...... maybe we need to take our cue from the situation at the U.S./Mexican border. Maybe we need to form groups of "Trout Minutemen". Oh sure the MDC would scoff at such vigilante operations, and of course the problem would be to actually get one of them out there when you did see a violation, but maybe taking pictures or video of guys doing illegal things along with their license plates might at least scare them a bit. Usually people don't like getting "caught" via film when they are doing something they shouldn't be. I just don't understand why the big browns are valued so little here. Other places I fish at all over in the west seem to have more control and more catch and release only areas where there are high concentrations of big fish. There should at least be a moratorium on the killing of big browns up that far in the fall when they are most vulnerable - let the meat-hunters go to Hy-Vee. JS