What About Thoughts-in Put On A"slot Limit

[Gone Fishing]

I'm sure many of the eggs don't make it. But the point I'm trying to make is, if the pulling a fish off the bed is so hard on the lake, maybe we should not fish with in casting distance of the bank. Maybe even shut down the lake during the spawn. After all, we saw with all the sight fishing going on in years past how damaged the lake is with it ONLY taken 25lbs to win the Heartland and reading of all the quality and numbers of fish being caught on here. Just my 2 cents.

Like I said, I have never fished for a fish off the bed, but just like most of you I'm sure I am guilty of catching a fish off of one.

[Whack'emGood]

You're right. The fishing has been good. Hard to argue with that for sure. I wouldn't have a problem if they shut down the lake for April and maybe even part of May every year. It would be worth it to me. The whole deal for me is-- I don't like guys purposely taking fish off of beds. The fishing is good... but could always be better. Look at some of the lakes that the Bassmasters fish in the Mid-South (forget the TX and FL Lakes-- no way TR could be that good, for multiple reasons). Couldn't Table Rock fishing be closer to those great Mid-South lakes if we managed it right?

[skeeter]

Seems to me the 15-inch minimum length limit is working as advertised. Where else in the country can a guy catch spots the size of those at Table Rock, plus great smallmouths and largemouths, too? I fished last Sunday on a not-too-great weather day and had a 5-pound largemouth, 4-pound spot and 3 1/2-pound smallmouth. Just my opinion, but I don't know why you'd want the MDC to jack around with the regulations for Table Rock. It's been a winning formula for a long, long time.

I, too, disdain the idea of jerking bass off beds — males or females — during tournaments. I'll be fishing Central Pro-Am next weekend and do not intend to bed fish or even look for beds. A guy can waste way too much practice and competition time doing so. I'd be fine with the idea of not holding tournaments during the spawn, but I believe some folks would still be out there yanking fish off the beds.

As for paper tournaments, those may be fine at the club level. But I'm not spending $1,200 and up on entry fee, fuel and oil, lodging, eats, etc. to fish a tournament where weights are guesstimated with a formula.

Champ 188,

You may recall when MDC instituted the 15" limit back in the late 70's the howls of protest that went up could be heard in China they were so loud but, as you say, it worked out for the best in a big way.

Here we are about 30 years later and this old geezer has observed the fishing pressure to have about tripled with hardly a week going by without some sort of large tournament(s) drawing many more boats to the lake. IMHO it's time for MDC to be doing some additional management to this fishery and something to encourage or even mandate "Boat-Side" release when angling in a tournament would be very beneficial.

Of course the tournament organizer$ wouldn't be happy with that because you then couldn't have the hoopla at the "weigh-in" holding fish in plastic bags and hoisting them into the air for pictures and media coverage would be eliminated.

[Phil Lilley]

They're charging spectators to watch the weigh-ins now... take some of that money and hire people to take the fish and spread them around the lake instead of putting them back at the weigh in site. May help, may not.

The boat-side release sounds real good to me. But they would scream... but what if every state that hosts big tourneys do the same thing. Then they would threaten to boycott a state for changing the rules.

Pie in the sky.

The other side of the coin... fishing is AWFULLY good on the Rock right now... even after so many tournaments during spawning events in past years. So may be they don't affect the spawn or the overall health of bass. Fishing for spawning bass on beds - sounds bad. Taking them off the bed and moving them to another part of the lake - sounds terrible. Lots and lots of pressure on the bass especially during a spawn - couldn't be good. But is there proof that it depletes the overall population? Or is this just an attack on the dreadful tournaments!

[Hogfan]

Everyone should go read Babler's last post titled "Today's Incarcerations". I'm not saying that jerking fish off beds is helping the fish population, but it doesn't sound like it's hurting it much either. 2 guides, 1 day of fising, 89 bass with 66 of them being keepers. The fish are out there you just have to get out there and catch them.

I don't fish for bedding fish either, but if I've got 14lbs by noon and I think a 6lb fish could win me $5k I'm probably going to go look for one.

[Wayne SW/MO]

The Kentucky's/Spotted bass tend to mess up the equation by never reaching the slot exit point.

[Whack'emGood]

My view is that if the Kentuckies hadn't taken over like they have, we would have alot more bigger Largemouths. If we want to have really big fish like alot of the premier lakes in the country we need to somehow get the LMs to make a big comeback. I grew up fishing TR and catching 80% LM or so... Then I moved away for 13 years. I moved back to the area about a year and a half ago and most of the LM are gone. When I got back all I heard about was how great the Kentuckies are. I was very sad to hear that the Ks are taking over and the LM were few and far between. I thought everyone was crazy to love the Ks. I have caught some really nice Ks this spring (not near as large as the potential for LM... but nice) and have enjoyed catching them-- but I still long for the good ol' days of big LM on TR. Like I said- I do enjoy the Ks some and can kind of see what all the rage is about, but they don't have the potenial to grow near as big as my beloved LM. Doesn't anyone else miss the LM?

P.S. Love the Smallmouths... no complaint there.

[2bfishn]

there is always some moron, that is fishing with live bait or something, that accidentally catches a keeper

When I was a kid my Grandpa taught me to fish with a cane pole and a bucket of worms or minnows and we cooked some of whatever we caught on the river bank...... Guess I didnt realize he was teaching me to be a moron but we sure had some good times.. MY how fishing and fishermen have changed over the years..But dont worry guys I quite bass fishing several years ago so I am no threat to the population

[Whack'emGood]

I didn't say everybody who fishes with live bait was a moron. I was just saying everyone who keeps and eats everything they catch whether they are legal fish or not, or no matter what species of fish are morons. These people that keep every fish no matter the species, size, etc. just mostly happen to be the nightcrawler guys. Not that most of these nightcrawler fisherman aren't knowledgable, size limit and creel abiding fisherman. The thing is (and this applies to just about everything) you just tend to notice the bad ones and generalize. I apologize to anyone that misinterpreted what I was trying to convey. I grew up fishing with my grandpa and catching them on nightcrawlers too-- during that time, my grandpa taught me to handle the fish with care and only to keep legal fish up to your creel limit, to conserve, and only harvest what you needed. Yep, you are right, those were good times.