Extending Trophy Smallmouth Waters

[RSBreth]

I would love to see the regs change, but it also hard to enforce the current 12" limit. My litttle sweety, Bull Creek, can't stand the catch and keep people that clean it out every year, let alone the outright poachers. The Finley has the buffer of the two upper lakes to help the fish with wintering, most others don't.

[jdavis]

Ok, Here's a question for all you smallie guys. How many of you keep smallies? How many of you release smallies?

I have never kept a smallmouth in my life. I love the signs on the access point regulations boards that explain how long it takes for a smallmouth to reach trophy size. That information is very effective for those of us who care about the fishery.

I'm curious if the outfitters on these waters thoroughly explain the regulations when they put clients in. It seems that would be part of thier responsibility.

[Guest]

deleted

[creek wader]

I've never kept any smallies or goggle-eye, for that matter. I don't fault people for keeping them as long as they obey the regs. It's the ones that keep everything, that bother me. ...Chief, I'll keep in touch with you. Keep sending those good reports. ... Wader

[Chief Grey Bear]

Wader

Make sure you check the Shoal Creek forum this evening. Buzz is about to post some pic's of an absolutely awesome day we had floating.

We took in the neighborhood of 20 pic's of good fish. I don't think he is going to post them all, I tried to get him too though.

It was the first time either one of us has floated this particular stretch but, it won't be the last.

Well, just look later on for a report.

[Al Agnew]

As for floating from a 12 inch limit stretch into a one fish 15 inch limit stretch, for instance...the law says you can't have more than the limit for the water you are in AT THAT POINT, IN YOUR POSSESSION. So if you are in a one fish 15 inch limit stretch and you have some 12 inchers, even though you caught them upstream where it was legal, you would be illegal. That's the only way such regs can be enforced.

[hank franklin]

I would favor a statewide 18-inch, one fish limit. The message to the general fishing public would be that smallmouth are now protected. Unless you catch a really big smallie, don't keep him.

I know MDC wants to keep the regs simple. I think this would be the simplest.

I would hate to see Mo Smallmouth Alliance and others get with MDC and go through this long review process only to reach some kind of compromise. It's time Missouri protects the smallmouth. The 18-inch one fish limit I think would be the best way to do it.

I personally would favor all C & R, but that ain't gonna happen.

I know that there are those who keep whatever they catch, which is why in my mind a slightly higher length and creel limit (14 inches and 3 fish for example) would make just an incremental improvement. People won't know the difference.

An 18-inch one fish limit, heavily promoted by the MDC, fishing orgs and the outfitters would have a much better chance to catch on.

It mainly comes down to policy: What is the intent of the regs? As Al says, the intent right now is more or less to protect tradition, and grow a lot of 10-12 smallmouths. In my mind, the intent of the regs should change to make growing big smallmouth a priority. It seems Missouri has focused heavily on trout and the lake largemouth. Those are two species Missouri has heavily promoted, and fishing is generally excellent. The stream smallmouth has been mostly left to fend for itself; the 12 and 6 limits are ridiculous when viewed in this regard.

Protect the Missouri smallmouth!

[Gavin]

I'd definetly be in favor of more restrictive limits...I dont think that 1 fish < 18" statewide limit has much of a chance with the Regulations Committee though.

Arkansas has a statewide limit of 4 smallmouths..I think that might be an easy sell...maybe add a statewide slot limit to protect the bigger fish instead of the abundant numbers of 10-12" fish?

My wife and I caught a bunch last weekend. Probably a hundred or more between the two of us on an overnight float in one of the SMA's this weekend. Best guess is that only a dozen of those fish would top the 15" minimum on that stretch of river..It was great fishing, but the average size was still around 10-12".

I think I could live with some harvest of the 10-12" fish, while protecting those in the 12"-18" class. Maybe a 3-4 fish limit, 10" minimum, 12-18" protected slot, 1 fish over 18". Cheers.

[hank franklin]

Why would the Regs Committee not like the 18 inch one fish limit? Biology? Politics? I'm not arguing, just wondering.

I agree there are some streams where you could thin out the smaller classes and maybe not do much damage. But I'd fear that over time a 10-12 slot would basically clean out all but the select few who live past 12, making the majority of fish even smaller than they are now.

I only know of a few catch and kill smallmouth anglers. These people generally fish live bait and can take dozens of fish out of the stream in a season. It doesn't take many of these folks to really harm a fishery. I don't understand why the regs would continue to favor these folks, at the expense of the C & R crowd.

[Gavin]

Hank, I've never really dealt with the MDC regulation foks on a face to face basis, but I've sent many letters and talked to many of the biologists about trout and smallmouth. The MDC folks have never said it in so many words, but there seems to be an unspoken imperative to protect the rights of harvest inclined anglers. They want the people of the state to be able to take some fish home and eat them from time to time. Even wonderful gamefish like smallmouth bass.

Almost any regulation change that MDC has passed in recent history has involved some type of harvest. There is no use in fighting it. I think that most of those 10-12 inch fish, are going to die off long before they reach 18 inches anyway. I'd willing to take a chance on some temporary regulations that would allow some of those small fish to go bye bye, if it leads to a protected slot for quality fish. I think its worth a shot in some places, maybe not in others.

I dont know enough to say what's best for any given stream. I think we need to give the biologists the torch and tell them to grow us some bigger smallmouths. Best bet is to start an online group and let the letters fly. About 15 of us started an online group called the Missouri Trout Fishing Task Force on MDC's Conservation Cafe chat site six or seven years ago...we started an online group on Yahoo, exchanged phone numbers, had a brainstorming session, elected some officers, wrote or platform and whined like heck...Dont know how much buzz we created, but it only took a couple years to get a new "Trout Plan"....No reason that it couldnt happen again..

Gavin