I Feel Like I Am Destined To Break The Rules

[winstonone]

OK, I am just starting out fishing for the first time since I was a kid. I went on a private pond a while back and had a great time, so now I want to go again. I'm doing research and learning as much as I can before I go out to make sure I am following the rules, but It's pretty overwhelming at times. I would consider myself as someone with average intelligence, college educated, and some common sense, but I feel like there are too many things to just "know" about fishing and regulations to not unintentionally break the rules.

I'm reading over the MDC rules and some things are easy to understand such as getting a proper license. Learning where you can and cannot go fishing. How many poles you can have and such. How to measure a fish.

Other things start to get a little tougher to grasp such as: Different rules for each area. Basically, I plan to just print out the area regulations before I go to wherever I'm going, so that shouldn't be too much of an issue.

Also, there are some things worded in ways that don't really make sense to me. I only intend on pole and line fishing, but here is an example: you can take a fish by "grabbing" but "hand fishing" is not permitted??? See below:

3 CSR 10-6.410 Fishing Methods

PURPOSE: This rule establishes the methods

by which fishermen may take fish.

(1) Fish may be taken by the use of pole and

line, trotline, throwline, limb line, bank line,

jug line, gig, bow, crossbow, underwater

spearfishing, snagging, snaring, grabbing or

atlatl, but only as specifically authorized in 3

CSR 10-6.415 through 3 CSR 10-6.550. No

person may attempt to take fish by rock or

hand fishing, with or without hook. Live

bait, mussels, clams, bullfrogs, green frogs,

common snapping turtles and soft-shelled turtles

may be taken only as specifically authorized

in 3 CSR 10-6.605 through 3 CSR 10-

6.620.

My biggest problem is going to be fish identification. I can easily see the limits, but I'm sure I will make some mistakes on identifying what the heck I just caught. I found a lot of pictures and fish identification stuff on the MDC website, but I've found a lot of fish that aren't on their ID page.

I can only take 2 Black Bass(largemouth, smallmouth, and spotted combined) over 15 inches.

I can take a total of 15 White, Striped, Yellow, and Hybrids(but only 4 that are over 18 inches). Well, the Yellow bass is not listed on the bass identification page on the MDC site so I don't know what it looks like. (Striped and White are shown) Is a yellow bass just a bass that is yellow? and what the heck is a hybrid?

...and that's just bass...

perch, crappie, trout, ect. I'm learning as much as I can, but mistakes just seem inevitable.

So here I am, I feel like I don't have enough knowledge of how to identify fish well enough to not break the rules due to honest mistakes of mistaken identity. Not to mention, getting fined would probably put a damper on my fishing experience. Especially, when I am spending this much time to really try to learn and follow the rules.

I appreciate any assistance on this, as I won't have a laptop and internet connection on the river to try to identify them. Nor would the fish have the patience to wait.

I plan on fishing on the Elk River in a couple weeks. Here are the area restrictions:

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Lake/Stream Species Location Details Season Dates Length Limit Daily Limit Notes

Stream Walleye and Sauger combined all year 15" minimum 4 From Feb 20 through Apr 14 walleye and sauger can be taken and possessed only between one half hour before sunrise to one half hour after sunset in the unimpounded portions of all streams except the Missouri and Mississippi rivers.

Stream Pickerel - Chain and Grass all year None 6

Stream Goggle-eye (Ozark Bass, Rock Bass and Shadow Bass) and Warmouth combined all year None 15

Stream Crappie all year None 30

Stream Catfish - Flathead all year None 5

Stream Catfish - Channel all year None 10

Stream Catfish - Blue all year None 5

Stream Carp - Bighead, Common, Goldfish, Grass, and Silver all year None No limit

Stream Bass - Striped, White, Yellow, and their Hybrids all year No more than 4 longer than 18" 15

Stream Bass - Largemouth, Smallmouth, and Spotted combined Elk River Fourth Saturday in May to the last day of February 15" minimum 2 Black bass management area includes entire Elk River in Missouri.

Stream All other species combined taken by pole and line, trotline, throwline, limb line, bank line or jug line all year None 50 total fish Game fish or endangered species are not included in this category. No more than 50 fish may be taken by all methods combined.

Stream All other species combined taken by gigging, atlatl, longbow, snagging, snaring, or grabbing Gigging or Atlatl: Sep 15 through Jan 31. Longbow: all year. Snagging, snaring, grabbing: Mar 15 through May 15 and Sep 15 through Jan 31. None Fish may be taken by gigging, atlatl, or longbow from sunrise to midnight. Game fish and endangered species are not included in this category. No more than 20 fish may be taken by all methods combined.

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[davekeim]

Stay away from the Patridges in the pear trees!

Signed,

Cardiac

[CDC]

Wow. I didn't know that they changed Elk river requirements to 15" minimum and only 2. Does this include Sugar Creek as well? I don't keep Largemouth or Smallmouth so it doesn't effect me but I see plenty of people going down the river with a bass that is even under the old 12" limit.

I guess the big question is do you plan on keeping the fish. If you don't plan on keeping them then just get a fishing license and catch and release...no worries. Otherwise just keep a few goggle-eye for dinner. You only need about two per person and they taste better anyway.

If you are going to be fishing the Elk around Noel, the only fish you are going to catch are largemouth, smallmouth and goggle-eye (and possibly some channel catfish). If you need some help identifying those just let me know.

[Al Agnew]

I agree with CDC, if you're wanting to keep fish, keep goggle-eye and sunfish, and release everything else unless you catch a channel catfish. As he said, those are the best-eating fish. If you happen to catch a white bass (you won't catch yellow bass, don't worry about it--they are rare to non-existent in MO) you might as well release it since they taste pretty mediocre anyway.

It really isn't difficult to avoid breaking the rules as long as you're not looking to keep everything you catch.

By the way, "grabbing" is another term for snagging fish with a treble hook. It is usually practiced on suckers in the spring and on paddlefish. You simply toss out a treble hook attached to your line into a place where you think there are fish and start jerking (actually there is more to it than that, but that's a simple definition). You'd hook fish anywhere on their bodies that way. It's illegal to do on fish other than rough fish and paddlefish, and there are specific seasons when it's legal to do it even on those fish.

It would always help if you were able to go with somebody who is more experienced so that they can help you ID fish (and learn more about catching them) until you get a bit of "seasoning". But you can do it yourself...just decide what kind of fish you want to keep, learn to ID those fish, and release everything else. Like I said before, on Elk River and other Ozark streams, you might as well keep goggle-eye (rock bass) and sunfish (green sunfish, longear sunfish, bluegill). They are pretty easy to ID, easy to catch, and good to eat. Take a small disposable camera along in case you catch something big or something you can't ID, and send the pictures to us here and we'll either tell you what a great catch it was or tell you what kind of fish it was!

[winstonone]

Thanks for the help.

I bought my license yesterday and they had a paper copy of the regulations with images of all of the fish. After looking at it, I don't think it will be that much of a problem to ID them.

I also read in the regulations that grabbing was the same thing as snagging them with a hook on a line. Hand catching was just snatching them out of the water with bare hands. So I think all my questions are answered. I just had to read more.

[whetstone]

If you're that new, limits shouldn't be too much of an issue.