Questionable Activity

[Trout Commander]

Correct..once again your able to spell it out for me. Yet..what if you snag a fish thats illegle to snag? Prehaps..you snag a large brown trout thru the gills? Maybe a 3lb smallmouth right thru the eye? What the heck though...I was trying to snag some suckers...toss me a Natty lite.

You leave Natty Lite out of this!

[Chief Grey Bear]

Correct..once again your able to spell it out for me. Yet..what if you snag a fish thats illegle to snag? Prehaps..you snag a large brown trout thru the gills? Maybe a 3lb smallmouth right thru the eye? What the heck though...I was trying to snag some suckers...toss me a Natty lite.

Sucker grabbing is not done blindly such as snagging for spoonbill. It is quite the opposite. Sucker grabbing is done in relitive shallow water that is gin clear. There is no mistaking any other fish for a sucker.

[Flyflinger]

What???? How is a grabber supposed to know when the next guy will be coming through? I'd say first come first served. Should we just close all waters in this state to only the holy flyflinger? I know that is not what you are saying or even meaning, its just when you read something like that it widens that cavern between the fly fisherman and the spin/bait fisherman.

Keep your shirt on Chief. I am just finding it strange, didnt even know it was legal till earlier. So you would classify a "Grabber" as a spin/bait fisherman? Hehhhehehehh..."Grabber" LAUGH!

[Gene K]

Sucker snagging is a popular activity on the upper Current..Nothing unusual about it. The season opens on Sept 15th.

Certainly nothing unusual, as I have seen people snagging on the blue ribbon portion quite a few times. However, after a review of the MDC site, I'm wondering if it's legal in the BR portion. Does "On the Current River from Cedar Grove downstream to Arkansas line, only 5 hogsuckers may be included in a daily limit" mean it's not legal or what? (Link). While I could give a rat's behind if someone is snagging suckers, I have come across some fellers one time who had a 5 gal bucket who appeared to be snagging - only their bucket had some large trout in it too, which I noticed after they abandoned the bucket hauled butt through the woods as I happened upon them.

As to reporting fishing violations. there's always Operation Game Thief - 800.392.1111. I believe there's also an MDC agent office at Montauk. And of course you can call the federallies at the NPS office - 573-323-4236.

[Gavin]

Gene your link pertains to the limit on Hogsuckers on the lower Current...not the legality of snagging suckers on the Upper Current...its perfectly legal...but gigging is not. Be careful with MDC's new site...its a POS IMO....I'd look to the code on the Secretary of State's site.

[stlfisher]

I will say this...my buddy and I watched them from the woods a good 5 minutes and these guys new what they doing. They had only suckers on their stringers. I didn't see any accidental snagging of trout etc. We chatted with them for a few minutes and they mentioned it was perfectly legal. With that many fisherman on a Saturday I can't imagine anyone blatentley doing that if it was illegal. Way to many people out that would have turned them in if it was not. It does not seem as easy as it looked and one guy was putting his buddy to shame and letting him know it. It was definitely odd to see as I have never seen that before.

[Gene K]

Yes, I see what you are saying, Gavin.

[Gavin]

Here's the code...look in the restricted section language...p.6 of 12...on the PDF. Gigging is prohibited, snagging is not.

http://www.sos.mo.gov/adrules/csr/current/3csr/3c10-6.pdf

[ozark trout fisher]

What???? How is a grabber supposed to know when the next guy will be coming through? I'd say first come first served. Should we just close all waters in this state to only the holy flyflinger? I know that is not what you are saying or even meaning, its just when you read something like that it widens that cavern between the fly fisherman and the spin/bait fisherman.

To answer you question "How is a grabber supposed to know when the next guy will be coming through?"- That's easy-there is pretty much always someone "coming through" on the Baptist Camp stretch of the Current. I'm not sure if you're familiar with it, but that's crowded water, not quite as crowded as a trout park, but not far off. And normal fly or spinner fishing just doesn't ruin the fishing for the next guy in the same way as someone camping a hole with 20 pound line and a huge treble hook. It's rude in just the same way that it would be rude for me to wade out into one of these pools to retrieve a snagged fly. I'm of the opinion, especially on crowded water, that it's important to try not to ruin the fishing for the next person that might be fishing the pool I'm on.

What I'm saying, quite simply, is that it might be a nice idea to pick a stretch of stream where they won't be ruining the fishing for as many people. I can think of plenty of creeks that have good sucker populations that just don't have the crowds of the upper Current. It's just that this particular method doesn't work out very well on crowded water, not that I have any real problem with it.

And I never made any comment whatsoever about spin or bait fisherman. I'm not sure where you got that from.

[FishinCricket]

And I never made any comment whatsoever about spin or bait fisherman. I'm not sure where you got that from.

Oh, he's just being pissy and generalizing... Posturing for effect.. lol