New Mdc E Permits. Yellow Ones Go Bye Bye!

[Wayne SW/MO]

MO has that, too...kind of.

Ain't that the truth.:lol:

[Outside Bend]

Outside, you sure place alot of faith in the fishing public for a guy who thinks that people won't even clean their felt boots after fishing. So you're telling me people won't target reds? I bet you that happens, and I know that people have walked through them as I have seen it happen before a few years back.

I'm not saying it doesn't happen. I'm not saying it's ethical. I'm saying it has little or no impact on the fisheries, especially stacked against other factors like drought, flood, predation, and lack of adequate spawning gravel. I'm not saying stream closures are a bad idea- in streams where the trout don't spawn during winter, in streams which see a lot of angling pressure, they make sense. I'm saying in our streams, they'd have no practical, biological effect. If there's no impact, what's the point in creating the regulation? It's an ethical issue, not a biological one, and I'd rather MDC base it's management decisions on biology as opposed to what gives a subset of the angling public the warm & fuzzies.

The same with barbless. Most managers realize it has no practical impact on the fishery, aside from reducing lesions and damage to the fishes' mouth. That's why you see those regs most often on high-traffic destination fisheries like Yellowstone and the White River- folks don't want to spend a few thousand dollars catching mangle-mouthed fish that look like they've already been caught a half-dozen times. It's purely cosmetic- another moral/ethical choice that has little or no impact on the fishery, and ought to be outside the scope of MDC's jursidiction.

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If calling the Blue ribbon streams C&R is too big of a regulatory headache, and this is the justification that MDC actually uses, then MDC needs to hang up their hat. Why? Part of their duty is enforce/create their own regulations.

Yes, there is more than one way to skin a cat, excpet Arkansas' way seems to be better at skinning this perverbial cat.

It's semantics. The system is biologically constrained to allow so many 18 inch fish. The fish are biologically constrained to top out around 18 inches. MDC could change the regs to C&R and be in the exact same place they are now. So what's the point in changing the regs to C&R?

I'm genuinely sorry you feel that way about MDC, as on many big issues they've taken a pretty firm stance- from gravel mining to chip mills to the enrichment of the James River. But it's not MDC's fault Ozark springs are nutrient poor when compared to Arkansas tailwaters. It's not MDC's fault that Ozark trout streams' flow and temperature fluctuates more than Arkansas tailwaters. It's not MDC's fault most wild rainbows in the state top out around 18 inches before dying. That's the resource we have, and MDC's job is to work within those biological parameters to maximize the resource for everyone. It seems a lot of your ire is misdirected.

[jdmidwest]

Looks like more info on the new System has been released from MDC. Old Yellow will still be around for at least another year.

E Permits Available Online March 1

It is that time of year again to ante up for our favorite charity, MDC.

[FishHawk]

I think they should give you the option to have the lifetime fishing liscense tattooed to your arm.

I've never felt the need to get inked, but I would probably go for that.

I guess you could have your Conservation ID Number tattooed on your arm. That way an agent could look up all your valid pemits.