What Do You Think

[FishinCricket]

:joke_alert:

Personally, it doesn't make any sense to me that they would remove the brown trout limit. The fish are stocked below the park for a trophy opportunity and protected as such down there, but some move up into the park during the hot weather and suddenly it's open season because they crossed under a cable 10ft above the water. Poor resource management, in my opinion.

I forwarded this to the person who sets the regs at MDC, they replied:

we understand your concern and the MDC would like to help... After careful consideration we've decided that we would be willing to lower that cable 12 feet and hang a sign on it that says "No brown trout upstream from this point". We hope this will alleviate any issues you are having with the regulations. We do have one question: What color of lettering do you think would capture the attention of the resident browns?

[Leonard]

reply back...

Rainbow lettering.....

browns love rainbows...

[Kayser]

Gotta love a department with a sense of humor. But I still pose the question- why would you not protect the fish in all the waters? Is it an enforcement issue? It's just that there is a far greater harvest potential in the park, with the 4/day @ 15" (and live bait), instead of 1/day @18" outside the park (fly/artificial only). I feel that if there were less browns harvested in the stream, there would be more big ones overall, resulting in a better fishery. Better fishery=more traffic=more tourist money. I don't know, I guess I just don't get why the 1 brown/day rule didn't stay.

Rob

[jdmidwest]

A few years back, they changed the rule in the parks at Bennett, Meramec, and Montauk to match the Brown Trout Management of the Stream Area below the park to keep this kind of crap from happening. People were catching the illegal fish below the park and crossing back over claiming them as legal park trout. What you have there is a poacher that had his picture taken at Reed's Fly Shop. The brown trout regs are posted at the park near the streams as of last year. I can't vouch for that fact this year. I caught and released 2 nice browns from the handicap area in the campground last fall. Several looked at me funny for letting them go since I was keeping some rainbows to eat. I pointed out the brown trout reg at that time.

[Leonard]

Tim at Roaring river has informed me ...

It is legal to take out 4 browns 15inches or greater as a daily limit in a Mo trout park..

as much as it pains me to say...

Thats a heck of a fishing trip.....

[flyfishmaster]

Judge Timmy has made the ruling and this case is now closed , plus the jury has been sent home after hours of deliberation (and at least 4 - 30 packs of Miller Lite)

Tune in tomorrow when Judge Timmy makes a ruling on "Does the Rainbow trout truely have a rainbow of colors!" Stay tuned for details...

Later,

FFM

[3wt]

Very little chance of catching those fish legally in a day.

Even less of a chance of regularly catching lunkers.

I've fished white jigs a lot in the past, and they work, but it's not a magical jig that inspires lunkers to strike constantly.

[Idylwilde]

Something interesting has come from this thread, The MDC agent himself was not aware of the 4 brown trout rule inside the trout parks. & he is doing some checking into it. Along with everyone it is a mystery to them why the brown trout are not offered the same or better protection inside the park as in the blue ribbon area. I would love to see the MDC change this rule as quickly as they can because we are loosing trophy browns at a rate that the upper current river can not stand. I will be contacting MDC today and voicing my thought on this rule.

The Current River Blue Ribbon Area is a jewel in the Trout ring of Missouri but it needs to be polished a bit.

[awhuber]

Something interesting has come from this thread, The MDC agent himself was not aware of the 4 brown trout rule inside the trout parks. & he is doing some checking into it. Along with everyone it is a mystery to them why the brown trout are not offered the same or better protection inside the park as in the blue ribbon area. I would love to see the MDC change this rule as quickly as they can because we are loosing trophy browns at a rate that the upper current river can not stand. I will be contacting MDC today and voicing my thought on this rule.

The Current River Blue Ribbon Area is a jewel in the Trout ring of Missouri but it needs to be polished a bit.

This speaks volumes about MDC. Maybe this agent should brush up on the laws while he is down, in another county, baby sitting the elk.

[Gavin]

Each park has different regulations for the waters below...

Below Montauk-1 trout over 18" limit

Below Meramec-2 trout over 15" limit (appears to be legal to harvest 2 browns over 15")

Below Bennett & Roaring River-4 trout, rainbows anysize, browns must be bigger than 15" (appears to be legal to harvest 4 browns over 15")

The current regulation structure is a mess in regard to brown trout.....I think we need to clarify the regulations with a statewide limit of 1 brown trout.......with an 18" minimum in the parks & rivers, and maybe a 24" minimum on Taneycomo.