No Cull Rule

[denjac]

No Cull Rule?

July 19, 2011 By ibfishnFrom July 1 through Aug. 31, no angler in Missouri may release bass

after putting them in a live well.

JEFFERSON CITY-If you think summer is uncomfortable for you, put

yourself in a fish's place. Your home heats up, oxygen gets scarce,

and there is no air (or water) conditioning or fans to turn on. That is

why Missouri fishing regulations prohibit anglers from "culling"

during July and August.

Culling is the practice of releasing one fish that was caught

previously so you can keep a larger one. When anglers put the last fish

of their daily limit in a live well, they no longer can keep any fish

of that species that day. However, under certain conditions, anglers

fishing in tournaments can continue to fish if they stop one fish short

of a limit and release a living fish from their live well before

replacing it with a fish they just caught. This allows them to "trade

up," replacing one fish with a larger one.

Tournament bass anglers may cull live bass from September through June.

July and August are the months the no culling rule applies. The rule is

meant to reduce the number of tournament-caught bass that are subject

to higher mortality during the hot summer months. The rule also heightens

tournament anglers' awareness of the factors that influence fish

mortality.

Missouri's limit on black bass is six per day. This includes any bass

that are not released immediately, whether they are in live wells for

one minute or for eight hours. Once you placed a sixth bass in your

live well you may not replace any of the bass with another. However, if you

are fishing in a tournament in which the limit is five bass, and you

have five bass in the live well, you can replace one fish, one time.

If a bass dies in your live well it cannot be replaced with a live one,

any time. If you have caught your sixth legal bass and have placed all

six fish in your live well for any length of time, you can continue

fishing but you must release any bass caught immediately, regardless of

size.

Fisheries Field Operations Supervisor Kevin Richards said some anglers

- and even some tournament officials – are not as familiar with the

culling rule as they should be.

"Let's think about why Missouri has a no-culling rule in the summer

and see if there are ways we can use new tournament formats to increase

survival of bass during the hot water months," said Richards.

[denjac]

I guess after rereading this, you can replace 1 fish, 1 time.

[Sam]

Makes sense to me.

Several years back I rigged up a 5' length of PVC pipe with an elbow on the end. It fits on the intake pipe of my live well, and I can lean over the back of my boat, attach the PVC "snorkel", and draw water from 5+ feet down into the livewell. In the summer, that water is generally cooler than water at the surface by 10 degrees or more!

I'm trying to keep crappie and other panfish alive and in good shape for eating, not bass, but the idea is the same - and drawing cooler water from a few feet down really helps. I haven't taken this rig along for a couple of years though, because it's a pain to use. You have to take it off before running anywhere with the main motor, and it would get knocked off and broken or lost by bumping into stumps or a shallow bottom.

I think this would be a money-making rig for some inventor who could figure out how to make the "snorkel" out of a length of garden hose or something that wouldn't break - and could figure out how to make it retract easily for running.

Anyway, point is - for keeping fish alive in a livewell in the summer, the lake water's a LOT cooler just a few feet down and it seems like we ought to be able to use that somehow instead of drawing the hottest water in the lake right off the surface.

[dwiebenga]

This is great information

[Champ188]

Really good thinkin on that pipe rig, Sam. Bet you're right that someone will perfect and market that someday.

[mclothier1]

Good idea on the pvc... but what about using a length of garden hose thats weighted on the end? if it was installed just right I see no reason why you couldnt leave it extended, even when running. Just gotta make sure it stays out of the prop.