Trophy Lake

[Whack'emGood]

I believe all of this talk is moot... no offense to anyone, of course.

I grew up in this area, fishing these lakes (in the 80s and early 90s), and I remember having our livewell checked fairly often back then. By the way, I never minded, as I am very much in favor of a prominent MDC presence at the lake. I gladly follow the rules (I never keep bass anyway), and I wish each and every fisherman would follow the rules that the MDC sets.

I moved away from the area for about 13 years, and then was finally able to move back home. Since I got back to the area, I have been fishing both Table Rock and Stockton pretty regularly. Of all of the hours that I have spent on those lakes during the past 5 years or so, I have yet to be checked by the MDC.

I have heard the reasons for this... MDC lacks funding to put agents to work on the water, etc. However, I am very saddened to know that, if they aren't checking me, then they probably aren't checking many others (if any) either. Common sense tells me that it doesn't matter what the rules are... if they aren't enforcing them, then they aren't going to be effective.

I don't know how much this lack of enforcement effects Table Rock, but I always wonder how good a bass lake Stockton could be if the rules were enforced up there. The majority of the fishermen that fish Stockton are meat fishermen. There's nothing wrong with that, of course, but I often wonder how many of them catch a bass or six now and then and keep them (whether they're 15 inches plus or not).

Don't get me wrong, I know the majority of crappie/walleye fishermen (or meat bass fishermen) are knowledgeable and law abiding folks. I still wonder how many sublegal bass are kept out of Stockton (or Table Rock, for that matter) throughout a year period, all because people know they will never be checked by MDC.

Whack'em

[Whack'emGood]

Inshore: My biggest fear about over restricting tournament anglers is they would go to a Catch and Keep. Think about it, The law has size limits and bag limits and regulating how they handle fish or require them to prove non-kill could easily push them to the KEEP side. 20 boats with semi or pro anglers could do alot of damage when there is a tournament or 3 each weekend. There are a lot of clubs around here, I have seen 3 on Beaver at one time. Where i would support Voluntary efforts and better handling efforts it would have to be just that voluntary.

Perhaps Marinas can get involved and get a LARGE tank to place the fish in for 48 hours after the tournament this could be a boom to them for spectators to see the BIG BASS as the recover. I dont know the answers but we do need to be very careful as to not make it where tournaments decide to go with the laws and just say we will keep all fish. Skeeter had some good points for sure.

I would say that the vast majority (maybe 95%) of tournament anglers would be very much against catch and keep tournaments. I, for one, would not compete in (or support) such a format. I wouldn't think they would get enough to compete in one to even have one. Just my .02.

Whack'em