Mdc Open And Upcoming Seasons

[Guest]

I've never fished ozark streams in MO during the "catch and release" season..

This might sound stupid but, can you fish there as long as all fish are released?

Ark doesnt have these types of rules, although they probably should.

I just wanted some clarification before getting the canoe ready...

http://mdc.mo.gov/seasons

[Al Agnew]

Yes, you can...all bass must be returned to the water immediately, but you can fish for them. Back when I was a kid and the closed season was in its early stages, a lot of anglers believed that you couldn't fish for bass during the closed season...so they just said they were fishing for goggle-eye. Whether or not MDC intended for the closed season to mean you couldn't fish for bass, they very quickly saw that such a rule was unenforceable when there were still lots of other species that were legal to catch and keep.