Smallmouth Issues/msa Meeting

[eric1978]

the good thing is Eric I think there are a lot of people like us out there throwing them back.......at least I hope

There certainly are, and I'm happy to think that more anglers are converted every day. Unfortunately a few meat hunters can trump the efforts of all the rest of us. So frustrating.

Eric: It is not a "booklet," but a pretty complicated book, and what worries me is that the vast majority of young people are staying home simply because participating in hunting and fishing is just too complicated, too expensive and too much trouble. Unless future generations participate, enjoy and respect the resource, future regulations may simply outlaw sport fishing. Some efforts toward this already are being made, especially in California.

That's kind of Chicken Little there, Ron. I don't know of sport fishing threatened anywhere except where there's rampant overharvest and it's shut down to allow the fishery to recover. And young people aren't staying home because regs are too complicated...they stay home because our culture promotes laziness, and air conditioning and X-Box is more appealing to lazy people than July heat, insects, snakes, paddling frogwater, portaging obstacles and long drives home. Anyone who is truly interested in the outdoors and responsible use of our resources can figure out the regs easily with little effort, and honestly I don't want anyone without those characteristics involved anyway.

[drew03cmc]

Eric: It is not a "booklet," but a pretty complicated book, and what worries me is that the vast majority of young people are staying home simply because participating in hunting and fishing is just too complicated, too expensive and too much trouble. Unless future generations participate, enjoy and respect the resource, future regulations may simply outlaw sport fishing. Some efforts toward this already are being made, especially in California.

Really? You are going this way? No. Sport fishing is NEVER going to be closed. It is too big a financial boon to this country, and too big a tradition. Eric is talking about the Summary book you can pick up that is about 25 pages long which is just a booklet. People do NOT stay home because of complicated regulations. They stay home because of things like XBox, air conditioning and a lazy society. I am sick of people saying that the regulations are too complicated for people to understand so they stay home. That is the biggest cop out that I have ever heard. I was raised during the Nintendo/Sega Genesis days and I never sat inside in the summer. I was outside playing soccer, baseball, fishing or anything else I could do to be outside. I want you to reconsider your thoughts on this before blaming regulations. Hell, there are a lot of hillbillies who never buy licenses and still get out in the outdoors and enjoy the bounties available (illegally, but still).

You mention the trout limit going down to 4. If you recall, they lowered that to save money. They could then stock fewer fish each day in the trout parks saving millions of dollars per year.

What Al and I have proposed for smallmouth is nothing short of simple. I have spelled it out below in simple terms.

A statewide* slot from 14-20" and a lower limit (be it 3 or 4, with one over 20") is pretty dang simple.

*-In the Elk and Spring River drainages (including tributaries of these rivers) the slot would be from 13-18" with a 3 fish limit, one of which can be over 18".

If you think these are not simple, you should look at trout regulations since you seem to think that those are a good yardstick to go by. On different waters there are different regulations, then couple that with winter regulations and length limits. Oh yeah, figure in brown trout on top of all of that as well. Now, that can get confusing, but you don't see people crying about it, they deal with it and have accepted it.

[stlfisher]

I can tell you that some of my friends were hestitant on our yearly trips to Montauk because they were a bit confused as to what to do in what zone. They fish maybe once a year. I explained it, but they still seemee a bit confused. Are regulations enough to keep people away in large numbers...probably not and regulations are a good thing....but I can see were Ron is coming from. It might intimidate/confuse a few people that don't fish as seriously as we all do. Most people want to do the right thing and have fun, but they don't want some guy yelling at them if they do something wrong or encroach to close to someone. Factor in the tackle, boats, different species, different regulations, different types of water and some of the jerks that fish those waters (crazy landowners in included) I can see how it might be a bit much for some newbie who just wants to wet a line.

Look what happens on this board when someone makes a mistake...they hear about it a lot! I think fisherman in general could be a lot more welcoming to the newbies on the stream that might just need a bit of help. You can usually tell the difference between someone purposely breaking the rules and someone who is just unsure of what to do. I guess it goes back to how you approach things, but take a few moments to help a newbie and in the process use that time to eductate them a bit. It can go along way in my IMO.

[Flysmallie]

what worries me is that the vast majority of young people are staying home simply because participating in hunting and fishing is just too complicated, too expensive and too much trouble.

Yeah hunting and fishing regs are complicated so they just stay home and play on their Xbox. Or take over the world on Facebook?

Kids today aren't afraid of something being complicated, they are used to it. The problem is that they have no place to fish unless a parent or friend takes them. When you take away public fishing access you lose fishermen.

[FishinCricket]

Eric: It is not a "booklet," but a pretty complicated book, and what worries me is that the vast majority of young people are staying home simply because participating in hunting and fishing is just too complicated, too expensive and too much trouble. Unless future generations participate, enjoy and respect the resource, future regulations may simply outlaw sport fishing. Some efforts toward this already are being made, especially in California.

That's like saying people don't buy sports cars anymore because of all those pesky speed limit signs, Ron...

[Outside Bend]

I understand the sentiment, but I don't think complicated regs would be a major hurdle. I just dug up Wisconsin's trout booklet, 30+ pages of maps and regulations broken down by county and stream. Wyoming has a similar publication. Other states make it work with few issues, I don't see why it couldn't work here.

Lots of factors influence angler recruitment- access to public areas, concerns about safety, gas prices, job requirements/time constraints, a cultural emphasis on instant gratification. I've done a lot of fishing clinics, and one of the things you quickly realize is that a lot of the parents were never taken fishing. They can't pass on skills they never acquired. The upside is it isn't tough to get a kid interest, and where their interests go, the parents' generally folows.

[Al Agnew]

I agree that complicated regulations aren't what is keeping kids in the house. It might possibly keep their parents from taking them fishing because the parents think they are too complicated, but an inexperienced parent taking a kid fishing probably isn't going to be too worried about bass regulations because they are probably going to be dunking earthworms for sunfish and whatever. In that case, you'd have to be REALLY simple and not even do different regs for bass than for sunfish and catfish. Anybody who is interested in targeting stream bass is probably able to handle somewhat complicated regs.

[drew03cmc]

Al, I sent you a PM regarding the regulation issue.

I am glad to see this discussion get turned the right direction and maybe some headway made in correcting the terrible regulations on the stream bass fishing in this state.

[Mitch f]

Al, I sent you a PM regarding the regulation issue.

I am glad to see this discussion get turned the right direction and maybe some headway made in correcting the terrible regulations on the stream bass fishing in this state.

I'm so glad this discussion got turned the right way too. 90% of the discussion was pretty lame, only 10% worth reading. Now get that mottled bluegill out of your face and let's all go fishing!

[FishinCricket]

I'm so glad this discussion got turned the right way too. 90% of the discussion was pretty lame, only 10% worth reading. Now get that mottled bluegill out of your face and let's all go fishing!

Did you say all that in your Cartman voice?