Catch & Release And/or Barbless Only?

[Bamboozle]

In the last string Harps suggested that MDC change regs on CC back to catch and release only.

I'm interested what folks think of this, pro and con. While we're at it would also be interested in what people would think of making it barbless only water?

Obviously no matter what the regulations are there will always be folks that break them, so I'd love to see the converation (if any!) centered around the merits of the concepts themselves rather than saying: people will break the rules so therefore there should be no rules...

For instance is it good for the creek to have the big fish taken out to make way for new ones? I've certainly heard that argument before.

As for barbless I will confess that I'm in favor of this just because it makes things so much easier on the fish. That said I will admit that with my daughters when they were fishing first time on CC I let them use a barb until they'd caught their first trout and then from then on it's been barbless only. So if this rule changed I would have to change my behavior.

[mic]

We had a discussion on this before... I don't have the link anymore, but for the wild trout in the smaller streams any fish over 18" is in its last season or two of life anyway (on average: 2" a year growth, 9 year life span). So my thoughts are a person isn't doing much damage if they take one. Additionally, when you add in how few are actually caught there probably is little to no impact. With that being said, I would never keep one. If I want dinner, all go to a white ribbon or park area. My 2 cents.

[Harps]

.... the wild trout in the smaller streams any fish over 18" is in its last season or two of life anyway (on average: 2" a year growth, 9 year life span).

I cannot agree with this mic. That would mean virtually no fish over 22 inches. Over the years, I have seen many fish over 25 inches in Crane. There was a particularly giant fish in a pool in the upper area that I observed for several years that was perhaps 28 or 29 inches when I last saw it (I estimated that it might weight 8-10 lbs). The creek has the ability to support good numbers of good fish when the water is flowing well like it was back in the 80s. Those large fish have a lot more eggs in them than a 16 or 17 inch fish as well. The hole under the rail bridge above town at times might have 5-8 fish over 20 inches back then, but I haven't bothered to check on it for years now. This is all my own anecdotal evidence/observation and was all prior to the over 18" keep allowance. It is my opinion we have little to no chance of seeing or catching any trophies like that when those fish are subject to removal. When I do get to go to the creek these days I often (not always) see discarded bait containers, so we have that problem as well. I still say return it to catch and release and enforce the rules against bait. That and some wetter seasons would bring the creek back to full glory.

[Bamboozle]

Given the argument that barbless hooks greatly increase fish survival, and that more fish survival presumably equals more fish in the creek, what do folks think about a barbless regulation?

It would mean fewer fish landed but also, over the long run, more fish would equal more opportunities to land fish.

[Harps]

Barbless hooks are fine with me. Most of my flies have barbs and I've never really had problems releasing fish with them. Some of my flies have the barb mashed down which works pretty well — a little better holding ability but still easy to remove.

[Wayne SW/MO]

The MDC has avoided the barbless issue, probably because of enforcement limitations. I think education is a better way to go overall.

[Gavin]

I wouldnt be in favor of barbless regulations because they are subjective...Arkansas's enforcement of barbless rules is notoriously silly. I know folks who have gotten tickets after they made an obvious effort to crush the barb. All it takes is a little bit left to snag while going through a piece of cloth and you get a high doller ticket. I think our trout regulations are pretty darn good as is....the one exception being the 4 brown trout over 15" limit in the trout parks. The annual brown trout slaughter down at Montauk needs to stop.

[Harps]

....the one exception being the 4 brown trout over 15" limit in the trout parks. The annual brown trout slaughter down at Montauk needs to stop.

Amen.

[2sheds]

I think most conservation-minded and experienced trout lovers are already barbless (to a level of reasonableness - per Gavin's point) and 99.9% Catch & Release. So I don't think that changing a regulation in either case would have a significant impact on the Crane ecosystem.

Education and enforcement concerning live bait could have an impact. But assuming that live bait and meat-hunters have always populated the area, is it possible that herd-thinning has some unexpected but beneficial side effect ?

[Lancer09]

I think getting rid of the 18" keep limit should be done away with, but then again I don't think that many people who keep those, probably wouldn't keep smaller fish any way, and are probably bait fishing as well.

If there could be more enforcement regarding that, plus some good higher water for a while I think the creek would support some AMAZING fishing. I know me and Andrew 324 fished awhile ago and didn't hardly see any fish in the lower section whatsoever.