Poaching Season

[Guest]

deleted

 

 

 

[Terrierman]

I believe you did!

Saw this also, actually helped him put it on the trailer after they pulled it off of the tree. Oh, and I also caught a couple fish....

[Flysmallie]

Well that doesn't look like a fun boat ride. Especially if that happened in the dark.

Nice fish though.

[Gavin]

Nice fish!

[ness]

Nice fish.

Oh, and I finally cracked the mystery to your name

[Hog Wally]

Seth, I agree river otters murder a lot of fish. I use the word murder cause they don't eat what they kill. They leave my creek loaded with bit up fish of all kinds I guess I'm wrong about the gigging problem. Maybe there isn't a problem after all. Or maybe just around where I live and have lived my whole life I guess I don't have time anymore for the OA. Gotta get a lot of deer on the ground in the city. Talk to y'all January 16. Bye Bye

[LarrySTL]

A lot of getting public attitudes, laws, regulations etc changed is about building coalitions, at least informal ones, of various factions, in agreement on a common goal. When the coalition is big enough, when it is visible enough to the public, lawmakers, regulatory bodies, when there is enough momentum for the goal, the seesaw gets to the tipping point and things change.

See historically women's sufferage, anti-smoking policies, and a lot of other examples.

If everybody has to be identical to be on the coalition, it's going to be real small. If "our" coalition members have to all be in favor of rod and reel fishing, composed of non-hunters ( not necessarily anti-hunters), feel fine about fishing for bedding bass in reservoirs, dislike snagging for paddlefish in Table Rock, and the Osage lakes, just dont like to eat fish tho not at all philosophically opposed to it, disinterested in trout fishing, and a few more qualifications, I am going to be the only person on the "coalition", and its way too small to get anything accomplished, because each of the criteria exclude some of people.

IMO if we can find a way to unite on this one issue ( not on everything, not forever, etc) with the legal giggers to aim at public attitudes, MDC regulations, and enforcement (remember that one costs money that has to come out of someplace, maybe our pockets) we might generate some momentum for putting a major dent in illegal gigging. The more extensive the criteria for banding together are, the less oomph we can end up with.

[Al Agnew]

I wasn't going to enter this fray again here, but lots of stuff have been brought up that I have to comment on.

Otters...look, there are otters in every stream system in the Ozarks by now, and yes, when fish are concentrated in the winter otters can no doubt kill quite a few of them. However, I suspect that the otters find fish around springs more difficult to catch. A bass in 55 degree water is still fast enough to escape. It's an active fish, active enough that if you want to work at it, you can probably catch it on topwaters. On the other hand, a fish that's lying dormant in 35 degree water is going to be a lot slower and easier to catch.

The other thing about the otter situation is that the otters have now been in the streams for well over a decade. And the streams are still full of fish. Yes, otter predation probably has some effect, but it apparently isn't a huge factor, especially on the bigger and more heavily spring-fed rivers. And by the way, the wounds we're seeing on these fish in the winter are not otter teeth, unless there are 7 foot otters with whole mouths full of big teeth an inch apart.

Suckers...I know guys who regularly catch suckers, both redhorse and hogsuckers, on hook and line. It can be done fairly effectively. They wouldn't have to be gigged to "control their populations", and of course there is always snagging in the springtime. However, that does not mean gigging shouldn't be used to harvest suckers. It's probably the most effective way of doing so. And by the way, I suspect that, just as we really don't know what the Ozark streams are capable of producing as far as bass with different regulations and better enforcement, we also probably don't know what they are capable of producing in suckers if there weren't so many of them gigged. Some of the native river redhorse species can grow big, like 5-6 pounds or more. But when was the last time you saw a school of really big redhorse? I kinda suspect that legal gigging is keeping the size structure of redhorse populations at a point where there are lots of little fish that have spawned once or will spawn once the next spring, and very few older adults. I do know that in a couple of streams where gigging is not practical because of size and access issues, I see considerably more big redhorse, some of them actually approaching that 5-6 pound size. Since suckers aren't game fish and not many people target them with rod and reel, I don't suppose this matters in the whole scheme of things...as long as you can get enough of them that are big enough to be worth filleting, it's all good.

[joeD]

When it's all said and done, everything will be said, and nothing will be done. There are only two conservation agents per county, and they can't be everywhere. Our smallmouth battles are but a blip on the MDC radar. They have bigger fish to fry, so to speak. And smallmouth bass issues don't pay the bills, like deer and land management and public education and other things a government agency needs to do to keep an ungrateful and needy public happy.

So, basically, I don't care anymore. I'll go fishing when I can, and hope for the best. No one likes a know-it-all or a scold ("Hell no I won't get no shot of penicillin from sum guvment flunky!").

But know this: Smallmouth fishing in Missouri is NOT GETTING BETTER.

And that is a shame and disappointment, given the absolute beauty and uniqueness of our Ozark streams.

[Born to Fish]

I love it when the guys poaching while they gig complain about the bass and jacks being gone! Da!!!!!!