What Ever Happened To The Length Limit Change On Spots In Beaver?

[Bass Ivy]

Yeh there was alot of talk about it for awhile. What was the final decision on that by the Game and Fish?

[J-Doc]

Final decision was that the length limit will be lifted. Tournaments will stick with the 12" min length rule and not "update" per the new restriction lift.

There is probably a link on the AGFC website or it was posted here in this forum within the last 6-7mo.

[Bass Ivy]

I figured there was some info on this forum somewhere I looked through several pages, but just decided to ask. They had talked about doing that a few years back and then they didnt do it. Yeh Ill get on the Game and Fish site and look at it sometime.

[J-Doc]

http://www.agfc.com/enforcement/Documents/FishingRegsPublicComments.pdf 70% public comment were "FOR" the repeal of the restriction

Official Approved 2014 changes (Lots of scrolling.....use "Control key + the F key" to perform a search within the PDF: keyword "Beaver" and you'll find it much faster)

http://www.agfc.com/enforcement/Documents/FishingRegsApproval.pdf

[Bass Ivy]

Ok thanks!!

[jeb]

I think it's a bad decision, personally. The min on Table Rock is 14 or 15 inches and the spots seem to be bigger on average there. Growth rate must be the same on both lakes, so it seems a longer minimum is to thank. If they want to increase the forage base for Beaver, remove the length limit on stripers. IMO and all.

[Old plug]

Jeb------ I am not so sure of that. They have taken over parts of LOZ this past couple of years. They are delicious in small sizes.

[J-Doc]

They are delicious in small sizes.

You had me at "delicious"....

So the larger ones are not as good flavor wise?

[Old plug]

I do not think they are Doc. But it keep what is keepers in mo. But now and them one slightly smaller jumps in my boat and kills himself. They are really thick in my area. As thick as I have seen them is 25 yrs.

[Bass Ivy]

To be honest I think the Spots have better size to them now in Beaver than they did 15 years ago. We could catch 50 in a day and never catch one keeper. Now I catch alot of keepers. I dont know if its the way I fish now compared to back then or a difference in Baits But me and most of my fishing buddies catch bigger spots now than we used too. Ill tell you the reason why I think they are removing the length limit. You will see alot of Largemouth in Beaver that are Skinny. and Spots too.. Their growth rates are real slow. In my opinion it just made it worse putting Walleye in the lake. But they do the fish counts and they are going off them numbers. Beaver is thick with spots. You know when you get a pond over populated with bluegill what happens to them? You can catch 400 hundred a day but they will only be 3 inches long. Thin them way down and they will get bigger. Table Rock is Different than Beaver it has alot better forage base. Grand Lake Does too. They have bigger river and creek tributaries. I think that helps them to have more forage. They are also not infested with white bass like Beaver is. Although over the last several years I dont think the whites are nearly as thick as they used to be. We used to could go out and catch over a 100 quiet often. I havent seen it like that in awhile. We used to find whites easy now you got to look harder than we did 15 years ago. This is what Ive noticed.