Fishing Before Season Opens

[Bill B.]

You can fish for bass in Missouri's Ozark streams during the closed season. You just can't keep them. The MDC fishing reports that begin in April will include information on catching bass in Ozark streams.

Here's an example from last April:

http://www.newstribune.com/news/2013/apr/19/missouri-fishing-report-april-20/

[WHARFRAT]

How in the world could they prove what species a person is targeting? Do they have a Thought Reader now?

NSA They know all, hear all, see all.

[Old plug]

I wish they did.

[RSBreth]

I was definitely been stopped by the undercover MDC a few years ago on the Elk while obviously fishing for bass. I had no idea there was a bass season in Missouri at the time (being from AR). We were just fishing for fun and were not keeping anything and the guy just checked our licenses and told us not to keep any bass.

By the way those undercover MDC guys are hilarious. One guy had a fly fishing vest, one of those floppy hats with all the lures stuck on it and was fishing with a tiny ultralite rod- looked like one of those guys on medication ads who was dressed as a generic fisherman by the props department..

Kind of like the guy in one ad that's using a spey rod on a stream about the size of Crane. Funny.

But back to the topic - no, you can fish for Bass during the "no-keep" season, just release them all. You also have to pay attention to specific areas - close to my place Lake Springfield has it's own lake regulations, but the three little lakes on the Finley are still considered the river, and no keep until the stream season opens. I constantly have to tell people that fishing the park in Ozark. "Sorry bud, but you gotta throw that Bass back... "

[Jason R.]

Kind of like the guy in one ad that's using a spey rod on a stream about the size of Crane. Funny.

The one I was thinking of was where the guy takes his son and grandson to a tiny river and they are decked out in fly fishing gear with a bunch of gear lures attached to various places. Oh and they have center-pin style rods. May be the same commercial.

[Gavin]

Thought the doofus in the commercial was a carrying a center pin. I'm glad that is not popular here.

[Al Agnew]

The operative language in the regs is that "black bass may not be possessed" during the closed season on Ozark streams. it says nothing about prohibiting fishing for them, just prohibits possessing (keeping) them.

It wasn't always like that. When I was a kid back in the 1960s, you technically weren't supposed to fish for bass during the closed season. However, since it was always legal to fish for other game fish, including sunfish and rock bass, all anybody had to say when checked was that they were fishing for goggle-eye. So the regulation was so difficult to enforce that they quietly changed it to where you could fish for bass, you just couldn't keep them.

Yep, the one commercial just makes me shake my head. The guy is decked out in somebody's cliche of an angler, and has two piece saltwater spinning rods with big fly reels (including fly line) on them. He's supposed to be taking his son to someplace that's "not easy to find", but he drives right up to the (creek?) bank in his vehicle. And puts a bobber the size of a softball on his son's line. And casts like a four year old girl, with two hands. And the last scene shows his son releasing a huge hatchery trout.

[RSBreth]

Yeah - it was either spey or centerpin - some big spooled reel too big for where they were at at any rate. You can't expect people who make commercials to get fishing tackle right - they don't even know the stuff they're hawking will be recalled in two years for making your left ear the size of an elephant's or whatever.

[Jason R.]

Yeah - it was either spey or centerpin - some big spooled reel too big for where they were at at any rate. You can't expect people who make commercials to get fishing tackle right - they don't even know the stuff they're hawking will be recalled in two years for making your left ear the size of an elephant's or whatever.

Is there a market for a fishing gear consultant? I think I need to look into this. I could make sure their actors didn't look like morons for a very reasonable fee. Say 50 grand? Heck, I'd do it for 25.

[Mitch f]

The one I was thinking of was where the guy takes his son and grandson to a tiny river and they are decked out in fly fishing gear with a bunch of gear lures attached to various places. Oh and they have center-pin style rods. May be the same commercial.

Thought the doofus in the commercial was a carrying a center pin. I'm glad that is not popular here.

Yep, the one commercial just makes me shake my head. The guy is decked out in somebody's cliche of an angler, and has two piece saltwater spinning rods with big fly reels (including fly line) on them. He's supposed to be taking his son to someplace that's "not easy to find", but he drives right up to the (creek?) bank in his vehicle. And puts a bobber the size of a softball on his son's line. And casts like a four year old girl, with two hands. And the last scene shows his son releasing a huge hatchery trout.

Think I found the culprit:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oG9MxLwnapE