Updated info on new smallmouth special regs areas

[fishinwrench]

Oh, what I wouldn't give for just one stretch of river with excellent potential for big smallmouth that was under a 14-20 inch slot, closure to catch and keep from October to Memorial Day, and no gigging allowed...and serious enforcement. Just one, for five years, just to see what would happen.

They'd still let cows play in it and allow landowners to chase fishermen off "their" gravel bars....so it's a push.

[joeD]

Want things to change, do ya? That can-do spirit and up with people malarky not getting things done? Pious do gooders always coming back with bad news? Well, then I have news for you brethren. WAKE THE F*** UP! Smallmouth bass regulations are no different than any other legislation that are up for grabs in our state government. And make no mistake, they are UP FOR GRABS.

1. We need to have a prominent legislator that can get things done in our back pocket. Whether it comes through bribes or blackmail or sexual favors or drugs is immaterial.

2. We need to show him(and it is a HIM) how beneficial that championing our cause helps him ascend in Missouri politics.

3. We will hold his hand through this process and make sure our leverage will stay private, yet give him no choice but to press our agenda.

4. Power and influence comes through money and information,. One must be ruthless in order to achieve goals.

5. Politicians do nothing out of goodwill. We must take advantage of this fact.

Ha ha just kidding. Keep writing your congressman citizens! Make your voice heard! Surely, with your effort and zeal, change will surely come!

[ozark trout fisher]

Want things to change, do ya? That can-do spirit and up with people malarky not getting things done? Pious do gooders always coming back with bad news? Well, then I have news for you brethren. WAKE THE F*** UP! Smallmouth bass regulations are no different than any other legislation that are up for grabs in our state government. And make no mistake, they are UP FOR GRABS.

1. We need to have a prominent legislator that can get things done in our back pocket. Whether it comes through bribes or blackmail or sexual favors or drugs is immaterial.

2. We need to show him(and it is a HIM) how beneficial that championing our cause helps him ascend in Missouri politics.

3. We will hold his hand through this process and make sure our leverage will stay private, yet give him no choice but to press our agenda.

4. Power and influence comes through money and information,. One must be ruthless in order to achieve goals.

5. Politicians do nothing out of goodwill. We must take advantage of this fact.

Ha ha just kidding. Keep writing your congressman citizens! Make your voice heard! Surely, with your effort and zeal, change will surely come!

Just to be clear, this has nothing to do with congressmen and little to do with politics. That's why we have the MDC, who actually bases their decisions on real science, and is not at mercy of the general fund. In most states, what you said is relevant. Here, thankfully, and at least for the moment, it hardly is.

You may not like the decisions the MDC makes, but at least they come from the right place. Sure, public opinion molds the regulations. You see this with the "less restrictive to more restrictive language." But it's still FAR better than what most sportsmen in other states have to deal with.

[joeD]

After years and years and years of real science and countless studies, what....? We can keep 1 fish over 15".? Great. Awesome.

Since we don't know EVERYTHING, we cannot make a decision.

[joeD]

Politics are ALWAYS involved when it comes to decisions regarding the public welfare.

[Al Agnew]

Ah, there's a grain of truth to what Joe said. Plenty of people have gone around MDC in the past and gotten their legislators to threaten to pass laws giving them the kind of game and fish management they prefer...remember the big commotion about hand fishing for catfish? Fortunately, MDC is still in a position where they can resist that kind of pressure, and they usually do. But MDC commissioners ARE political animals to some extent, having been appointed by various governors, and they come with their own biases. If one of them cares enough about an issue, THEY can pressure the others on the commission, and therefore the department, to go against the science. I saw that happen long ago, when jetboats were first coming onto the scene and people were rightly concerned about their impact on the rivers and fisheries. MDC did a study on the impacts, but one of the commissioners was a big jetboat enthusiast, and while I can't prove this, I suspect that he was the reason the study was completely lame and to no one's surprise showed no significant impacts. (I can elaborate on that if anybody is interested.)

So yeah, we could try to find a friendly legislator who we could get to threaten to pass a law making all smallmouth streams be catch and release. It wouldn't work, though, because unlike good ol' boys noodling catfish, it doesn't fit the outlook of the majority of the Missouri legislature. They'd be against it simply because "those city boys" wanted it.

[ozark trout fisher]

So yeah, we could try to find a friendly legislator who we could get to threaten to pass a law making all smallmouth streams be catch and release. It wouldn't work, though, because unlike good ol' boys noodling catfish, it doesn't fit the outlook of the majority of the Missouri legislature. They'd be against it simply because "those city boys" wanted it.

Yep, and I'd hate to see a legitimate conservation interest group go that route even if somehow I thought it would work. Using legislative pressure to bully what is supposed to be a non-political conservation department is a really dangerous road. We've seen people take (or try to take that path) but it's mostly been to deregulate game farms, or, as you mentioned, noodle catfish. I wouldn't say that I'd like to model my tactics after people pursuing those causes.

The worst part is by using those tactics you surrender the moral high ground. And the next time some greasy politician decides that Tyson or game farms or catfish noodling is more important than the science-based work at the MDC, well, you kind of lost the ability to say anything.

[Smalliebigs]

"Oh, what I wouldn't give for just one stretch of river with excellent potential for big smallmouth that was under a 14-20 inch slot, closure to catch and keep from October to Memorial Day, and no gigging allowed...and serious enforcement. Just one, for five years, just to see what would happen."

Hahahahahahaha......."I have a dream"........I agree Al more than I could explain......but, I'm not holding my breath.

[Smalliebigs]

Great news; especially for upper Big. Thanks to Dan and the rest of the SMA members for all your hard work.

The best section of the Upper Big already has a 1 fish 18 and over right now????......I'm not sure how lowering it to 15 inches and adding some miles will do anything but, we shall see........education and enforcement are needed big time.....I see more fillet o fish people floating by the Terre Du Lac access on the Big than you can shake a stick at.They float by with there chain stringers banging on their jon boats with Smallies and Largemouth on them.....I see it almost every weekend......oh and the stretch from Cedar Creek to Leadwood has gone to total shiot in the last 4 years.....go figure???

[Brian Jones]

The best section of the Upper Big already has a 1 fish 18 and over right now????......I'm not sure how lowering it to 15 inches and adding some miles will do anything but, we shall see........education and enforcement are needed big time.....I see more fillet o fish people floating by the Terre Du Lac access on the Big than you can shake a stick at.They float by with there chain stringers banging on their jon boats with Smallies and Largemouth on them.....I see it almost every weekend......oh and the stretch from Cedar Creek to Leadwood has gone to total shiot in the last 4 years.....go figure???

Unless I'm a complete moron and cannot read, the Big has a 1-15 inch limit on smallmouth from MDC Leadwood Access all the way to the confluence with the Meramec. http://huntfish.mdc.mo.gov/fishing/regulations/special-areas

As I mentioned in a previous post, not protecting the upper part of the river has isolated all of the catch and eat pressure to the most vulnerable stretch of upper Big and I don't think that it's a shocker to anyone that the fishing above Leadwood has declined. Extending the trophy smallmouth restrictions all the way to Council Bluff will take the harvest pressure off that stretch of the river as well. Contrary to popular belief, a lot of the guys who are currently harvesting fish from this section of Big River (regardless of how unethical we deem their practices to be) ARE within the current limits of the law.