One man wrecking crew?

[vonreed]

I myself am guilty of eating a few smallmouth a year out of areas I know readily reproduce lots of them here locally.  But I'm not a fan of keeping a whole limit of them out of a river.  With that said, they were within the law to keep what they did. 

[Mitch f]

Who's they?

[Chief Grey Bear]

I just want to go on record now and say I stole that pic from Google. Along with this one. But I chickened out on this one. Those that truly know me know I am strict C&R. On bass in the river anyway. We have quite a few newbies  here and just wanted to set things straight. 

[MOPanfisher]

"Chickened out" and "wanted to set the record straight", doesn't sound the Chief we know. 

[Chief Grey Bear]

Like the leaves of the tree's in autumn, I'm turning over a new leaf. 

Wait. Same leaf, different colors. I'm so darn confused?

[Mitch f]

I've already alerted the local Game Warden of this. I'm pretty sure I found the poachers FB page. 

[Tanderson15]

They look like they were on a stringer for 2 days. Maybe call it a possession limit. I do keep my share of walleyes but I have never kept a bass nor eaten one. Thin the spots but let the fighters go. Some fish are table fare and some are sport fish. My 2 cents or less. 

[Al Agnew]

I suspect the fish had been in a cooler all day, rather than on a stringer.  Probably still in edible shape as long as the ice in the cooler hadn't all melted.

No use complaining about it.  Assuming two people, they were legal.  But it points out again why the 6 fish limit needs to be changed.  That section of the Niangua is pretty small water, and it wouldn't take many limits like that taken out of it to have a major impact on the numbers of adult bass.

[fishinwrench]

Facebook has probably busted more guys than anything these days for fish/game violations.   With that one though all he has to say is "my son was with me".  

There is a group of 3 guys that float the Little Niangua fairly often whose thing is to drink beer and do a gravel bar fish fry.  The one I talk to fairly often claims that they don't eat the Smallies but I ain't buying it.  There is nothing else worth eating in that river because the spotted bass all have worms and the sunfish are all stunted.  I know darn well they are filleting 10" Smallies but what can you do?  Regardless of what the legal limits are nobody is gonna patrol those smaller rivers, they never have and never will, and I can understand why.  

[mjk86]

Those two in the middle are hogs though.  Poor fishing ethics for sure.....but they were on some nice ones.   They do look like they been layin in the sun too long.....gross.