Thanks for nothing MDC

[Smalliebigs]

When I received this email the other day I had to laugh out loud and go back to work. This Department of our Missouri government is NOT trying to make fishing better for quality Smallmouth and is obviously looking at their "social data" too hard. All I can say is so what??? Keep on doing just about nothing in regards to creating better fishing for quality fish.  

Good afternoon, You are receiving this email because you wanted to be informed of any changes with the Smallmouth Bass or Rock Bass regulations.  Today (August 4th) the Missouri Department of Conservation Regulations Committee voted to approve changes to the Smallmouth Bass and Rock Bass regulations.  After looking at the biological and social data (9 public meetings) the following changes were approved:   ROCK BASS (Goggle-eye) REGULATIONS Maintain Rock Bass Special Management Areas except the Osage Fork of the Gasconade River. Propose a Statewide Rock Bass minimum length limit of 7 inches.  SMALLMOUTH BASS REGULATIONS Maintain the existing minimum length limit of 12 inches and daily limit of 6 fish on streams (other than Smallmouth Bass Special Management Areas). Propose to consolidate all Stream Black Bass Special Management Area regulations for Smallmouth Bass to: 15-inch minimum length limit One (1) fish per day creel limit Areas to be known as Smallmouth Bass Special Management Areas  PROPOSED EXPANDED SPECIAL MANAGEMENT AREAS Expand the boundaries of the Jacks Fork River, Big Piney River, Meramec River, and Big River Special Management Areas. The Regulations Committee will send the approved regulation changes to the Director.  If approved by the Director, then the Conservation Commission will have the opportunity to vote at the Conservation Commission meeting on August 26, 2016.  If approved by the Conservation Commission, these regulation changes will go into effect on March 1, 2017. For those of you who are interested in reading the Public Input Summary for Smallmouth Bass and Rock Bass Regulation Changes for 2017 please click here.   Thank you for your interest in Smallmouth Bass and Rock Bass.  If you have any questions please feel free to contact me.       Michele Baumer Public Involvement Coordinator 573-522-4115, ext. 3350 Michele.Baumer@mdc.mo.gov   STAY CONNECTED: SUBSCRIBER SERVICES: Preferences  |  Unsubscribe Help   |  Contact Us       This email was sent to scottd@iiistl.com using GovDelivery, on behalf of: Missouri Department of Conservation 2901 W. Truman Blvd. · PO Box 180 · Jefferson City MO 65102-0180

[Chief Grey Bear]

Sorta hard to argue against their management plan when you keep posting pics of monster fish. 

[Flysmallie]

Awesome!! I'm frying up a limit of 12 inchers this weekend. 

[fishinwrench]

 I (and others) specifically predicted this when all the "special meetings" and input requests first started.  

How much combined time and energy was expended in this decision to continue doing nothing?   Can we take all that time/energy back and re-use it enforcing regs that already existed?  Didn't think so.

[Phil Lilley]

Expand the boundaries of the Jacks Fork River, Big Piney River, Meramec River, and Big River Special Management Areas.

What do they mean by this?  Not acquainted with these rivers so don't know if this is good or bad.

[moguy1973]

5 hours ago, Phil Lilley said:

Expand the boundaries of the Jacks Fork River, Big Piney River, Meramec River, and Big River Special Management Areas.

What do they mean by this?  Not acquainted with these rivers so don't know if this is good or bad.

http://huntfish.mdc.mo.gov/sites/default/files/downloads/page/big-piney-river-map.pdf

(Big Piney could be expanded all the way up to where it joins the Gasconade River)

http://huntfish.mdc.mo.gov/sites/default/files/downloads/page/big-river-mineral-joachim.pdf

(Not sure how they would expand the Big River since pretty much the entire stretch of the Big is Special Management.)

http://huntfish.mdc.mo.gov/sites/default/files/downloads/page/jacks-fork-river-map.pdf

(They could expand the Jack's Fork SMA all the way to the junction with the Current River)

http://huntfish.mdc.mo.gov/sites/default/files/downloads/page/meramec-river-map.pdf

(They could expand the Meramec SMA a lot since a relatively small section of the middle river is only SMA and there's about 80 miles of good smallmouth river below the SMA)

 

 

 

 

[Al Agnew]

Chief, about posting all those big smallies...nearly all the fish posted have come from about 20 miles or so of the Meramec, and this past winter and this summer have been very good for a select few people who know the river very well.  Far better than recent years have been, and we believe that some of these are fish that survived because of sub par conditions over much of the gigging season.  Other stretches of the Meramec, and other rivers in the region, have not been nearly as productive.

I'm not surprised at what was decided, and in reality, according to the data they collected, doing very little makes sense.  We can question the data, but the conclusions reached from it appear to be sound assuming the data is sound.  I don't like it, but I understand it.  According to the data, the percentage of adult smallies that die off, apparently from natural causes, each year means attempting to limit harvest to make more of them survive has relatively little effect.  I can even understand their reasoning concerning making all the special management areas 1 fish, 15 inch length limit, though I've never been a fan of a 15 inch limit and would rather they made them all the 18 inch limit instead if they were going to go that direction.

Guys, unfortunately what we have now is about as good as we're going to get for the foreseeable future.  Their data is not on our side, and their bias is still toward maximizing harvest for some reason.

[RSBreth]

"Guys, unfortunately what we have now is about as good as we're going to get for the foreseeable future.  Their data is not on our side, and their bias is still toward maximizing harvest for some reason. "

Sums it up in a nutshell. I wish we had the manpower ( and will) to get 18" or nothing enforced but it isn't going to happen. And here we sit.

 

[Mitch f]

22 hours ago, Al Agnew said:

Chief, about posting all those big smallies...nearly all the fish posted have come from about 20 miles or so of the Meramec, and this past winter and this summer have been very good for a select few people who know the river very well.  Far better than recent years have been, and we believe that some of these are fish that survived because of sub par conditions over much of the gigging season.  Other stretches of the Meramec, and other rivers in the region, have not been nearly as productive.

Yep, and I also think the December flood relocated a bunch of fish as well.

[Haris122]

No details yet as to what the exact special management area expansion proposals are, I take it?