New smallmouth and rock bass regs approved

[mreed81]

1 hour ago, snagged in outlet 3 said:

There's the pic of the fly rod on the grass! You sir, are what we would call a habitual line stepper. i like your style.

[Flysmallie]

[ollie]

Judging by anecdotal stories, again, fishing apparently was better in days of yore without regulation and do gooder interference on how to make fishing great.

 

I would like to just add that there wasn't as much fishing pressure back then as well.  After I moved back from St. Louis in the mid 90's I had a LOT of the creeks I fish all by myself.  Then slowly as the years went by I saw more and more fishing on creeks that I use to not see.  I always figured it was just the lake guys who couldn't afford the boat or gas anymore, but who knows.  I do know that there are a lot more guys out there fishing the creeks than there use to be or at least around here.  But, we should go out and enjoy what we have because there are states out there that are a lot worse from what I have been told.

[Al Agnew]

Couple of things...back in those old days, lake fishing was easy and river fishing was inconvenient except for the wadeable creeks.  When tournament type bass fishing first got popular, everybody bought some kind of "bass boat" and started fishing the reservoirs, and pretty soon the reservoir fishing got a lot tougher.  I started fishing Wappapello with my dad in the early 1960s, and we knew the name of every other bass fisherman on the lake--there weren't many of them.  By the mid-1970s, the lake was crowded with bass fishermen and the fishing had become very difficult.  By the early 1980s, jetboats were becoming easily available, and some of the guys who were finding it too tough to catch fish on the lakes realized that a jetboat made the river a lot more convenient to fish (and they could go fast, besides) and began to pound the bigger rivers.  And that's when fishing the bigger rivers started to get a lot tougher (although, when it came to the lower and lower-middle Meramec, the spotted bass invasion had a whole lot to do with the decline as well).  Meanwhile, the streams too small for jetboats remained very good fishing, even those that had a lot of canoe rentals on them, since almost zero people renting canoes fished, or if they did they didn't know what they were doing.  That's kinda the history of the good old days as I saw them.

The other big deal was the institution of the 6 fish, 12 inch length limit on the rivers.  Before that, it was 10 fish and no length limit.  The more restrictive regs, which came about in the late 1960s, made a HUGE improvement in angling on the rivers by the 1970s.  I would say that overall, the 1970s had far better fishing on the rivers than when I first started fishing them in the 1960s, and from what my dad told me, it was much better than he'd ever had it back in the late 1940s and 1950s.  And in my opinion, the fishing in the 1970s was better than it has ever been since, with some exceptions.

Those exceptions were streams that were too small for jetboats and not often floated--but in recent years, it's too easy for the word to spread.  A stream might have a few years of excellent angling, but then it's "discovered" and the fishing goes downhill fast.  Overall, stream fishing in Missouri is still pretty good, and a good angler who is familiar with the river can still make some terrific catches out of even the most heavily fished, jetboatable rivers.  But back in those old days, an angler with even a little knowledge could show up on the middle Meramec in a canoe, and catch fish all day, everywhere he casted.  Now, there seems to be a lot of nearly barren water between the specific pools and runs that hold good fish.

[fishinwrench]

In the Camden county courthouse are some photos from Zora (Big Buffalo creek) from back before Lake O was impounded.  Those stringers full of big smallmouth are impressive to say the least.  And that was from a 2.5 mile stretch of a pretty small creek that is mostly under the lake now.   I don't know if the Osage was any good for smallmouth up that way or not back then, I kinda doubt it.  

The 10 miles of the Gravois cr., and the 5-6 miles of Indian cr. that is now underwater were probably darn good, way back when.  

We lost ALOT of quality miles of Smallie water when they started building dams.  Kinda sad really.

The MDC goes all out with huge funds to try to make up for the altering of walleye and spoonbill migration routes because of dam construction, but the loss of all that good smallmouth water just gets a blind eye.  That's just not cool.

[Chief Grey Bear]

I guess we all have are own memories of the days of lore. No matter how different they are. 

[Chief Grey Bear]

On February 17, 2017 at 8:56 PM, fishinwrench said:

The MDC goes all out with huge funds to try to make up for the altering of walleye and spoonbill migration routes because of dam construction, but the loss of all that good smallmouth water just gets a blind eye.  That's just not cool.

What about those hundreds of miles of special regs just for smallmouth? 

And it was the Feds that built those dams. Except for one. And the fact that smallmouth occupy thousands of miles of rivers in this state and walleye and spoonbill were only in a few hundred. 

[fishinwrench]

Writing down some regulations and not really enforcing them doesn't spread funding evenly. That didn't cost anything except whatever was spent on some posters.   The COE goofed and did a back pump at Truman in the late 70's, and killed so many walleye that they had to haul them out in dump trucks.  For some reason MDC took responsibility for that and went full tilt into a walleye restocking program that has cost GKHM, and it really has been a waste of time and money for going on thirty-some years.   I don't know if the COE was ever made financially responsible for that, and if they were then fine..... But if not then I feel it has been/still is a waste of our conservation related funds.  I'm reasonably certain that the Walleye fishing would be just as good in LO if they had done nothing, because it still pretty much sucks.

[Chief Grey Bear]

Do you have any evidence, other than antidotal, that collaborates your assumption that they do not enforce regulations? 

 

[fishinwrench]

Well yeah.  They are never out there.  Kinda hard to catch someone violating a game law if you refuse to get your boots muddy.   If they can't afford to patrol the rivers from time to time then maybe they are spending too much on Spoonbill and Walleye.   It's kinda like my step-son who can't afford gas and insurance on his car because he spends all his money on stereo equipment.  He has a sound system that is beyond compare....but he can't go anywhere with it.  ?

Now stop baiting me. I'm in no mood to argue with you, Chief.   You're right and I'm wrong.  You win.