Bow fishing tournament?

[Flysmallie]

4 minutes ago, MOPanfisher said:

I sort of agree but if we start limiting it to "need" then we are all in trouble.

True but you know what I mean. Or maybe it would be okay if I moved in next door to you and worked on my dragster at 2am?

[fishinwrench]

The bowfishers did a good thing here. The Buffalo population was definitely out of hand, and they thinned those suckers out in less than 3 years. 

If you've ever tried to sneak up on shallow LM bass/whites/hybrids when there are 200 buffalo between you and your targeted species you'd fully understand how too many buffalo can ruin your day.  They are gone now, and I'm glad.  

They have put a noticable dent in the gar population too, which needed to be done (I think).

[MoCarp]

well when they are gone they are gone, find out later whoops they helped the fish population in unknown ways..case in point, alligator gar, Trash fish in the past now they are raised in state hatcheries around the country

German Brown Trout are non-native and were and in some places considered "invasive" they used to be hit in the head and tossed on the bank.."cannibal trout".... rainbows and browns are not native in most of Missouri watersheds.

[fishinwrench]

Yeah I get that, but Buffalo on this lake have only one place to hang out and do what buffalo do.  Much of the lake has been disrupted so much that they overpopulate in the few areas where big boats and the hoards of people don't go.  They are spooky solitary critters for the most part, and don't become pets like carp do. 

[MoCarp]

The fact that you can see how big time bow fishing has effected the population, Imagine what happens when they bow groups push to add game fish?

it happened in Texas on catfish, they revoked it after they found biggest fish where getting hammered not good for long term passing on get big genes

Rod and reel cat fisherman noticed that big fish numbers dropped like a rock....

in fact remember the guy trying to pass off the huge flathead he shot as a rod and reel Mo state record?

http://www.scout.com/outdoors/wired2fish/story/1679147-man-charged-after-claiming-catfish-record

[fishinwrench]

I certainly don't support it getting as big as BASS TOURNAMENTS currently are, that's for sure.

We pay a group of allegedly brilliant people to "manage" our fisheries, but sadly all they do is throw down a set of (one size fits all) rules and only lightly punish the ones who don't follow them.  There is no way on God's green earth that one specific set of regulations is best for all bodies of water, but I guess that reviewing them independently is just too much work.