MDC Fishing Report?

[Al Agnew]

I think you will note that it usually says, "fishing HAS BEEN...".  Not "fishing WILL BE...".  Geez, guys, it's a report of what anglers have been telling marinas and other reporters about their fishing.  Sure it's more or less useless.  I haven't read one in many years.  Long ago, I used to read the ones about the various streams, because they sometimes gave you a bit about water conditions.  But that was before the internet and real time river gauges, and sites like this one.  They always came out on Thursdays, so they still weren't accurate even with water conditions after a day or so.  Which meant the weekend angler had a slight chance of the report being relevant if the weather was stable.  Now, I see no reason for them to even put out reports.  They aren't going to come up with anything that rivals what you can get on the various internet sites, unless they just compile their reports from those sites.

Wrench, I think you're being a little unfair about them being the ones with their fingers on the pulse.  Maybe if there was an agent for every body of water, out there every day checking anglers throughout the season not only for their licenses but getting creel censuses done on a continuing basis, they'd have that finger on the pulse.  But we know that ain't the way it works.  Heck, agents work, they don't fish every day themselves, and I doubt that many of them are as good at catching fish as the average tournament bass fisherman.  MDC's job is to provide the best fisheries possible...it ain't their job to show us all how to fish.

[fishinwrench]

20 minutes ago, MOPanfisher said:

the best reporting system.I have seen

Absolutely.    I'd challenge anyone to find a better source.

[joeD]

Government bashing, MDC in particular, is so old. It's boring. Blah blah blah. Blah.  Rail against the system while you put in your jet boat or canoe at a nice stream access, courtesy of...

Go fishing. Give us a report. Pictures if we're lucky. As if the MDC is hampering your fishing. 

As if.

Dude.

 

[fishinwrench]

It isn't "government bashing", it just venting frustration.  Why even bother (waste time....which is YOUR money too) providing "information" just so there is something there.  Accuracy is unimportant....just throw something up to make it look good.  Really?  You're too bored to be frustrated at that?   Better man than I.   If I ever work on a boat for ya I'll just wipe some wires off, shoot a little engine cleaner on it.....so it looks like I really did something.     Don't come complaining later and bore us all with your piddlyass complaints about how your money was chillin' in my bank while you paddled back to the ramp. Just be happy with the fact that you even have a boat.  

Personally I don't care one bit about their "fishing reports",  but IMO (and my standards truly aren't that high)  it's pretty typical about the way they operate overall.  

[fishinwrench]

2 hours ago, Al Agnew said:

Wrench, I think you're being a little unfair about them being the ones with their fingers on the pulse.  Maybe if there was an agent for every body of water, out there every day checking anglers throughout the season not only for their licenses but getting creel censuses done on a continuing basis, they'd have that finger on the pulse.  But we know that ain't the way it works.  Heck, agents work, they don't fish every day themselves, and I doubt that many of them are as good at catching fish as the average tournament bass fisherman.  MDC's job is to provide the best fisheries possible...it ain't their job to show us all how to fish.

Oh their finger is on the pulse, otherwise SURELY they wouldn't be tinkering with species and making decisions on whether new species should be introduced in order to combat certain things.

The agents have nothing to do with it, their job is to enforce regulations and to keep an eye on things. They aren't the ones solely in charge of collecting info on a certain body of water.  Agents aren't even present during most electro-shock surveys, and probably don't even concern themselves with the data aquired after a survey has been completed.   Surely you have read their population summaries on various bodies of water, but if not, when I have time I can point you to a bunch that publish population densities of "good" or "excellent" where that is demonsterably not accurate, and never has been.

Again, why even bother?   Just say "yeah we dunno, should be a few in there. Go find out!".

 

[Gavin]

It was new 20yrs ago, but they should stop that. Folks who compile that nonsense can do something else.

 

 

[tjm]

I think from the try this that & another bait and the  repeated/recycled recommendations in each copy that these reports are maybe geared towards the latest issue of new anglers, I'd almost bet there two or three folks out there with nearly new permits that have found MDC's web page yet are not members of this forum, haven't even heard of OA.  Some people that don't read this forum are also taxpayers, believe or not, and just maybe they want these useless to the professional angler reports.

But, I have always found that an Email to MDC gets a timely response, so if it chaps your buns to have these published you ought to let them know. Surely if enough OA members complain MDC would reconsider publishing the Reports. https://mdc.mo.gov/contact-engage/contact-us

[fishinwrench]

4 hours ago, tjm said:

But, I have always found that an Email to MDC gets a timely response,

That depends on what the question is.  

[Al Agnew]

Maybe they shouldn't bother with the fishing reports.  But it's not like they are spending a ton of man-hours on it.  Probably takes one person about a half day at most per week to do it.  Doesn't cost much of anything to put it out there these days.  Whoever is giving them the information is probably doing it for little or nothing.  So, even if the one person doing it made $25 an hour, it''s probably costing us taxpayers and permit buyers collectively about $100 a week for it.  Geez, guys, reserve your outrage against MDC for a worthwhile battle.  I ain't always happy with what they do, but overall you'd be a lot less happy with about 40 or more other states' fish and game departments.

[Flysmallie]

6 minutes ago, Al Agnew said:

Doesn't cost much of anything to put it out there these days.  Whoever is giving them the information is probably doing it for little or nothing.  So, even if the one person doing it made $25 an hour, it''s probably costing us taxpayers and permit buyers collectively about $100 a week for it. 

I seriously doubt it's anywhere close to that much. I know people that do these kind of tasks and none of them are making $25 bucks an hour. It's probably an intern or some minimum wage employee spending a few hours each week getting the info together. 

But yeah at this point it's probably a waste. But I bet more dollars have been wasted here whining about nothing than what it costs them to produce it for a month or two. Who cares.