Quick Trip to Big M- day after thanksgiving

[Smalliebigs]

18 hours ago, Devan S. said:

It's the Missouri Department of Conservation not the department of revenue or the collectors office. The concept that it should be run as a business is about the worst possible outcome for the average joe. The concept that bass tournaments and bass fishing is the biggest tax impact so they should get what they want is basically saying MDC should focus 100% of their efforts on deer hunting and bass fishing and to heck with everything else regardless.

The fact that other states see a positive result from stocking doesn't mean its the best method. It also isn't a good reason to say we need to stock here. Its the exact same logic MoCarp uses for why we need trophy carp regulations.....Well CT does it and they are successful. 

Its not anti-tournament at all. There is a 2 month period when what I would guess millions(or more) of opportunities for bass eggs to be laid naturally. This amounts to a free opportunity for the resource to sustain itself instead of relying on outside help or intervention. The fact is those opportunities don't happen with fish being carted all over the lake for those time periods. What do you think will happen when 600+ anglers fish for the Big Bass in early April? If half of the entrants only move 1 fish each how does that correlate to the opportunity lost for those larger fish to have a successful spawn? Is it a years worth of stocked fry? Multiply that by how many tournaments in March through May and how many bass moved all over? Those numbers are astronomical when you consider a bass is going to lay more than 2,000 eggs. Sure they wont all live but neither do stocked fry. Why spend the money when you already have the free opportunity?

Imagine if the Crappie fishermen wanted Crappie stocked. What a ruckus...why would we spend money stocking Crappie instead of Bass when Crappie fishermen are generally catch and keep and they spawn prolifically? The shoe literally fits on both feet the only difference is the opportunity cost is blatantly obvious under catch and keep. It's a little more hidden when you catch, contain, and release later. 

At the end of the day the economic impact point is mute, most of those business can make enough off the pleasure crowd to sustain. The ones that are primarily focused on fisherman won't exist if TRL is as bad its often laid out to be on here because there wont be tournaments/destination fisherman to sustain them when they go to better locations. 

I realize there is a group of individuals on here that see that opportunity cost and have personally changed their ways but the fact of the matter is as a collective group those individuals are the minority. Unfortunately MDC is resource limited, so why not implement some free measures that may help? Instead we want to spend a bunch of money collecting, hatching, raising fish that already naturally spawn in TRL. I understand it would ruffle some feather but cutting budget in other areas to raise bass is going to ruffle feathers too.

It isn't about profit, taxes, or economic impacts. It should be about conservation and there is absolutely no reason to not attempt to let bass try and sustain themselves and restrict your own actions before you claim they need help and throw money at it. If the response is well business wont make it, or cheaters will cheat, or you can't stop people from fishing the spawn, or what happens if you cancel Johnny's Big Bass Bash then for its not actually about the bass its about personal satisfaction. Those people that are only concerned about personal satisfaction are going to find something that torques them whether MDC stocks a billion fish or they stock zero. 

I agree with Basfis....It cant be that bad....Heck Bo literally catches 10+ keepers every time his boat gets wet whether they bite for anyone else or not. 

 

 

 

agreed with all of this bigtime

One thing though what do you guys consider a keeper??....I don't keep bass so I have no idea what a "keeper" is. I was talking about bigger fish and I rarely see any bigger bass being posted on the Table Rock forum. I mean 2 to 3 lb bass are okay but, that's not what I'm talking about. Sorry a lake that size should be producing more bigger bass. I don't see many big ones coming from there unless you guys are just not posting the pics. 

[Flysmallie]

22 hours ago, Quillback said:

I have never fished Lake Fork but I hear it is crazy at times.

I've spent well over 100 days on Fork and never felt as crowded as I have at Table Rock. 

[Flysmallie]

20 minutes ago, Smalliebigs said:

One thing though what do you guys consider a keeper??

 

15 inches. That's what it has to be to weigh it in or take it home. 

[Smalliebigs]

8 hours ago, Flysmallie said:

 

15 inches. That's what it has to be to weigh it in or take it home. 

Thanks...interesting 

[Macsimus]

I've never liked the minimum size regulations. I know what they're supposed to do. But in my experience, all they do is encourage the "keep and kill" of larger fish. Wisconsin has had a 14" minimum for many years and I have fished numerous lakes over there where it seems all you catch is 13 to 13 3/4" fish. If all you care about is numbers, it's a great reg.

Just a thought, but maybe a different term for fish over 15" other than "keeps" or "keepers" would help.

Just idle thoughts on a winter day. 

 

 

 

 

[Flysmallie]

35 minutes ago, Macsimus said:

Just a thought, but maybe a different term for fish over 15" other than "keeps" or "keepers" would help.

 

 

That makes no sense. How is that going to change anything? If you want to keep a fish, weather it's to weigh-in for a tournament or take home for the table, it has to be 15 inches in Table Rock. There are some area lakes that have shorter length limits. On Pomme de Terre a "keeper" is 13 inches. (good luck trying to win a tournament with 5 of those)

Everybody keeps promoting stocking and boasting it's benefits because other states do it. But one thing other states do is they have slot limits. To protect the majority of the healthy population of bass. 

I can't believe that anyone that is for stocking to make things better would condone tournaments during the spawn. It just makes no sense. 

[Royal Blue]

20 minutes ago, Flysmallie said:

I can't believe that anyone that is for stocking to make things better would condone tournaments during the spawn. It just makes no sense. 

I've never said that I condone tournaments during the spawn.  I'll never understand the negativity toward stocking LMB though.  

[176champion]

A 15" fish is 4-5 years old from what i have read.

I think it would help a lot to not have NO tournaments during spawn..but we all know that won't happen.

[Flysmallie]

11 minutes ago, Royal Blue said:

I've never said that I condone tournaments during the spawn.  I'll never understand the negativity toward stocking LMB though.  

Sorry I wasn't trying to make it sound like you did. But a lot of people do. And I have no negativity towards stocking fish. Fill it full. But that's going to take some time to accomplish that task if you ever do. However there are things that can be done now to make it better but nobody wants to hear that. 

[Devan S.]

1 hour ago, Flysmallie said:

I can't believe that anyone that is for stocking to make things better would condone tournaments during the spawn. It just makes no sense. 

Exactly. I don't have any negativity toward stocking at all if it can be proven its actually needed. I do have negativity toward spending money on something when you don't know where you are, don't know where your going, and the only reason you think you know how to get there is because other states do it.

 

57 minutes ago, 176champion said:

I think it would help a lot to not have NO tournaments during spawn..but we all know that won't happen.

I fairly certain this is the exact same thought that the group that wants stocking say. They say that Missouri is one of the few state that doesn't stock and every other state does it so they wont listen and its not worth their time. 

If Bass fishing is as big of an economic driver as everyone claims it is then it shouldn't be a difficult thing to push for and accomplish. The fact of the matter is the masses don't give a rip about the fish in the least. They care about being able to brag about how good they are and all the fish they caught, the couple hundred dollar check they won, standing on stage holding their big bass, and once they put that fish back into the return tank they could care less if that fish lives or dies. If it were any other way there wouldn't be tournaments during the spawn, there wouldn't be any format in which fish are drug all over the lake, fishermen would hold each other accountable for delayed mortality at tournaments, and their wouldn't be guys sight fishing during the spawn. 

It's the definition of hypocrisy to tell the MDC you want things to be better when the collective group does darn near everything short of killing bass to damage the sustainability of the fishery.