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Posted

Seems like we have officially kicked off the deep fish eating season. Spoke to several guides fishing the Aunts Creek, Kimberling City to Campbell Point Run and the fish seem to have moved out on the deep humps and channel swings.

Most guides reported much to their shigrin- lots of boats throwing fish of various lengths in the jailhouse.

One of the boys reporting saw one boat crawlering the KC Bridge and throwing every fish they caught in the box. The guide was fishing the quary and said it looked like a slaughter at the bridge pier.

Another in the Baxter area said there were at least two boats bait fishing near him, keeping everything they caught. Both boats had Kansas tags and he told them there was a 15 inch minium on this lake on spotted bass. They asked if he was the game warden and told him they would keep all the fish they could reguardless of what him or his clients thought of them.

Could have gotten really nasty.

I just cannot figure out why people feel they have to kill these fish. I guess the reason they do it is because they can.

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Posted

Sad, Sad, Sad. I have never eaten a spot but I wouldn't think that they would even taste that good. Do the MO Conservation officers "patrol" The Rock much? I have never even had my licence checked on The Rock.

Posted

Frekey, we have some really good agents, but they are spread as thin as butter on jailhouse bread.

Even if the fish they are catching are 15 inches, it is a really good thing to remember that lots of these legal fish are females, and have years of spawning left in em.

I just don't believe we are far enough back from the fish kill to fill the freezer without doing some harm.

If a guy deep hooks one deep, or needs a couple thats his business. But catching limits with crawlers and then going back and staying after them too freeze is insane.

From what I heard yesterday, we need to probably keep a very tight lip on how we are doing when we are approached on the water by anyone other than a Conservation Agent. ANYONE !!!!!! This may even cover people that are free lancers taking serveys. Seems they have a taste for bass and its easy to find locations talking to other guys on the water.

Posted

My lips are sealed. What is the purpose of one guy surveying the same area every weekend--example being the Baxter area. Why have someone out in a MO Conservation boat asking fisherman how they are doing virtually every weekend yet not haveing someone out there checking licences and limits?

Posted

I have been checked more times in my life on that lake than any other, but usually during the crappie season. My ole' college buddy Quentin was last to verify me as a legal fisherman and I was glad he did.

Bill is right, not enough agents to make the rounds.

Just me, but I have never ate a KY and don't plan too, again that is my preference.

Later,

Posted

There is an MDC boat based at Baxter.

I'll see him this weekend and mention he needs to really watch the crawler fishermen and pass on the address to this discussion board. Don't believe he is a full-fledged Agent but he can radio in for one real quick. He's normally running creel census but can check license and live-wells and I've been checked by him.

Yes, the agents are spread awfully thin especially when you know the size of the MDC annual budget as posted on another thread.

:angry2: Smart-aleck jerks breaking our game and fish laws like what you encountered from out-of-State or in-State need to be reported. Suggest you get their hull registration number and phone it in along with their location while still on the water. Enforcement can't be everywhere and we obviously need to give them a hand at apprehending violators. I know I'm guilty of avoiding confrontations with obvious violators in the past but have made up my mind to no longer do so.

Posted

See how people have got so greedy. I agree with you I know their nothing wrong with keeping a few fish for a fry however some people are stupid and greedy and just dont care about tomorrow or their children or grandchildren having the same fun they did. I have heard it said time and time again "I will get all I can today and to hell with tomorrow" And i really think thats sad and messed up. PEOPLE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE think of your tomorrows and your kids tomorrow. Now that I have vented thanks and have a good day.

Fish slow and easy!

Borrowed this one from..........Well you know who!

A proud memer of P.E.T.A (People Eating Tasty Animals)

Posted

I can understand those who keep all fish. Not respect, but understand. It's tied up with that "Me Tarzan - Mighty hunter" syndrome.

I understand and grudgingly respect those who follow game laws and keep what's legal. If they sometimes (rarely) let food freezer burn, that's ok. They followed the law and it is their food.

Neither of these apply to the most depressing game incident I ever saw. I was sitting a small school of large Brown Trout in Sportsmans Hole below the Bull Shoals dam about five years ago. (I spent two days on that school before one of the small ones ate my sculpin. He weighed 9 pounds and swam away healthy. He wasn't even gut hooked.) I watched two young men catch and release 60, 70, 80? rainbows using power bait. The fish were very silver (recent stocking) and anywhere from 9 to 12 inches long. When one or the other caught one, they grabbed the slippery devils around the middle or through the gills. It's a wonder their little eyes didn't pop out when they squeezed. Then they carefully dug their hook out of every fish and tossed the fish back in. Catch and release at its finest. When they finally grew tired and motored on, the bottom was covered with dead trout. (No wonder the Browns were not hungry.)

I do not agree with men who lobby for reservation of the finest areas of a stream or river for the exclusive use of single barbless hook artificial only fishermen. That is elitist and provides a country club for a very few at the taxpayers expense. However, that day on the White almost converted me into a raging Trout Unlimited member.

Catch and release, done improperly, makes turtle food. Correctly done, it helps preserve fish populations. Yes, even when you practice careful catch and release, a certain number of fish die. Not every lure or fly, even if barbless, avoids the gills or overstressing the fish. However, the number is very small. Unfortunately, states can require licenses and set limits, but they can't make people intelligent, reasonable, or knowledgeable. If they could, the lakes and rivers would be a lot less crowded.

There. The rant is over.

On the topic of eating bass, allow me to put on one of my other hats, the tocque. Anything, even 2 X 4's, would taste good with seasoned cornmeal on it if it were cooked in fat that had a touch of bacon grease. It is when you cook the fish other ways that you can tell the difference. Bass has an odd flavor to me. Similar to frog. I ate it for years, fried as above. Now that I fry less, I have become more choosy. I don't keep bass. I don't keep Browns (it's a principal thing) or stocker rainbows. I rarely keep White bass, and when I do, I ruthlessly cut out the red streak in the fillets before I cook them. Keeper crappie and walleye go home with me. I fix those as soon as possible. I haven't frozen a fish in years. These are my personal choices, however.

Interesting thought: If everyone would just agree with me, or with Bill, this discussion would never have happened.

Posted
From what I heard yesterday, we need to probably keep a very tight lip on how we are doing when we are approached on the water by anyone other than a Conservation Agent. ANYONE !!!!!! This may even cover people that are free lancers taking serveys. Seems they have a taste for bass and its easy to find locations talking to other guys on the water.

Hopefully this was an isolated incident. I would hate to see the wealth of information on this board dry up because a portion of the public can't control themselves.

Posted
I would hate to see the wealth of information on this board dry up because a portion of the public can't control themselves.

Me to, I was just getting ready to ask how do you crawler fish? I am "NOT" looking for locations, but rigs, i.e.like the DS or something else?

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