5/7 Lower End High School

[Dewayne French]

Had the boys out for the High School NYFA Sunday tournament. We launched out of the state park and made our way to first spot with a 7:20 lines in start to their fishing time and a 2:20 checking time. It was a good weather start for the boys and with the forecast of warm-rain-wind I was hoping for a good catching day, not just fishing. We didn't want to get out to early and watch fish eating and not be able to cast, so we idled around and watched the morning happen with a pretty sunrise and planned our day out. Started close with the SS and Red Fin on the first stop, with no love after about 30/45 mins we headed across the lake to a couple deeper channel swing points with spawning coves in close proximity. We had immediate hook ups on the split shot rig in 12-16ish feet keeping the boat in 25-30. Several blow ups on the SS and had kprs follow a fluke, but no takers. Stayed in that area all day and didn't leave fish to find fish. Our biggest fish come from under a dock in the shade line 15-18 feet (3 lb even) on my scale around noonish. We did brake off 3 kprs in the trees (happens on 8 lb line) but the boys had a great day and are learning each time out. We ended up with 8.45 for 4 fish, I seen lots of 10 lb weights in the line so who knows were we ended up, find out after Jp gets rested up 🤣😂.  I think we had 252 boats. 

water temp 61-64 ish---some slime---good clarity 10ish---fish seemed to be on the sides of points not on them---fish caught all day way more shorts than kprs---we didn't look for beds but I'm sure some were around the area---We seen several boats staying in same spot and not moving

[Hunter53]

Question about the derby if you don’t mind. 
Were the commercial docks with the red no fishing signs off limits for the high school tournament?

If so it is amazing how many adults are teaching the kids it is perfectly ok to cheat in a tournament! 
 

I personally saw numerous high school boats fishing the commercial docks at Kimberling  City. Saw 2 cast into the slips with the boat sitting directly in front of the sign. 
Bad part is I actually only looked when letting dogs out of the camper or unloading/loading the boat; so who knows how many others I didn’t see. 
Now wether I agree with those docks being off limits is a whole other thread in itself. 

[Bill Babler]

The High School kids cannot fish within 50’ of a GAS dock or any dock that is directly touching the dock with a walk way attached to said gas dock.

If it’s just a row of slip rental docks that are attached to the bank and not the gas dock it’s perfectly legal to fish them  

All other tournaments cannot fish within 50’ of a gas dock but can fish any dock connected or not, as long as they maintain the 50’ distance from the pumps.

Just because there is a sign the dock owner put out there does not mean it’s law. 

Went over this with a couple of the boat operators Sunday. Both guys I spoke with had range finders in their boats.  I was in the Campbell Point Cove. 

Those red signs really mean totally squat. 

A lot of tournament’s will make certain marina’s off limits, but you or I just out fishing can fish anywhere, except within 50’ of a gas pumping dock. 




 

[aarchdale@coresleep.com]

I see some dock that have signs that say they are zoned commercial no fishing, swimming, etc. And there is no gas dock anywhere near.  For example the ones on the south side of KC bridge. They are big private dock.  I fish them all the time and no one has ever said anything, and i see boat owners fishing off those same docks

[Hunter53]

I stand corrected I guess.  I thought those docks with the big red sings saying commercial no fishing actually meant you couldn’t fish. Hmmmm

Bill: can you point me to the regulations saying we can actually fish them?

[Dewayne French]

This is how I understand the rule on fishing around commercial docks. JP does a great job with making sure all the rules are out there for boat captain's or coaches to view on the website and on the FB  page. Also any particular rules that are lake specific he puts it out there for us. I know Jp had some stuff he was dealing with (that's why I hate being a TD) but the rules are for everybody that is going to fish a tournament, just because you didn't read it don't make it okay. But yes a commercial dock is off limits, actually with in the 50' of any dock of it.  Just as with all the other white river chain of lakes. You can find the commercial dock off limits at Corps of Engineers Commercial zone off-limits areas it is a pdf file that I downloaded to my phone.  It has picture's with the off limits area highlighted in yellow. I will try and load it to the reply.

I don't care for the law, but I will abide by it. There is a lot of water that got cut off from tax paying citizens and we already pay just to launch at a corp ramp that we pay for any way.  I don't want to go down that rabbit hole so I fish mostly away from marina docks to avoid the confusion. When the Elite and Pro solo series was around the file photos of the "off limits areas" was on that site. But hopefully you can pull it up from my attachment. 

TableRockOff-Limits.pdf

[Hunter53]

The docks I saw being fished were in the first picture of the pdf. It was the docks on left side of the picture and they were fishing    a little over half of the way back to all the way back. 
All those docks have the big red commercial no fishing signs. 
Are those legal to fish?

[Dewayne French]

If the fishing activity was in the highlighted yellow of the the pdf then yes it looks to be. But if you read the article along with the photos is says no fishing even by dock patrons and I see that a lot.

Recreational activities such as fishing, swimming, and diving are prohibited from public use including marina customers and patrons. No fishing tackle may be cast into this area.

Just read the article and use the pdf photos for the best use of your fishing time. Didn't mean to go down the rabbit hole that's why I put the PDF file attachment up. People can put up any sign they want to on there dock. I would just use the corp PDF's and go from there. As others have said many different tournaments have different regs per this issue, but the Corp site is the main place to go.

Ultimately is up to the person fishing to make the best informed decision they can. Enjoy tossing the SS and Red fin around and use a split also for the deeper fish. Fishing is good early until the sun gets high and then you got to go after different type of fish and if you have a hot no wind day the dock bite in the shade is good also. 😜

[Quillback]

Thanks for posting that PDF.

[Champ188]

Thanks for the PDF Dewayne. I'm sure you recall all of the ruckus over this back in the old Central Pro-Am days. You were around for that too, Bill. Good times. LOL.
Things got pretty heated once between me and a marina manager on Truman, and I was fishing NOWHERE NEAR his gas dock. That was not long before the Corps finally defined the areas that your PDF shows.