C&R yearly permit for missouri trout parks

[timsfly]

Well some people buy a 3.00 tag and don't catch any, I don't see them wanting a refund because they can't fish, they are learning. It wouldn't cost much at all, someone at a computer types in the right commands and the vendor terminals at all the stores in missouri that sell permits are selling C&R permits, now how hard could that be.

What would make it different from how they police the parks now? If they stop and ask you for your permit you show it to them, what is hard about that. You have to carry your permit with you, if you are fishing don't you? You should carry it with you at all times. The C&R permit wouldn't be any different than your fishing liscense, if you buy the C&R, fishing, and your trout stamp at the same time you only have to carry one. Of course if you buy them seperatly then you would have to carry three permits, just like you would now. Most of us would buy all three at the same time. I think the permit would be the same price for nonresidents just like todays trout stamps.

[Rusty]

You are paying a fee for the opportunity to fish. Should I get a refund if I don't catch any? How would they police this? At what additional cost so some can fish on the cheap.

Sure, why not. With the money from catch and keep crowd, who else. I can honestly say that fishing is NOT cheap. Chief, it's not like some are trying to get out on the cheap. There could be an additional fee for fishing the state parks for catch and release. If I buy this license and only use it twice, who comes out ahead on the deal? Do I get my own police to over see this? Will I cry for a refund, heck no.

Would the people who show late to the opening horn get a discount? The questions can go on and on. It's not rocket science.

[Morgan F.]

I would have to say I would be all for it. I don't make it to the Parks as much as I would like, and when I do make it, I dread having to make the "extra" stop before wetting my line to buy the daily. (I know...it's lazy...I just really don't like lines of people...especially right before I fish!) I personally have not approached a body of water in the past several years with even the slightest notion to keep any fish. With the C&R, I could just stop by my tackle shop on the way in and then on to the streamside. I would even imagine that the MDC could charge a bit more than has been discussed so far in this forum (though hopefully not much more) and more than offset any lost revenue from a $3.00 daily. (at my annual visisting rate of 2-3 times a year in the parks...almost exclusively Bennett). I think that with such a C&R permit, that I would be more inclined to visit more of the great parks that we have here in Missouri, and if that effect were compounded state-wide, that may pump more tourism dollars into areas that folks traditionaly have not visited.

For what it's worth...

Morgan F.

[rainbow]

I fly fish and release a lot of fish but most always take a limit home for the frying pan. I wouldn't buy one but if there are those that are interested why not. They'll fish more probably and leave plenty of fish for others.

[Steve Smith]

I'm with Tim on this one. I rarely ever keep a fish so an annual no-creel permit would be great. In my job, I'm on call 24X7. I fish quite a bit, but in short time spans. I pay my three bucks sometimes to fish less than an hour.

[Don]

Tim, I would buy one because I think it's a great idea. An additional option could include that if someone wanted to keep fish they would also need to have a daily tag.

Don

[gonefishin]

I understand what you guys are saying but I am agianst any plan like that. I think a lot of people miss the point of the daily tag at the parks. The daily tag is not a license to keep fish or even a license to fish. Try buying a permit sometime without a fishing license. Your fishing license is what gives you the right to fish. The daily tags at the parks are in reality a day use fee that helps fund the parks. Catch and release or catch and keep makes no difference if you want to fish in a park on a given day you gotta pay the use fee.

[McCloud]

Tim,

I thought on a hatchery tour at Montauk the conservationist said it was a little over a dollar to feed a fish to stockable size for the streams.I would buy a permit for catch and release but would also understand if the conservation dept restricted my use to zones that would be stocked for the year base upon C&R permits sold.I believe the formula they use are based upon permits and fishermen from a year ago.Hence if I pay $20.00 they will stock approximately 15 fish in the zones at the 4 parks throughout Missouri for my permit.I believe the reason fly,lure or those few bait fishermen who release fish have access to so many fish is probably the fact we are subsidized by the greater percentage of people who buy daily tags and are not catching the 2.25 trout stocked.With that being said if 500 catch and release fishermen bought C&R permits that would allow for the stocking of 7500

trout for our use in restricted zones.Thanks

[patfish]

Fellas, here's my take(take it or leave it)...

It's 3 bucks. Whoopty-do!

7 years ago, on Friday the 13th no less, I caught my first brownie, floating the Current with my buddy Hippie Tim. It was a beautiful 24"-er that I hooked on a black ant out of the front of the canoe. Hippie Tim took some pics and we measured her. I was standing in ankle deep water holding her tail letting her get her breath when Tim asks me, "are you going to keep it?" I didn't immediately answer. We had food in the cooler. I'm not big on mounting them. Then it hit me, if I had that much fun catching that beauty, I wanted a kid to have a chance at the same fun. Soon as she was ready, I let her go. I felt darn good about it too. It was the right thing to do. Of course, the rest of the three day float, every time we stopped fishing to eat, Tim would say, "darn some trout would be really good right now." But that's the way me and my fishing buddies are, always some good natured ribbing. Wouldn't have it any other way.

Bottom line, $3 for a daily tag, if you only fish for an hour, still $3. Hell, you spent way more in gasoline to get there.

[timsfly]

The C&R permit would be for the parks, all zones, that is what I would like to see put into effect. The parks wouldn't have to stock any extra fish for the C&R fisherman, there are almost always plenty in the river for C&R fishing.

The 2.25, and it is more like 2 per day now that the limit has gone to 4 per day, only applies to people buying the daily tag. The hatchery just stocks 400 per month now in zone 3 and 100 a month in the area below the Roaring river park, I don't know how the other parks stock. 7500 trout would be a lot more than we are getting now. The money for the 3.00 tag, now it would be nice if that all went to the hatcherys, but it doesn't it goes to the conservation dept and the hatcheries still live off an annual budget, that is never enough it seems. So where does all the money go ? who knows it doesn't all make it back to the conservation dept where it is generated, and none of the tag money goes back to the park, that is a DNR thing, and the tag is a conservation thing. The money does not go back and forth between the to. The hatcheries would look a lot better if they could use all the money that they generated. But the conservation Dept. has done a lot of work on Roaring River the past few years. I just think it would be nice to not have to go wait in line and fight the crowds just for a few hrs of fishing, it would be more pleasant, and the store is still making money, they are the only thing around selling pop and candy and what not, and they make more off a cup of coffee than they do a tag or permit. I have ranted long enough, Crane creek fished good today, only caught 2 but they were both decent fish, 1 about 10" and the other about 12".