Thread: Douglas 11/14/07

Went out yesterday morning before the rain. Caught 5 nice ones and a good smalljaw in about 30 minutes and then it shut down. I didn't get out early enough. I was bumping bottom near the highway, 139, in 23' of water. The commercial fisherman were netting in my hole. It looked to me like there were alot of fish in them nets. Sportfish. I know a man has to make a living, but In my opion that fishing hurts the quality of fish. Anything gill-netted dies. I hate the idea of a 5lb. bass becming dog food. Maybe Im wrong.

Did I read that right - commercial fishing on Douglas. That would chap my butt if I saw it too. Catfish in wire baskets fine, harpooning carp fine, netting Talapia fine, but sport fish like bass, stripers and crappies - Bull bleep. Please tell me more.

Gil nets in Douglas. They were tossing lots of fish in the boat. LOTS.

Gill nets eh'? I have done a lot of work with local and federal agencies in the past with regard to wildlife resources. No one has ever been able to convince me that gill netting on small inland fresh water lakes and rivers is critical to local economies no matter how small, remote or depressed. It would be very hard to prove that there are just too many fish in a lake and by allowing gill netting, the resource would benefit. Just a few individuals profit, and thousands of others and the resource itself suffer. As I said in the previous post - Bull bleep! What has been proven is the dollars per pound game fish bring into local economies by fisherman from in state and especially from out of state. Hotels, food, gas, licenses, bait and tackle... it's amazing compared to the .50 a pound the gill netters get for OUR FISH on the market.

We used to have problems with cast nets in NC. People would catch thousands of threadfin shad, gizzard shad and herring to resell them. They were supposed to release the game fish that were caught as well. Not the case all the time. After a few people got caught keeping hundreds of crappies at a time - it stopped. I was a professional Striper Guide for 10 years on these same lakes. I used a 12' cast net (24' diameter) to catch my bait. If I hit a school of bait it would be nothing for me to have 50 - 60 big crappies, bass, white bass, stripers in one cast. And I would throw that big net 40 or 50 times in a day. My arms and shoulders still ache today! There is now a limit of 200 shad / herring in any combination. And a really stiff fine for anyone keeping fish caught in a net of any kind in fresh water. You can still run a 200' gill net in the ocean or sound with a special permit though . New creel and size limits have been imposed in just the last few years on good crappie lakes in NC for this same reason. If it would cover a biscuit, it went in the livewell. Seems to me there are some good creel and size limits in Tennessee. But allowing gill nets? I have heard this is permitted on Reelfoot as well. Someone is going to have to explain that one to the ole killa'. I'm contacting the state today. If anyone has gone down this path already and can help me avoid any land mines, please feel free to contact me. I'll post my results.

Mark