Good read!
Have read some of the posts from the earlier Truman Lake new Blue Cat Requlations.......
We used to live on the Niangua Arm of LOZ, now live on a different part of the lake. We had a neighbor who would set out his 2 trotlines (one was his wife's) every morning, check it in the evening and re-bait, then to the same thing every single day spring, summer and fall. He would almost daily brag to me about how many catfish me he was 'getting off his trotline'. He was aware of all the regulations, etc that applied at the time, but when he tells me daily that he caught 22 blues, 15 blues, 8 blues, and on and on....and I see him down at his dock for hours daily cleaning catfish and tons of crappie, I always wondered how many blue catfish he was really keeping, but I never questioned it. I have never run a trotline, but am not at all against anyone doing so.....if they go by whatever regulations happen to be in force. But from my experience in the 9 or 10 years we spent at this location, I do know there was a difference in my rate of catching blue cats. Maybe not due to my neighbor's infatuation with catching as many catfish as he could, but my catch rate went down. My method of fishing for blue cats is not nearly as efficient as putting out 33 baits in the fish zone 24/7. I only fished with 2 or 3 rods from my dock or from my boat. I was not fishing to keep everything I caught and never kept a catfish over 8 pounds.
Many times in the warmer months I have seen limb lines with large catfish floating above their location due to them not being checked often enough. I have also seen noodles with floating remains of bloated catfish near them. I also had to remove more than several noodles that had got tangled with my dock, stiff arms, ramp, etc.
But I feel the new regulations are made by those that know more than I do about managing a lake for whatever the goal is for that particular lake. I have the publication Lake of the Ozarks Fishing News in front of me now, May 2014 Volume 1, Issue 2, Page29. There is a photo courtesy of the Missouri Department of Conservation on the page. It shows a stringer mount demonstrating a legal limit under the new blue catfish regulations. This magazine can be accessed online on Bassingbob.com. This regulation allows one to catch quite a mess of fish.....
Just my thoughts..
Husker
the trick to catch that finnicky speck....
gently set the hook just before the pecksouth point, tackle box LIKED above post
Good read!
Similar thing of cat fishing a few years back landed a man in jail, hefty fines, permanent loss of fishing and hunting privileges.
Seems he was selling them also.
I have not seen any big affect on my daily possession. I have had to let several
go for in the slot, but honestly I rarely ever kept any bigger than 7 or 8 #s.
The possession limit is double the daily so 1 person can have up to 20 in the freezer now instead of 10 with the old regs. Just how much fish can a person
eat? I think it is kinda expensive to cook fish with all it entails. Just my thoughts. If a person caught 2 fish over the slot every day for 10 days,
depending on the size of the fish, that equals a lot of fish in the freezer.
springhillwantabe, south point LIKED above post
Looking closely at the new Truman/LOZ Regulations, the possession limit is the same as the daily limit. I believe this is different than most possession limits....crappie, bass, etc
Husker
the trick to catch that finnicky speck....
gently set the hook just before the peck
I rarely keep fish anymore. Usually only what we're going to eat that night or the next. A few years back, I had to throw away a lot of fish, because they were freezer burned. Not only did I feel bad about the waste, but it was a lot of work cleaning all those.
springhillwantabe LIKED above post
Just like a lot of laws- they don't mean a thing to people who break the law-it just affects the ones who abide by the law and forces them to unfairly modify their conduct to leverage against the law-breakers. I would have a hard time not turning a poacher like that in to the MDC. And that is what he is- a "POACHER".
Jigging15, springhillwantabe, dfar, truman13, crappiedave55, south point, oldjack25 LIKED above post