responses to article in the paper

[David Waters]

well, the Shoals Area Crappie Association had a very nice article in Saturday's paper last week. It was very informative and obviously a lot of people read it. I have recieved several calls since then. Here are some of them and the category they fall in.

I had three people call with general questions and wanting to know more about the association and it's tournaments. These are the calls I wanted. I think we will have 3 at this fishing day that will be new members.

I had a phone call yesterday from a woman in Florence. She left a message for me on the machine so I thought, "Hey, cool, there is a woman wanting to join. Thats great". I called her back and in a nutshell, this woman wanted me to put a cooler full of ice at the weigh in table and ask the members to put their fish in it and bring her some crappie for her to eat. Well, I let her know that would definately conflict with our catch and release, weigh in live fish only rules. But, she was an elderly woman whose husband died 2 years ago. I offered her some fillets from my freezer and will be taking them to her next week. It made her day so the phone call ended up being a possitive one.

Another call I recieved went like this. "Can I speak to someone about SACA". I told him who I was he preceded to ask 2 important questions. "Um, can you tell me about your rules about number of poles, methods of fishing, and if you can use artificail baits only?" I told him that we had a 4 pole per person limit and 8 per team limit and we you can use any method of fishing except dynamite, cast net, and shocking! hehe that live bait or artificial baits or both may be used. He said " Ah you gatta be kinding me. Live bait? Trolling 8 rods, crap that makes it to easy! I don't want to have anything to do with a club that uses live bait and trolls for fish"....... I told him what was good for CrappieUSA and CrappieMasters was good enough for us. I quickly said thank you and hung up.

And, the best phone call of all. We are having a fishing day on Cedar Lake this Saturday. It is a rather small impoundment compared to Pickwick or Wilson, but plenty big for a local club tournament of any kind. This fella who lives close to the lake gives me a call. The conversation starts as if this guy is interested in joining. He askes questions like catch and release, weighing in live fish, pole limits, number of members, ect. Then, he procedes into a pretty long history of the lake, and then a lecture about so many people in the past couple of years who have starting fishing that lake and taking fish home and ruining the lake. Then, before I can get in a word edgewise, procedes to tell me that we shouldn't fish that lake because we would be introducing so many new people to the lake and that before long his grandchildren wouldn't have any fish to catch, and that if the association was really trying to promote youth fishing, we should not fish that lake...............I have to admit, I was caught off guard and dumbfounded. I took me a minute to even gather my thoughts because the audacity of this guy was crazy. I didn't tell you everything he said, but it was as if he owned the lake and that I was an outsider and shouldn't be there. I started laughing at one point because I just couldn't believe the balls this guy had. But I kept my cool and composure and in a nutshell said that it was a public lake and anyone who bought the permit and a fishing liscense was legal to fish it, and that it wasn't HIS lake to decide on such matters. He should take his complaints to the local authorities. I also expained for him to stop worrying that 15 members of a crappie club would not damage the lake whatsoever. And, that if anything, we fish 5 different lakes, so that would take our club members off the lake alot of the year beceause we would be prefishing other lakes. This reminded me of an instance hunting some open land near the steam plant. Had a guy I cam across on a trail ask me why I was there. I assumed with the question that I might have wondered onto some private property, but is was public land. He proceeded to tell me a long story that he had been hunting that land since he was 12 years old, and that he would appreciate it if I wouldn't come back again. I didn't confront the guy because he was an idiot with a gun in his hand, so I just walked away. But I walked back in the woods and still hunted on the way out to my truck.

This is what you get when you put your phone number in the paper. I just have to take the good with the bad. If we get a few members out of the deal, it will be all worth it.

[J White]

Yeah, I hear you. Anytime you deal with the public, it can be
interesting, to put it mildly. I have fished Cedar once - it is a huge
lake compared to some of the little state parks I fish. Can't see
tournaments, especially catch and release having a bad effect.
I have all but quit deer hunting for a number of reasons, one being
people like you ran into, another being nuts with rapid-fire weapons
that spray the woods. I am drawing the line though with people who
put out brush in public lakes and then get mad if you fish it. I don't
try to spy - I have pulled up on guys pushing brush out beaver-style
and turned and left to let them sink it in peace. But if I troll across it
later and mark it, and nobodys on it at the time, well first come first serve.
Looks like the only thing missing from the party is PETA - want me to
turn them on to your number? Just kidding, got no use for them!
Hopefully some day if I get this start up business calmed down, I'll
try to join up and fish with you guys. My oldest daughter says she
wants to fish tournaments - we did one little casual event at a friends
campground this Spring, she did amazingly well for an 8 year old, I
thought, but I am biased :D

[David Waters]

We would lvoe to have you. Booneville is not far away from where we usulaly fish, except for Wheeler. Do you fish Bay SPrings much? Always wanted to fish it but always end up stopping at Cedar before i get to it!

[Ranger375]

Ain't the public Fun
Some like your last caller really make you wonder. If doesn't want to share then need to find a PRIVATE Lake....LOL

I also agree about the folks that think they own a crappie hole on public lake that my tax money supports. I hold them right up there with jet skiers who like to buzz anglers.

[Mo'nBack]

That's like here when they drain one of the local lakes about every 4yrs to hold the moss down(which doesn't work!) and everyone fishes it and catches lots of big crappies. Not the last time they drained it, but the time before, about 8yrs ago, someone went out there in the water and put "POSTED" signs on about 100 cypress trees right where me and buddy had been fishing for about 2wks . This was probably around about 80acres in the lake and not close to any bank. We had fished there before the lake was drained and to this day neither one of us has seen anyone fishing there! They went to a lot of trouble, just to be stupid :p !