So they will be preserving a resource for another group who’s goal is to profit off of said resource??
COMMERCIAL FISHERMAN ABOUT TO GET SHANKED BY AGFC
Tomorrow the AGFC will enact a catfish size limit on the Mississippi River along with Tennessee and Mississippi .It seems this was spurred by Bill Dance and BASSPRO to preserve so called TROPHY CATFISH on the river.It will reduce all harvests to only 1 fish over 34 inches for all anglers including the commercial fisherman.JB WELD you may wanna step in and make some waves on this.It’s headed to the same place our duck hunting went for a FEW DOLLARS MORE.Our commercial fisherman have been harvesting big catfish outta the river for decades and I certainly don’t feel like they have hurt the TROPHY fish there at all.There’s many guides making lotsa money taking folks to the Mississippi to catch trophy catfish and it’s not really that hard to do.These guys making a living on fish outta that river are gonna suffer from this beat down.
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Being a river rat and making a living on the river has been a very long tradition in Arkansas.We are blessed tohave a fishery that can support this way of life as it has done for decades.It’s sad that a monetary force has swayed the AGFC to this new regulation.
I have it in an email but I’m computer challenged and don’t know how to get it here.
There is a public meeting on it tomorrow
My email is not AGFC it’s from another group announcing tomorrow as the meeting.
Only those who catch em over 10 lbs😂People eat catfish that are over 10lbs?
Hopefully those guys that can make the meeting will show up but no one is on the agenda to speak.
it could be a bad thing when they decide which river is next.And it is always a bad thing for those guys that have to release a catch.They aren’t fishing for fun.is it a bad thing to turn loose all the > 34" catfish ?
I ran hoop nets with a guy one summer, we caught 100's of 2-3# catfish ... that's a pretty good operation without keeping anything bigger than 34"
Arkansas is just as blessed as green timber hunting with catfishing.There’s no need to handcuff those folks working the river to catch catfish.There’s probably only a small handful that make a living catching fish.There have been river rat commercial guys on the river forever in Arkansas and we still have way more fish even trophy class catfish than could ever be affected by these guys or it would have already happened.The scary part if this passes is which river would be next.
I’m not likely to show up sadly I have other obligations.Hopefully some more of the commercial guys will be there.I have commercial license but not to make a living with.Just hate to see that rule enacted as I do believe there’s absolutely no need for it.Thera are oodles of 30 lb plus catfish in our rivers.
HAMMER MEET NAIL this is all this is about.Sadly like said before after all of these years of having greater numbers of commercial fisherman in the past there are still unlimited TROPHY sized catfish in the Mississippi River.The commercial guys have probably helped this as much as hurt it by somewhat controlling an over abundant population that seems to be endless.If a 34 inch catfish is where trophy size starts then anyone can catch a trophy now,heck you can catch a full limit of TROPHY fish.Bill Dance and BASSPRO ain't pushing this out of the goodness of their heart for the sake of conserving the resource. Their wanting to push catfish tournaments to the level of MLF and make money. Commercialization is what is ruining our resources.
Absolutely not,there’s been TROPHY catfish in abundance in these waters for eons before any of these regs were changed.I haven’t looked but I think that reg is relatively new for those 2 states as well.I was at WILBUR MILLS dam snagging last Sat with 2 other guys and we probably had 12-15 fish over the 34 inches in the boat when we left.We had 1 fish that was 52lbs.I’ve been going down there snagging for 40 years and same results with fish over that size.That is the Ark River but I’d be willing to bet all of those fish came up from the Mississippi River.This rule would affect the sport side as well as there are several folks who go to trot line and limb line in the Mississipp.
We’re gettin old had a young guy with us for his first trip.We had a blast though.You shoulda yelled you coulda spelled me off.
KUDOS TO AGFC FOR PUTTING THE BRAKES ON THIS DEAL TIL THEY GET SOME INPUT!This would affect all anglers on the Miss River,from Trotline s to limb lines and rod and reel.
It seems we will get a reprieve on this silly regulation for the time being.The AGFC have decided to take no action as of now.
Lol let’s hope not.It seems they opened the input for the survey up for nonresidents to chime in on.The TROPHY group ACA,which is a huge organization,we’re asking for all their members to chime in on it.
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