Eat More Bass

[Slowretrieve]

Fortunately, we have excellent conservation officers to manage our waters.

[Moose1am]

Management Policies are set by the Fisheries Biologist who have a bachelor degree in Wildlife Biology or Fisheries Biology to be more exact. That is a four year accredited University degree program. Purdue University has a good program that many but no all the Wildlife Biologist working for the State of IN DNR attended.

A Conservation Officer (CO's)is not usually a Fisheries Biologist but they could be perhaps. The CO's are more the enforcers of the policy set by the Biologist who work hand in hand with the property managers.

The CO's are law enforcement officers that have to go though the Law Enforcement Academy just like a regular city or state policeman does. They are trained in law enforcement operations have have the same arrest powers as a policeman does but they specialize in wildlife enforcement. They do a lot more than just enforce the wildlife and fishing regulations. Not all the CO's have a four year college degree.

Generally the CO's just are out there enforcing the game rules and regulations. They are the guys that check your fishing licence and your catch to make sure that you are not over the limit of keeping short fish. Generally they are very professional and do a good job. Now there will always be some instances where others may not agree with this statement. Those that break the rules and regulations and get caught in the act and have to pay a fine will not generally thing much of the CO that caught them. Other's that get caught breaking the law may learn something positive from the experience.

It does pay to be up on the DNR hunting and fishing regulations before going out in the field.

It also really helps to understand who the fishery biologist go about doing the fish surveys and why they make the policies that they do for each lake in IN. There are going by professional guidelines that other DRN State Biologist also may use.

Maybe you guys should go to www.purdue.ed and look into what it takes to become a fisheries biologist. You might better understand what these guys study before that start working with the Indiana DNR. Better yet take some biology and chemistry classes and then take a few classes in Ichthyology and Limnology and then maybe you will better understand why the rules are made.

Regards,

Moose1am

[Viper201]

Its really hard not to say something about the last post concerning the c.o.'s,i'm bitin my tongue really hard on this one!

[Celten]

Oh, go ahead and speak your mind. Everybody else on here seems to. :)