Indiana tournament fees

[bullrdr6]

Mike,

As an avid tournament fisherman, especially at Boggs, I have no problem with paying the usage fee/permit fee you require. I actually like the fact that only 1 tournament per day can be going on. It reduces the pressure on the lake and cuts down on the traffic.

Boggs actually seems to care about their fishery and how it will be in the future. I think that's my biggest complaint witht the state of Indiana. I've lived here for 6 years and have never seen a DNR officer at Patoka or Monroe except at the ramp collecting launch fees. I couldn't tell you one thing they've done to improve the fishery or the success of the fisherman.

I do know from experience that Boggs does creat structure for their fish. They monitor the catches of each of the tournaments and I've seen you out there talking to fishermen.

I don't think any tournament fisherman would have a problem paying an additional fee at a DNR lake if we could see some progress in the way they manage their fisheries. Maybe they should come and take notes on how Bogg's is managed.

Charlie

[Moose1am]

http://www.ai.org/dnr/

http://www.in.gov/dnr/fishwild/fish/

Copy and paste the above two web addresses. Then look at the fishing surveys on the page that comes up from the second link above or web address.

You will see that Indiana Fisheries Biologist have been very busy trying to manage our State Fisheries. They just need our support.

I am giving this to you since someone said they didn't know what the State was doing for us. With a little bit of research we can see what they have been doing and what they plan to do.

It's very easy to take a look at this from time to time to "GET IN THE KNOW".




Regards,

Moose1am

[DSPCHAMY]

Moose,

The Governor has nothing to do with budgets or re-appropriations of budgets. That is the state house of reps. You know the guy down the street that goes up to Indy for the fall and spring.

What has Mitch Daniels Sold off? Did we loose a county to Michigan that I was unaware of? Did Chicago buy Gary? Henderson purchased Evansville? Or are you talking about a Toll Road that was leased to a management company?

I think you need to take the leftist blinders off and understand the reality of the situation.

[MikeAxsom]

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON Jun-28-06 AT 07:54AM (EST)[/font][p][font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON Jun-28-06 AT 07:50*AM (EST)[/font]

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON Jun-28-06 AT 07:47*AM (EST)[/font]

Charlie

I’m responding to your post, but this also applies to some of the comments I see from some of the other guys here. I’ve been told to stick with what I know, so I’m going to try to do that without too much opinion thrown in.

When you make such clear distinctions between West Boggs and the IDNR properties, you may not be aware of all the facts. It is true that West Boggs is a county property. But it is still a “public water” and that means it is still subject to State fish and Wildlife regulations. I’d love to be able to take credit for the total fisheries management here, because it is a great program. But the real expertise and all the science is provided by the IDNR Fisheries office out of Avoca, which also manages Monroe and all of the other public water fisheries in the district. Maybe our county agency is more involved with some related issues than some other properties, but if so we are involved in a great fisheries management plan developed by IDRN, not by us.

This does not carry over to the tournament regulations. The new state regs apply only to state managed lakes, and do not include West Boggs. Our tournament regs are local. This is not by-in-large, a fisheries issue with us, but a matter of limiting the ability of any single user group to dominate the use of the resource at the expense of other user groups. We want to allow tournament fishing, but not to the exclusion of others. That is why we limit the number of tournaments and close that use in the summer. If here are fisheries benefits to that as well, we welcome them; but that is just a bonus.

Most people don’t realize that for more than 10 years now, West Boggs had been using a 100% self funded management model. As opposed to tax supported facilities, we pay attention to user group mixtures, total revenue generation, focusing improvements on areas that people are willing to pay for, etc. So if it seems like we are less willing to be impressed that tournaments provide monies for some good causes elsewhere, it is because none of that ever helps us accomplish our mission. This new management model is showing a lot of promise. While everyone here has seen a series of budget cuts in most local, state and federal parks and recreation organizations over the same ten year period, our budget has more than doubled in that time. With no tax dollars.

We have done that by working to build our business traffic in those areas where people are most willing to pay us for services. I have to tell you that tournament fishing in general has shown the least interest in doing that. I never have a running battle with any other user group over fees. It is uncanny how many times we see people of limited means with an old car dripping oil and kids hanging out all the windows. They are often counting quarters and dimes to find the gate fee, and always smile and thank us for the opportunity to take the kids fishing. But we can almost tell when a guy turns in off the highway with a $40K truck pulling a $50K bass boat with a big motor, he is going to be foaming at the mouth about paying the gate fee. They just almost never seem to be really happy about much of anything. The lenght of this thread is an indicator of this same thing. And now there is going to be another petetion, and about what? Better management? New Ramps? Improved Habitat? Nope; NO NEW FEES! And you guys wonder why the IDNR guys don't come on these boards and join the discussions.

[bullrdr6]

Mike,

As mentioned before, I personally and I know several others as well don't have a problem with the additional fees as long as they are being used wisely. At Boggs, we can see where these funds are being used to improve the overall park as well as the fishing.

I enjoy fishing Boggs and think it is probably the best maintained fishery in Indiana. That's why I want to help out with the release boat. Anything we can do to improve and not damage the quality of fish.

With the IDNR I think I can speak for most of these guys where we see very little if any improvement with anything. That is the major complaint I have. I have no problems paying additional money if I know what its being used for and they can show the improvements. It's pretty sad when I live 45 minutes from Patoka but would rather drive 2 hours down to Barkley or KY lake to fish.

Charlie

[MikeAxsom]

Charlie,
Thanks for your kudos about West Boggs. In your last post you may have started to uncover some of the causes of frustration many of you guys many have with IDNR. You keep talking about wanting to help with fisheries management, and that is a good cause for an angler to want to support. But a lot of the complaints are about property issues, ramps, entrance fees, improvements, etc. Other complaints seems to focus on enforcement issues. Someone here, maybe you, said they had been stopped and checked more on West Boggs than all the other lake combined.

There is a whole range of managmeent dynamics within IDNR. The Division of Fish and Wildlife manages all public water fisheriesm including West Boggs and all the state reservoirs. But they have nothing at all to do with management of state reservoir properties. That is now the division of State Parks and Reservoirs. When I worked there, "back in the day" as the kids say, those were seperate divisions. I worked for Reservoirs. Reservoir propertty management was then very closely aligned to fish and wildlife management goals. I'm not sure that is the same today as Park management concepts tend to rule the new combined division. It just amy be a real factor that I still tend to manage more the way I leared, which was under the old IDNR Division of Reservoirs model; which is mor epro hunting and fishing and less tree hugger friendly.

In the enforcement issues, the guys and gals in the ICO uniforms that stop you on West Boggs are the same guys and gals who would stop you on Patoka. They are IDNR officers. They don't work for me, althogh I'm very glad to have them on our water. I suspect you may find that even one ICO on the water is more likely to find you on 622 acres of wter than on 10,000 acres or so.