Ok, in a recent thread SSKY suggested some fishing reg changes. He and I got a little off track in the responses, so I thought this might be a good time to revisit reg changes and put us on track. Obviously this is all hypothetical as I have no pull with the state. I'll list some changes that I would like to see, followed by my reasoning.

Stripers. Since I typically fish for them at Cumberland, I'll direct my suggestions for that lake. December 1 - May 1, one fish, 36 inches in length. Summertime, 2 fish, 20 inch length. In addition, summer time, you catch your limit, you are done striper fishing for the day. Tournaments, Dec 1 to May 1 only.

Bass. Catch and immediate release only during the spawning season. Summertime tournys are night only, and no longer than 5 hours in length. In addition, fish are not all dumped back in the lake right at the ramp. Instead, they are released at various locations around the lake.

Regs for tournys on small, state owned lakes: limit the number of boats allowed on the lake at any given time. I.e., if it is determined that 20 boats should be allowed on the lake for a tourney, one tourney with 20 boats, or two with 10 each. There would be a sign up for the tournys, first come, first served (there is already a page on the web to do this, but most do not do it). Might also set up something similar with non-tourny anglers and recreational boats too. That is, only X number of boats on a specific body of water.

Here are my reasons. With stripers, once the water temps get into the 70's, you have increasing rates of post release mortality. During summer, this is something in the order of 80% of stripers released die. Mortality rates increase with the size of the fish. From what I have read, stripers less than 20 inches in length have a reasonable chance of survival after release even in warmer water. Above this size, summer release results in high rates of post release mortality. Cold water temps, good chance of survival for all stripers if they are not fought to complete exhaustion, handled as little as possible, and returned to the water quickly. By decreasing the size limit during the summer, people would not be releasing 20-23 7/8 inch stripers to die while trying to catch a 24 inch striper to keep. Increasing the size during the cold months would help to bring the average size of stripers up. Also increase the numbers of trophy fish in the lake.

Bass reasons: if you remove a bass from the nest, even for a short period of time, you lose those eggs. It has been shown that even immediate release of a bass caught off a nest can result in the bass not returning to the nest, or not guarding it as aggressively. Put it in the live well and take to another place on the lake, that nest is unguarded and the fry have little chance of survival (eggs are eaten before they hatch). This is one of the biggest pet peeves of mine, people activity fishing for spawning fish. I can not understand how people can preach catch and release year round, but still target nests. They want those fish released so they can spawn, but take them off the nests so the spawn doesn't matter. Studies have also shown that during the summer months, post release mortality increases, especially in day time tournys. It has been recommended that all summer tournys are night time. In addition, the same study indicated that post release mortality was decreased by shortening the time that bass stayed in the live well. The recommendation was for no more than 5 hours. There was also a study that examined the affect of releasing bass at the launch site. The finding was that if the launch site was close to bank fishing areas, something like 70% of the fish re-caught in such areas were kept. By continually releasing tournament fish at the launch site, the area was continuously stocked with keeper sized fish that were then being taken from the lake.

Limiting the number of boats on the smaller lakes is a combination of a safety issue and over fishing. For example, I've been on Guist Creek Lake when there were 3-4 tournys going on at the same time, on a weekend, plus non-tourny anglers and pleasure boats. A 300 acre lake with 80+ boats, not fun!!! You also have to consider how much fishing pressure these smaller lakes can take. Sure, larger lakes can handle a lot more fishing pressure, but the smaller lakes cannot.

Well, that's my rant. I'm interested to hear other people's opinions and suggestions as to what they would like to see if they had a say in the regs.

Andrew