Commercial Fishing Regulations?

[Lowerider]

Does anyone know the commercial fishing regulations for the Ohio River? I launched out of Tanners yesterday and saw a commercial guy coming in and stayed to watch him unload. My jaw hit the ground. The guys had 100s of catfish at what I would estimate to be 3000 pounds, mostly flatheads but a good mix of blues and channels too. I lost count of the fish over 40 pounds. After they unloaded they went back out for more.

Needless to say fishing was extremely slow on rod and reel for me yesterday.

Now, I wouldn't bash anyone making a buck legally. But if his harvest was legal than we need some serious changes. This has to be harmful if not devastating to the fishery. Who do I petition for tougher regs?

[MsgMills]

I didn't even know we actually had Commercial fishermen fishing in the Ohio River. There can't be that many fish left I would think if a Commercial Fisherman was to bring in 3000 lbs. 2 or even 3 times a day. Has to be a big impact on the fishery.

[fisheater]

I think that stinks if its true.For one i would hate to think when i order catfish at restaurant thats what im getting.Also it wont take long for that to make a big impact on anyones fishing.But im pretty sure most paylakes in this area are stocked from owners netting or the trucks who sell them do.No direct knowledge on that statement,just a guess.

[Lowerider]

The guy was keeping the fish alive and had giant holding tanks in the bed of his truck that said "Live Fish" on the side. On-board gas powered generators for the holding tanks on the boat and on the truck - a serious operation. I was told they get $2.90/lb for the live flats and blues and when I fished there last week a guy asked me if I was a commercial fisherman because of the boat I have. I told him "no" and he told me I should be because he has a buddy who is and he made $10,000 in one weekend. I can't believe there are enough pay-lakes to support this but apparently there are.

I've done some light research, and from what I can tell there are no limits in place to the amount of catfish that can be harvested out of the Ohio River commercially. I've heard people are trying to enact legislation that would limit the number of trophy fish a commercial fisherman can take, but like anything else, I predict this will be just another law that is broke if enacted. I don't see to many people willing to throw hundred dollar bills overboard which is basically what would happen by throwing back 40 lbers. I watched these guys unload DOZENS of 40+ lbers with the biggest going around 70. And that was only one of two tanks on his boat. I couldn't even watch them unload tank number 2. Then I saw them run back out to the river to get more....

No wonder the flathead fishing has really sucked for me and others this year.

[CTFSHWHISKER]

i may be wrong but but when my uncle used t do it years back at rough river as long as it was in season there are no limits,we started at peter cave and took out at laurel and the big boat with a 50 merc would barely be out of the water,that was mostly carp buffalo but some cats too.
i do know one who owns a paylake in lous. area,they net the river for a lot of their fish flats and channels plus they sell alot of live fish to people to eat plus other lakes.those little asian eaterys will buy all the live fish you can take them,i used to make more money doin that than working,one reason why paylakes now have a limit.too many doin that.only thing is you have to put your personal info on em,check em and can't leave em in unattended and a liscense.

[MsgMills]

Here's a crazy question. How in the world are they catching so many fish at a time? Are they using nets or shocking maybe....Surely they aren't just using poles to catch them. Must have one heck of a honey Hole for sure.....

Just curious as to how an operation like this works.

When I was in the Army up at Ft. Lewis, WA. I went fishing in the Pugent Sound...Saw a Commercial Fisherman up there unloading his boat and just dumping the entire bunch of fish into the bed of his truck. I got to talking to the guy and he caught the fish by net. Silver salmon, brown trout etc.
Anyway I had been fishing for about 3 hours with no luck and told the guy that I sure would love to have at least one fish to take home to eat. I reached in and picked up the smallest one I could see. Thinkin that maybe he's give me a fish...Wrong answer...He swelled up big time and flat out said: Put my fish back......I dropped the fish and away he went....

[tglass]

Well guys i have a little experience in this field just because i fish paylakes in the cincinnati area and i have talked to people and the owners. I know a guy who used to always go south into south carolina and the tennessee river and the mississippi. These paylakes that are going around getting these fish are the reason for the regulations they put on the rivers in the south. I know for a fact that this guy puts 15,000+ lbs. of fish over 40lbs. in his lakes every year. He has told me he catches over 60,000lbs. of fish that he keeps to put in his lakes or sells every year. Now the scary thing is that this is just one guy!!! More and more of the paylake owners are starting to do this because it saves them money from buying fish. I don't really fish the river for catfish but i would like to learn how to better. I actually have a buddy that wants to me to take him out on the river beause he wants to learn how to catch them so he can sell to the paylakes but i won't do that. I know that i am not really helping the problem because i fish the paylakes occasionally when there is a tournament or fish for jackpots. I usually only fish when i can't get my boat out though. I am a striper fisherman at heart and i mostly release all of them that i catch. I don't fish for them until the water gets cold enough to release. Also to answer the question on how they catch that many fish. They use hoop nets and trot lines. Most of the guys use the nets because less risk on hurting the fish. I do not exactly understand how the nets work but they are kinda like a big minnow trap. The thing that hurts the worst to hear is this guy that i talked about has flat out told me that when he puts those big fish in his lakes they might live a couple years if they are lucky but most die within the first year. He has had several blues that i know of that he has stocked that are over 70lbs. and at least one over 100lbs every year!! I like being able to catch these fish sure but i don't really think it is worth what it is doing to the fisheries that they are coming from. By the way if you want to know what Lake that was with a truck at Tanners it would probably be either Cedar Lake or Lake Cozy-Dale. Well sorry to ramble but though i would shed some light.

[CTFSHWHISKER]

hey msg
they use a big funnel shaped net,yes it is like minnow trap in that they get in but not out,put a few bags of bait in it,usually grain.it is anchored on bottom in a likely spot leave it out a few hours or over night and recover your loot.
when we did it at rough river we used gill nets because we didn't need them alive,we gutted them as we removed them and had ice in the boat bottom or it was usually cold enough to keep them then emptied them into a freezer on the truck.We saw very very few bass,before anyone gets mad,but we did release one that was a little over 11lb.we didn't leave em overnight,we would find the carp and buffalo on the graph set the net then herd them in with the boat.

[mhall]

Does anyone know the commercial fishing regulations for the Ohio River? I launched out of Tanners yesterday and saw a commercial guy coming in and stayed to watch him unload. My jaw hit the ground. The guys had 100s of catfish at what I would estimate to be 3000 pounds, mostly flatheads but a good mix of blues and channels too. I lost count of the fish over 40 pounds. After they unloaded they went back out for more.

Needless to say fishing was extremely slow on rod and reel for me yesterday.

Now, I wouldn't bash anyone making a buck legally. But if his harvest was legal than we need some serious changes. This has to be harmful if not devastating to the fishery. Who do I petition for tougher regs?

Lowerider, contact KDFWR and tell them what you saw. I do think there are commercial fisherman on the Ohio but it's seasonal and there are limitations. It sounds to me as they were exceding the limitations big time.

[PRO V LE]

For the newer forum members let me say that Lowerider is my son. We both have been around on here for a long time.
Scott has fished several major Cat Fish tourn's on the Ohio river and has a great understanding of where the fish and bait fish are found. He work's extremly hard on the details of the right bait and presation(sp)
He has caught numerous Cats in the 30 to 50# range some right here in downtown Cincy!
He is also a Striper Nut with me on Cumberland and the river, we only want one fish. 50# +
A very proud Dad spouting off

[MsgMills]

Hey nuttin wrong with being a proud pappy, I got two keeper sons myself.... Our biggest Catfish to date is a 28" 12lb channel. The fish hit a wax worn just as soon as the bait hit the water. Heck of a fight on 6 lb test on a short 5' spinning rod and reel.

[gocards40]

Wow. I used to fish the paylakes for years. Mostly back then it was farm raised channels. At some point they started to put the "Jumbo" river cats in but back then it was only a few compared to the channels. It has been a while since I was a die hard paylake fisherman. But I recently went to back to one of the bigger ones in Lousville area. I noticed that there was a big draw to one of the lakes that was river cats only. With tournaments, big fish jackpots and everthing. At that time I did not even think about how these fish where harvested. I assumed they were taken by trot lines or bank poles not nets. I never even thought that the fish probably did not live very long in these pay lakes. How many years did it take to get a Blue to 50 pounds? That is sad if you think about how they are just being wasted. This could be a very big deal in the future. When you think about the Ohio river you think more about abundance of catfish that is self sustaining. Can it withstand that kind of pressure from commericail fisherman? We can probably look at history to answer that. But my real problem with this would be some of the lakes and smaller rivers that our tax money is going into to stock these big blue cats.

I may be way off base here but the last time I went to Taylorsville (which I don't fish often) was a night. There were so many jugs lines out that we had to be very careful running. Since blues have been stocked in Taylorsville. Is there a possibility that these guys were selling the fish they were catching on the jug lines?

In my opinion there should be limits on this kind of fishing.

Very good topic to discuss in my opinion. I will think twice before I go paylake fishing again.