MikeAxsom wrote:
Sure there are other ways that shad, and carp, could spread from water to water. But modern fisheries management in our state is staffed with some folks that really do know what they are about in their business. For example, IDNR did not spend a quarter million dollars of your license fee money to renovate West Boggs in 1994, and fail to check the farm ponds upstream. Likewise, they were smart enough to kill out the puddles that were hard to drain. These stories in effort to deny that someone ruins fisheries on purpose are just that. Stories. For some reason when someone says something negative about a fisherman, other fishermen seem driven to defend them. Fishermen are not all created equal. Most of them are great folks, and those of us who work for them are privileged to have the opportunity....
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Mike, here is my problem with what you write.
You imply that I am defending someone who BREAKS THE LAW by stocking fish ILLEGALLY. WHICH I AM NOT!!!! THEY SHOULD BE ARRESTED!!!
You say that the DNR is so smart and above reproach that to suggest that maybe that there were literally 4 or 5 shad that were not killed somewhere upstream or in a puddle is just not possible is obserd! I would surmise that the people doing the renovation and not getting rid of ALL the shad would potentially be in a position to lose there jobs unless they had a scapegoat... scapegoat, meet Bass Fisherman.
You still yet failed to acknowledge the "minnow bucket" in your response here. This is the #1 way fish are transported inadvertantly to other bodies of water. I don't know one Bass Fisherman who thinks carp "help grow bigger bass" and I don't know anyone who would transport carp, but in case you don't know there are a lot of carp in west boggs lake. How did they get there? - upstream, minnow buckets, etc., and if they get in that way, then is it not at least possible to assume that a shad or three could find there way to the lake the same way????
Please do not misunderstand me, I fully acknowledge that there could be a misguided law-breaker who happens to fish for Bass, but that does not make them any more representative of Bass Fisherman than Charles Manson is to white people.- By the way, have you prosecuted anyone for stocking shad??? Because you would think that to make the claim that it has to be a fisherman that you would of had some proof, then we could take other "stories" off the table. If you don't deal with ALL "stories", then it does not matter what you do, because carp and shad will find there way back into west boggs or any other lake for that matter.

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Mike Axsom also wrote: (about BASS FISHERMAN)
But a few are egotistical, and a few a crooked, and a few are just plain stupid. The good ones should not help the others hide in the crowd. We just can’t afford to keep doing the repair work to fix the results of their stupidity.

Mike, I would simpy remind YOU that you can replace BASS FISHERMAN with DNR, Conservation Officer, Police Officer, Attorney, Doctor, Politician and maybe even LAKE MANAGER!

So please stop throwing stones, especially when you live in a glass house.