Thanks bassmanic1, and for the record the fisheries professionals involved in this particular instance are the capable folks out of the Avoca shop of the IDNR Division of Fish & Wildlife.

Anglers who miss the great fishing that Boggs offered just a few years back, need to realize that fixing these problems are inseparable from the concerns over higher fees and license costs. Renovations, like what is now needed again at West Boggs, are not possible to continue on 10-15 year cycles, unless we are all willing to see fees go much, much higher levels. The cold hard facts are that if something does not change the patterns seen in the past, fishing is just going to decline and not be replaced.

The time is now and the people who can fix this are you and me. The entire fishing community needs to quit the shuck and jive about how all this happens and become the solution to the problem. Any, and I mean ANY, stocking of ANY fish into ANY water that is not done under scientific controls by authorized professionals, is wrong. That needs to be on the cover of every bait container, and on the label of every rod and reel, and on the warning tag on every new boat. And every organization should make it a mantra in their meetings and in their publications and in their rules and regulations, until it sticks.

And for the record, although it has been said a million times, a big part of the problem is that too many publications and outdoor writers talk about the big benefits of shad forage in southern waters, without explaining that those are threadfin shad, not the gizzard shad we are plagued with in this region. It’s like the difference between a pimple and skin cancer. We should make sure that everyone understands that.