Thread: Would you support this on Kentucky Lake and other lakes in KY ?

Originally Posted by dkb23

Thanks mrdux. You left out Illinois. I feel like one of the guys now! Rofl

I left out IL specifically for you and the boys. My post should have said "one certain transplant from IN".

My solution to this issue would be to have more enforcement of current regulations PLUS a judicial system that treats game law violations seriously. Many of us have witnessed those who feel game laws don't apply to them taken many over their limits and many of those are undersized. Make an example of a few, publicize it in the media and watch some folks attitude change.

NEVER WORK IMO.

The people that keep illegal fish now would be the same ones that would be fishing the same bays that you want to restrict.

I personally don't have a issue with our lakes. Plenty of habitat(MAN MADE). Plenty of fish and you can always count on plenty of boats in the Spring time. Ha!!

I'm more in agreement on the Asain Carp issue. I'm afraid that it will be a snowballing problem that could become our worst nightmare if we(KY Officials) don't get serious about this issue soon.

Just My Opinion.

Originally Posted by mrdux

I left out IL specifically for you and the boys. My post should have said "one certain transplant from IN".

My solution to this issue would be to have more enforcement of current regulations PLUS a judicial system that treats game law violations seriously. Many of us have witnessed those who feel game laws don't apply to them taken many over their limits and many of those are undersized. Make an example of a few, publicize it in the media and watch some folks attitude change.

Thanks mrdux. Thumbs Up Completely understood. Like mrdux has explained to me before, this is a resource that needs to be taken care of. A lot of peoples lives revolve around these beautiful lakes and it is near and dear to their hearts. This is not something that should be taken lightly by any means and when it is seen time after time again it is taken personal .....as it should be. And as far as the small fish........never did understand that? A 10 inch fish is hard enough to clean.....cant understand keeping anything smaller? Blows my mind? Everyone of those idiots should be drug in. Then it should be made very public of what they did and fined out their rear! I know it sounds harsh but as mrdux said....maybe some attitudes would change then? BTW.......Mr. Cope checked me and about four other boats in Jonathan the other day. First thing he looked for was short fish! I thanked him for this and told him that it was good to see him out and about. IMO he was asking all of the right questions.

Originally Posted by dkb23

Thanks mrdux. You left out Illinois. I feel like one of the guys now! Rofl

dkb: don't let him fool you. He just figures he has to be nice to the IL guys. Thumbs Up
Let's see, where does the owner of crappie dot com live? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm oh ya. Now I remember ILLINOIS!!!
Ha ha ha. Just joking with ya. I wish we had a lake half as good as Ky lake. Shelbyville is ok but nothing like Ky lake.

Originally Posted by crappie&shrooms

dkb: don't let him fool you. He just figures he has to be nice to the IL guys. Thumbs Up
Let's see, where does the owner of crappie dot com live? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm oh ya. Now I remember ILLINOIS!!!
Ha ha ha. Just joking with ya. I wish we had a lake half as good as Ky lake. Shelbyville is ok but nothing like Ky lake.

I ain't touchin' that one with a 10 ft. pole Shrooms! Don't want to wear out my welcome. It took my boys charm for them to let me into the Shindig....otherwise they would have seen that IL on the side of my boat, fed me a bunch of moonshine, and took the wheels off the trailer! LOL! Rofl No.....in all seriousness. These guys are about the nicest bunch that I have ever met. They would give you their jiggin arm if you would ask. Good people that love to see people succeed. Just don't abuse the resource......it is easy to understand......not rocket science.

KY LAKE ... it is true that no one knows how many fish are harvested, nor do they know how many fish actually complete their spawning duties. But, by the same token, neither do you, my friend. So, how can you say that the spawns have been bad, based on the flooding of the last two years ? Electroshocking isn't aimed at 1-2yo fish ... they do trap netting surveys for those. The townhall meeting article says the spawns have been good "the last several years" ... which encompasses more spawns than just the last two. The CO's you may talk to are not necessarily fisheries biologists, and they may have based their opinion about "poor spawns" on the angler's catch rate they've observed, rather than the fieldwork done by the biologists. I really don't know ... but, I'd think they'd err on the side of conservation, seeing as how their jobs would be affected by a decline in opportunities for the license buying public.
As big as KY & Barkley lakes are ... even with the masses of anglers coming to them ... there's still places on those lakes where fish spawn, unseen/unknown to anyone & never have a bait or hook put in front of them. The fish don't all spawn at the same time .... there's no set date for them to come in & drop their eggs. Even under the best of conditions, it's likely to take a couple of weeks for all the mature year classes to complete their spawning duties. It's only extended when unfavorable conditions occur, since they're going to try & spawn, right down to the last possible window of opportunity minute. I'd be willing to bet that a bigger percentage of the spawn is over & done before anglers are even aware of the spawn even having started, than we'd even imagine. Even if that percentage was only 2-3% of the entire population, it's still possible for that number to be viable enough to sustain the population's numbers.
All the surveys, shockings, & nettings can do is give the biologists a "number" to work with, which they can extrapolate/estimate the potential with ... and enter those numbers into an equation that considers the conditions under which they're taken, and the past experiences they've monitored & collected data from ... in order to come up with their conclusions. We have to take that as the "best guess scenario", and assume that the KDFWR is doing what is necessary to allow the majority to be successful harvestors of the resource, while still keeping the renewability of that resource in a sound condition. It's a balancing act, with the variables in a constant state of change. What seems like a good idea for todays conditions, may be a bad idea for tomorrow/next week/next year. We have to be aware of trends, rather than react to current situations, hastily. These trends take several years to play out. They don't bust/boom from one year to the next.

We understand your concern & passion for the fish & local businesses of your home lake/territory. We just don't agree that your solutions are best for the situation, as it stands.

... cp

CP, that was a good honest post, I actually agree with many of the things you said.

If studies show that it would help I am all for it or anything to improve quanity and quality.
IMO to many folks keep way more fish than they can ever use.

Originally Posted by colayn

If studies show that it would help I am all for it or anything to improve quanity and quality.
IMO to many folks keep way more fish than they can ever use.

I fished Ky Lake for 3 days of Thanksgiving weekend and only cleaned Thursdays catch of 27. Friday and Saturday I didn't keep a fish, all were returned to the water to hopefully spawn in the spring.I did however make a couple fish take a picture with me before they got released. I have a freezer full of crappie and frequently find myself giving away fish after I've cleaned them. Keep what you need and let the rest swim.

This is directly addressed in the town hall meeting that the KFWD held at Ky Dam Village on Nov. 29, 2010...
http://fw.ky.gov/townhallmeetingsummary.asp

The question from the public is in blue....the KFWD answer follows....

(I seriously doubt the KFWD bases their decisions just on a whim....their job is to study this stuff for the best possible outcome for the fishery AND the fisherman....)

Decline in Crappie, Creel limit doesn’t affect the number of fish. We are missing spawning
habitat. Have a catch and release area for Crappie. (1)
A catch and release area will not result in increases in the number of fish lake wide and
is not widely supported by the public. Available crappie spawning habitat is affected by
the US Army Corps of Engineer’s water manipulations for flood control. In many years,
their schedule reduces the amount of available spawning habitat. Good white crappie
spawns have been seen at both Kentucky and Barkley lakes the past several years and
angler catch of white crappie is expected to improve.