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I just got off the phone with Brandon Brown with ODWC. He said that the regulation does not apply to commercially purchased bait. He could not provide an answer to where a river or creek ends and the lake begins, or whether the Nav Channel is considered a river or a series of lakes etc. He said they may have to change the reg to be more specific.
Don't matter to me. When I use minnows they will be store bought and I'll have the receipt.
Don't count on getting any slack on anything questionable by a game warden! If they have found ANYTHING wrong, you'll be nailed to the cross and hung out to dry. If they can get you, they will, period!
Question every move they make, be sure of every move you make!
Now we need tyvek receipt paper instead of the miserable thermal paper ones to STAY legal. I think we need to contact the state representative and tell them.
I think they'll agree. Seriously how big a problem is this that people might work their ass off to seign a few minnows or net some shad??????
Laws are passed by the legislature. The ODW cannot make laws. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that some legislator without outdoor knowledge that had been influenced by somebody asked for, and with out any major complaints by the very people that were affected the most, got it rammed through. Its a common problem when the ODW puts up a reg for public discussion, the amount of responses can be counted on one hand on occasion. Part of it is apathy by the outdoors folks, and part of it is because the public see's its going to be a reg for SE Okla, which doesn't concern them, and doesn't comment because it doesn't concern them in their fishing areas. Well, until now. If you don't like this, contact your state senator, and representative, and make sure your buddy's do too. Complaints on a forum make us all more aware of a problem that currently exists, but won't get the reg changed unless we lobby our law makers.
From my discussion with Mr. Brown from ODWC the problem was a group or groups of ethnic minority people were using cast nets and literally catching everything that swims in the holes in some of the Eastern Oklahoma Rivers. The fish, even the minnows, were being consumed for food and in many instances were cooked and consumed on site. In response to complaints from local landowners all cast nets were prohibited on all scenic rivers. The ethnic groups just moved to other streams and continued to decimate the fish. There were no bag limits on non game fish so these groups were taking minnows by the thousands which resulted in drastic drops in fish populations. Faced with pressure from the public in the area, the law establishing he limit of 25 non game fish from all rivers and streams was enacted to try and prevent the groups from just moving from one river or creek to another. The regulation against taking or transporting more than 200 shad or bait fish was enacted because people were coming into Oklahoma from Arkansas and Texas and removing thousands and thousands of Shad and minnows which were sold in Arkansas and Texas. The laws are poorly written and confusing and try to address a primarily Eastern Oklahoma problem with blanket laws that affect the whole state. I voiced my opposition to these regulations, as they are written, back when they were first proposed. When I spoke to Mr. Brown he said that ODWC had only received less than a dozen complaints about the new laws.
I have my State Representative coming over to discuss a few issues and want to take this to task as well. Please let me know you thoughts or position and I will let her know how we feel about regulations / laws like this !