Thanks for the opportunity to make another post, DBD. Rambler, to answer your question, I had an experience with TWRA and bluegill regulations that was in some ways similar, and in some ways dissimilar, to what Alpha has had.

In 2009 I contacted Jim Pipas, the man that at that time was the head over fisheries for Region 2 of TWRA (I don't remember his name). I talked to him about the possibility of implementing new regulations for bluegill on one of the lakes at Williamsport; I was hoping to get said regulations for Shellcracker Lake, the lake that at that time was starting to have some big bluegill, but I felt that any one of those lakes could be made into an exceptional bluegill lake with the proper regulations. I also offered to help manage whichever lake they might choose for the regulations, at no cost. I told the fisheries head that there were other things that could be done, such as stocking coppernose bluegill, that would improve the level of bluegill fishing.

The fisheries head seemed open to my ideas, but said a year-long angler survey would need to be done to see if anyone was fishing for bluegill. (Yes, he said this.) We talked one time on the phone for perhaps fifteen minutes; I tried several times to follow up with him but he never returned my calls or e-mails. And, of course, within six months of when I initially spoke with him the bluegill anglers he wasn't sure existed had fished out Shellcracker Lake.

My take on actually getting the regulations changed is this: Yes, TWRA is a good-ol'-boy agency. However, every one of their salaries, from the chief down to the technicians, is paid for by taxpayers, i.e. you and me. One or two individuals is easy for them to ignore; if on the other hand there were five thousand or ten thousand signatures on a petition, or a conference was held and they were invited and it was publicized, and they continued to ignore the demand for change, I think they would have a problem. This is, after all, a democracy we live in, and they can't act ignore the people who pay their salaries on a major issue; this would just have to be made a major issue.

I don't think TWRA wants to have to put out a press release stating that they don't give a whit about the tens of thousands of bluegill fishermen in the state and they're going to do what they want because they feel like it. That in effect is what their actions are saying at the moment, and they'll continue that course as long as it's expedient for them. When it becomes more difficult/inconvenient/hazardous to their job security to keep the outdated regulations than to change them, they'll change them.