Tn's 34" length limit is in trouble please read and help out.

Here is an E-mail I recived from Phil King this eveing.
If you mailed one of these letters to day that is great but if you didn't you can sign your name to the attached letter if your interested is keeping the big catfish in the TN river 34" and larger. The push to get this law reversed is below the committiee level and if we work this can be stopped before it comes up for a vote in the Comittiee level.

PLease sign your name at the bottom and forward the letter to [email protected] and [email protected] and they will deliver your emailed letter to the ledgislators in Nashville, TN.


February 8, 2007

Rep. Joe McCord
4504 Montvale Road
Maryville, TN 37803

Dear Rep McCord:

I’d like to offer my input about an on going effort to reverse Tennessee’s current maximum size limit regulation for catfish of 34 inches in House Bill 91 and Senate Bill 396.

Commercial fishermen seem to be arguing that they have a meat market for these bigger fish, but it is believed they are selling them to operators of “pay lakes” in Illinois, Iowa and Ohio. Simply put, the fish of this size that they do sell are resources being taken from Tennessee sportsmen who buy licenses and sold to benefit sportsmen in other states!

Sport fishing for the larger, trophy catfish is a rapidly growing activity among sportsmen in states that have an abundance of them, and catfishing tournaments have become quite popular here adding important tourism dollars to our economy. Tennessee received national recognition in several major sporting magazines as the leader in this effort to protect the resource when our 34 - inch size restriction was enacted. These articles also spawned a lot of tourism dollars to our great state and now, other states near us, namely Arkansas, Virginia, Missouri South Carolina, Oklahoma and Kentucky either have passed or are considering similar legislation.

Lastly, it is my understanding that the effort to overturn the current restriction is being made by a very small minority of commercial fishermen in our state. I urge you to help all Tennessee sport fishermen by voting against reversing this very important catfish size protection.

Sincerely,


Attached is an add for pay lakes with fish weighing 102 pounds down. This will be where our fish go we have worked hard to protect the past few years with the 34' law in effect.


PHIL KING
[email protected]
I hope this picture is ok. On here it shows what they are using.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...LakeOhio02.jpg