Lake Conway Yo-Yos

If you were out on Lake Conway this weekend, you might have seen some Wildlife Officers looking for unmarked or unattended yo-yos. They did a special operation out there this weekend and cleaned up the lake. They removed 322 illegal yo-yos and wrote several citations. I personally am grateful for their efforts in cleaning up Lake Conway and helping with this problem. Hopefully this effort will curb illegal yo-yo activity for some time. Thank you Enforcement Officers! Who knows, they could go back out there at any time...

Thank god!!! Hopefully they took out some trot lines also. There the worst thing out there being unmarked and below the water line.

Good deal. I wish they would do Lake Erling next.

Nice job. It was needed. The trees are littered with them and nobody in hearing distance.

Good job guys!

When's the auction

I seen a bunch just to the left of the new bridge at gold creek hanging off limbs. Did not check them though. I gladly remove litter and do my best to keep things clean. It takes everyone to keep things nice. Thanks to all that help.

Don't see too much of that in White Oak or Greeson, which are the main two lakes I fish, BUT I have seen some slimy trot lines at White Oak and old limb lines at Greeson. If they're not being watched, they should be taken up or cut. That's my opinion. Do it right or don't do it. GTT

GOOD JOB . Why not just outlaw them on smaller lakes and AGFC waters where it is suppose to be for fishing and not filling freezers .:twocents

Outstanding!

I saw two boats with GW in them. Said hello and commented on the trail markers that were new. They must have not seen the part of the lake I was fishing or they had not got there yet. Almost every tree lake wide has a yo yo on it. I personally wish they were banned. I wouldn't say that if they were attended like they are suppose to be but in the last two years I have never seen a single individual anywhere near any of the hundreds of yo yo's left out there.

I agree with pac and nimrod, just ban yo yo's and trot lines both on all agfc lakes.

Yall be careful with that banning talk, next it will be ban spider rigs, then ban live bait, then ban hooks, then I'll be eating tofu

I'm not a yoyo fisherman, but we do need to be careful about restrictions we want to impose on others. Lets do what we do legally and bring it to the attention of the proper people when it is done illegally.

Good job AGFC and thanks to all those who had a voice in correcting an out of control situation on Conway.


Yoyo on my friends, but remember where you put them out and remove them when you can no longer fish them according to the existing regulations.

Im not a yoyo guy but just like any other regulations, they wouldn't be needed if people were more educated and responsible. Its not a yoyo problem, its a people problem that creates this issue.
Thank you to the AGFC for cleaning up other peoples responsibilities and responding to a problem.

As usual the non-followers of the law are usually dumb rednecks who dont care about the laws, they think they can do whatever they want. I say ban them because we obviously dont have enough enforcment officers to oversee the legal use of this type of fishing. As many illegal yo yo's and trot lines as we all encounter on our bodies of water obviously it is out of hand... BAN THEM

Enforcement not more rules is the key. Like shifty said if you start asking for more rules it will only get worse. I personally am a YoYo fisherman when I'm not jig pole fishing. I run them on Conway quite often, they are all marked with the proper ID and I stay around them and check them every half hour or so. I would be very disappointed if they were ever banned, don't take guns away because someone got shot, take the shooter away. My .02

If enforcement is the answer and it was being done to a degree that was fixing the problem I wouldn't be typing right now. I am not knocking F&G. I give them props for being out there trying to work the problem. However, with the way Conway looks the two boats with F&G in them that I saw is about like spitting on a volcano.

Then it seems we should set our goals more towards fixing the enforcement issue, not the yoyo issue. Just doesn't seem fair in any way that I should have my right to run yoyos threatened because of someone else's illegal activity and a lack of enforcement from AGFC. If we want to solve the problem, then let's solve it. But not in a way that adds any more regulations or restrictions to people's freedoms.

perhaps all those wanting more enforcement instead of a banning should be assessed additional taxes so agfc could hire more enforcement officers. that seems fair to me ��

There is no point in debating a topic like this. Can we really change each others mind on the topic? It is kind of like the Chevy vs Ford debate. Most people feel strongly one way or the other on this topic. In hind sight I should have just kept this to myself. I didn't mean to start up the old yo-yo debate again. Mr. Moderator - feel free to close this thread. I think that it has outlived its original purpose. Thanks.

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Originally Posted by ibmack

perhaps all those wanting more enforcement instead of a banning should be assessed additional taxes so agfc could hire more enforcement officers. that seems fair to me ��

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I already pay a lot in different license fees for hunting and fishing . Our Commission is awash in money but if it would help I would gladly pay 25.00 for a sports fishing license or a permit to use AGFC owned waters to help maintenance costs .. AGFC lakes are for sport fishing not just to fill freezers . Some folks living or having cabins on them keep yoyos out all the time . I think sport fish should be just that , for sport . I have seen and let it be know some are breaking multiple laws by setting unmarked yoyos , unattended , and on steel rods which are illegal and unmarked . The steel is rough on boat hulls and illegal .:twocents

Glad the AGFC is out taking care of the problem. When they get through over there, send them over to Old Town Lake

Not really an attack on anyones freedoms. These fish are a resource that we all own, these resources are a treasure and they should be treated as such. When a group of folks consistantly abuses a treasured resource with these methods then the resource needs be managed and protected from these methods. I have no problem with yo yo's being used in a legal manner. I think they provide another method to enjoy the resource but we all know it is THE most abused method of fishing on our lakes.

I love to jig pole as much as running yoyos, but part of the abuse you see is because it is such a visual problem, you don't see the inside of a guys live well who keeps more fish than he's supposed to or keeps fish under a length limit. Who's to say that YoYo fisherman waste more fish than jig polers/ spider riggers? Maybe the guy with the live well full decided it was too hot when he got home and he didn't want to clean all the fish after the first 10-15. It's not a technique problem, it's a people problem. I run my yoyos in the most ethical and 100% legal way and I shouldn't have that taken from me because of someone else's actions, punish the individual not the group. Some of you sound like Hillary supporters....

Not saying I don't think there is a problem, there absolutely is one. It should just be handled with more enforcement/ stricter punishments and not more bans. The last thing we need in this country is more unelected officials sitting around a desk telling me and you what we can and can't do.

I think our smaller AGFC lakes should not be for anything but sport , if putting a length limit helps just think what banning yoyos could do for growing big slabs for sport fishermen to catch . But this is only my opinion , I see them hanging on lakes I been on but no one attending them . Same yoyos hanging on Harris Brake every time I was there last year .

If you see them and it's apparent they're being run illegally, cut em. Until there is a study proving that yoyo's hurt the fish population then there's no scientific support to back up banning them. (If there already is my bad I've never seen the data). We all have different opinions. Personally i love to catch crappie to eat, I throw back the little ones just like if you were pole fishing. When you don't have time to pole fish all the time running yoyos is a great way to put a gallon bag of filets in the fridge. When the AGFC made these lakes or started managing them it wasn't just for the sole purpose of sport fishing. Some like to catch to eat, some like to catch just for fun.

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Originally Posted by RK1

If you see them and it's apparent they're being run illegally, cut em. Until there is a study proving that yoyo's hurt the fish population then there's no scientific support to back up banning them. (If there already is my bad I've never seen the data). We all have different opinions. Personally i love to catch crappie to eat, I throw back the little ones just like if you were pole fishing. When you don't have time to pole fish all the time running yoyos is a great way to put a gallon bag of filets in the fridge. When the AGFC made these lakes or started managing them it wasn't just for the sole purpose of sport fishing. Some like to catch to eat, some like to catch just for fun.

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Cutting them not my job and could get you in a conflict with folks living on the lake . I let AGFC know and leave their job up to them .:twocents

If common sense was still common we wouldn't have these problems, I know the AGFC has the resources for more enforcement. They completely shut down the boat racing at Bayou Meto during duck season this year by doing 2 things, more officers and officers there every single day enforcing, and by imposing much harsher penalties. If they would apply the same to yoyoing there wouldn't be anymore problems.

Thread closed at request of OP.