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Just read that starting tomorrow they are allowing commercial netting on Poverty Point. The season will run from Oct-Feb from now on. I'm not sure how I feel about this. It might be good to take some catfish, carp, and buffalo out but I worry how it might affect fishing if they put the nets in those relatively small areas where the white perch congregate.
From what I have seen, the recreational fishing ALWAYS goes down once they allow commercial fishing. And I have never been there but heard it is a small lake, so I would think that would even be worse. There are so many other lakes, don't know why they would have to commercial fish Poverty.
I think that's a pretty broad statement and has the probability of leading to a heated debate.Quote:
Originally Posted by shadow
Here is a link to the particulars of the Poverty Point rules.
Not wanting to start any heated debates, just stating what I have seen.Quote:
Originally Posted by mermentau
We have alot of commercial fishing on grenada lake, I dont think it really effects the lake that much. I think it allows the crappie to thrive with so many of the other fish being taken out. It could help the lake. There has to be a reason for the fish and game to want to start a net season.
What is the definition of a " commercial fish"? Do all non target species have to be returned to the water? If crappie, bass, bream, etc have to be released I can see where if could be a plus, if not it will be a definite minus. On the great lakes there are certain seasons/ locations for commercial netting and every year there are horror stories of netting locations being poorly marked and recreational fishermen/ boaters getting entangled in the nets. I can see this happening in a small body of water like PP.
Say goodby to those 3 pounders!!!
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Me and you and coffee some day. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by shadow
Biologist should be able to answer your questions on this. Did you contact them? And I'm sure game wardens will monitor them also.
I'm shocked. It's not even legal there run jugs or put out a trot line but they're gonna open it up to netting... smh
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My dad and I commercial fish year round - crawfish, crabs, alligators, nutria, gill nets for shad, gillnets and lines for choupic, lines, hoopnets, and trammel nets for catfish and buffalo. So we have experience with all the means of taking freshwater fish. We occasionally catch sac au lait in our trammel nets as well as 3" mesh for choupic, but it is rare. (1lb of sacaulait to 5000lbs of rough fish). With trammel nets, 99% of fish are unharmed and can be released without injury. Trammel nets do not usually "gill" the fish, the nets create a pocket that the fish get trapped in. 3.5"/7" gill net is too large to gill many sac au lait. So you won't see many sac au lait taken out with the nets. Hoop nets on the other hand are killer on sac au lait (which the ldwf knows) but they are illegal on PP so that's a non issue.
With that being said, it won't take many good comms long to put a hurting on a landlocked lake that small.
The problem with gill nets is that they are not discriminatory. Big bass, crappie, white bass will all get caught. If left too long in the net, will certainly die. I totally understand the reasoning. To remove the over abundance of carp, cats etc. If run properly, the fish should live, but i have seen too many cases with unattended nets and many dead fish..Hoping it does more good than harm.
That is true, gill nets are not discriminatory in theory, but mesh size plays a great part in what is caught. I would go as far to say mesh size can be species specific. For example, during shad season, we use 2" mesh, say we catch 50,000 lbs of fish in a season, 49000 lbs will be gizzard shad, 500 lbs will be skipjack herring, 495 lbs will be catfish, and 5 lbs will be bycatch.
It wont be as bad as y'all think. Sure some gamefish fish will be caught and killed by net fisherman. But I'd bet a pretty penny that many more fish will die after being caught-photographed-and released.
We've caught a couple million pounds of fish in our lifetimes in nets and we'd be hard pressed to fill up a 150 gt with the sac au lait we've caught.
I appreciate what you are saying for sure, I think what folks are worried about is pp has become a trophy crappie lake like Grenada and catching those big fish in nets will be detrimental. .in the long run most likely will help the populations of crappie by the small fish getting through the nets, but may hurt the trophy status and that goes for the really big bass there also. only time will tell..but to be honest fisherman keeping every crappie , especially the big ones is probably more detrimental than the nets will be.
I can understand the concern, but nets simply do not catch that many gamefish. Why? Not exactly sure. Some say it's because the gamefish are more sight oriented and avoid the nets. I dont know. What I do i know is that we catch more bass and sac sac au lait in crab traps than in nets.
Mike, you seem to be quite knowledgeable on the subject and I'm sure you can appreciate peoples apprehension. Good to hear that non target catches should be minimal. How do they regulate the number of netters/ nets allowed in the lake at a time? What about locations of the nets? I can see issues arising if recreational fishermen are forced out of their traditional areas. I only fish PP a couple of times a year when I'm down visiting my son, usually November and February, so anything I can learn about the subject would be helpful. Thanks, Mike.
From what I've read, netting will be allowed in certain parts of the lake. I would be willing to bet the well known spots will be offlimits. I didn't read anything about a limit of netters on the lake.
That size gill net is for rough fish. Rough fish can take over a lake like they did a similar sized reservoir - Bussey Brake. LDWF knows what they are doing and I wouldnt worry about it.
plenty of 3lb perch come out of PP that no one ever hears about that go straight into the grease.
Thats simply not true. Fish need to come out so the big ones can get bigger if that is what you are going for.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bobfish11
Just dont want to see any more restrictions on the lake due to trophy fishermen. If yall want to restrict something, restrict the amount of poles to one and make it artificial only and get rid of the spider riggers
This will probably open a box worms!!Quote:
Originally Posted by PointMan3
Josh, they just need to send you to PP. The way you catch fish overpopulation will never be a problem.
If I lived on pp I would keep it in check. St. John is commercially fished and I don't have a problem with the nets, I think they help more than hurt. I do hate seeing them floating full of fish from to being attended.
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So what species are they trying to target with the nets.
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Did you read the letter of intent that MMT linked too?Quote:
Originally Posted by treboryerf
I'm usually an "Anti-net Man", but in the case of Poverty, I think it could prove to have a positive effect. The lake is terribly overrun with rough fish of all kinds, especially big carp and goo. It also has a population of catfish that is so thick I believe that you could almost get out of your boat and walk on them......not to forget also a healthy population of gar, choupic, and buffalo.....the lake has only two boat ramps within a fenced in area and can be closely monitored......access to any kind of night fishing is practically non-existent. You must pay a $6.00 per night fee to be on the lake.....I can see it helping!
After reflecting on this since first posting and reading some of the comments, I'm thinking now the nets might do more good than harm. It seems that the carp spawn at the same time as the white perch. How many times have you seen the huge carp rolling all along the bank line chasing each other when you're trying to fish shallow? That's got to destroy a lot of crappie eggs. Reducing the number of carp would probably make for a better perch spawn.
No. I guess i over looked thatQuote:
Originally Posted by jig rig
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Tbone, I have to agree with you here and reconsider my first post, especially since I have never fished this lake and BnMBob who is one of the local gurus of that lake thinks it would help too. So with all that said, I wish the best for the lake, whatever that may be as I would like to fish it one day in the future.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tbone
When a fish gets in a gill net it is lights out for him.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bobfish11
MIKEG
Just curious, what's the difference between catching 100+ fish today, then another 100+ fish tomorrow like some some do?
Nothing...fellow got his priorities right:fishQuote:
Originally Posted by Tracker123