Thread: Late Post Murray 7/13

Keep in mind in SC that legislators, not DNR, write the fish and game laws, so like anything else that involves politics, they find a way to make it confusing at best.
I teach classes for the Aquatics Education department of DNR and one of the things I cover is fishing rules and regulations. When this law went into effect they made sure they covered us verse and scripture on the intent of the law and what they would enforce. I wan't trying to defend or argue the wording I was simply making the point that they made very clear to us. If they see you catch more than 5 fish they will ticket you irrespective of whether you kept them or not. Like Derek said there is no debate with the DNR officer, he has his marching orders so if it gets overturned it will be by a judge.
I don't have this years number of violations available but since it went into effect they have written dozens of tickets and I'm not aware of any being forgiven.
I guess that was my point. There's no question they will ticket you and only a judge can overturn it. I just felt like everyone should be aware and I personally don't feel like it is worth the hassle but that's up to each to make that decision.

Did they give any input why this rule was only made for Lake Murray? Why not Hartwell or Clark Hill? Are those Striper lives less important than Murray striper lives?

Interesting question. I don't know if the die offs were not as bad there or what. I'll ask next chance I get. I can guess that a shared border lake like Clark Hill would take unprecedented cooperation from both states to implement a universal law.
They can't even agree to honor each other's license at Wylie.
I have a friend that lives at the back of a cove across from Jake's Landing. He said the smell from all the stripers that were washed or blown ashore in his cove would take your breath. According to him, there has been a significant improvement since they passed the summer rule.
Even with the rule there is still some mortality. I counted about 12-15 floating between the dam and Wessinger Island on Monday. Don't see near as many during the week when there's less pressure. There's always going to be some loss, just part of nature.
Ospreys enjoy the buffet though.

I will be down this weekend again. Interesting that you are seeing so many dead fish. I have been 6-7 times in that area and have only found 1 so far. I saw that full throttle mentioned seeing some as well. Not sure why i havent seen any floating. I will try to keep a better eye out this weekend i guess.

I've only seen them when I fished on Monday morning. Friday, Saturday and Sunday get hit pretty hard so that kind of makes sense. There's probably one floating with my spoon in his mouth from a break off last week.

Yeah those Ben Parker spoons aint cheap! Actually none that i have found are.

The 7" BPS Flutter Jack spoons are $5.99. Not exactly cheap but better than $20. I picked up a few at BPS when we went to Braves game last Saturday.

Is the house you are buying on Buffalo Creek? Seems I remember you saying something to that effect but trusting my memory is a real leap of faith.