Just read about the new DNR laws on Striper Board . com about bait caught on lakes other than the one it is used at! Read this and give us your interpetation!I do like the new law about size limit on Murry during the hot period of summer! I wish it were worded that when you catch 5 fish you have to quit!I have seen to many fish floating,waste of the resorce!A dead fish can not grow any bigger!!!
I agree with one of the posters there. “Who’s going to identify where the Blue Backs in my bait tank came from”? Good Luck on that one!! Looks like more useless legislation to me.
…Politicians aren’t the “Oldest Profession”, but the results are still the same!!!
The bait has to be a species that is already present in the lake. Doesn’t necessarily have to come from that lake.
As for the striper law it is 5 and done. It is illegal to take or attempt to take more than 5 fish. This eliminates culling. You catch your 5 fish of any size and you’re finished. Nothing useless about that legislation at all.
I am doing a copy and paste from scstatehouse.gov of House bills 3864 and 3865 so you can read the actual legislation for yourself instead of basing your opinions on the interpretation by someone on a message board, who didn’t get it right, but did some mighty fine grandstanding. Lake Murray striper is five and done June thru September. Indigenous baits except goldfish(black salties) and wild(golden) shiners. That is to stop the use of trout as bait where trout do not exist. Please note the striper slot regs on Thurmond, Russell and Hartwell. There were many stakeholders in the development of this legislation and to deem it useless shows a lack of comprehension or a cavalier disrespect for the betterment of our freshwater fisheries. Please read the legislation in its entirety prior to stating your opinions and then, by all means, discuss.
H*3864(Rat #0120) General Bill, By Hardwick, Quinn, Barfield, Hearn, Tallon,
Herbkersman, Hiott, Hodges, G.M. Smith, Pinson, Ballentine, D.C. Moss, Mitchell,
J.H. Neal, R.L. Brown, Whipper, Toole, Forrester, Butler Garrick, Hayes,
Chumley, J.E. Smith, Atwater, Owens, Bikas, Crosby, Hixon, Murphy, Stringer,
Clemmons, Pitts, Edge, Viers, Dillard, Ryan, Vick, J.R. Smith, Knight, Long,
Huggins, Ott and Weeks
AN ACT TO AMEND ARTICLE 1, CHAPTER 13, TITLE 50, CODE OF LAWS OF SOUTH
CAROLINA, 1976, RELATING TO RESTRICTIONS ON FISHING GENERALLY, SO AS TO REVISE
THE PROVISIONS OF THE ARTICLE TO GOVERN CERTAIN FISHING ACTIVITIES IN THE
FRESHWATERS OF THIS STATE AND TO PROVIDE PENALTIES FOR SPECIFIC VIOLATIONS; BY
ADDING ARTICLE 2 TO CHAPTER 13, TITLE 50 SO AS TO PROVIDE FOR CERTAIN
REGULATION OF AND THE PROTECTION FOR FRESHWATER GAME FISH; BY ADDING SECTION
50-13-1995 SO AS TO PROVIDE THAT THE DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES MAY
PERMIT THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO CONDUCT FISH AND SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATIONS IN
THE WATERS OF THIS STATE IN CONNECTION WITH HATCHERY OPERATIONS OR MANAGEMENT
OF
Section 50-13-1635. (A) Except bait lost incidental to fishing or fish released into the waters from which they were taken, it is unlawful to release any aquatic species, regardless of the stage of its life cycle, into the waters of this state without a permit from the department.
Let’s see. While I’d say around 90% of Blue Backs sold in the Upstate are caught at Russell, should I assume that 10% are illegal to throw back into Hartwell since I’m not “sure” of their original home waters? If so, which ones? And while Gizzard Shad are an indigenous species, most of the really large ones come out of North Carolina. Should I assume that it’s okay to throw the small to medium ones back? Does the “bait loss incidental to fishing” cover a bait that slipped from your hand before you could stick the hook in him? Should I just dump $40.00 worth of healthy unused bait on the shore after an unsuccessful outing? Maybe a DNA bait test kit is needed?
It sure seems grey (vague) at best, with a lot of unanswered questions to bear a $500.00-$1000.00 fine. Let alone a civil penalty to cover the cost of eradication!
Sarcasm aside, let’s discuss.
…Politicians aren’t the “Oldest Profession”, but the results are still the same!!!
Do not assume that it is OK to release any of your bait surplus when done fishing unless you caught it yourself from the body of water that you are fishing. Sadly, your scenario of surplus bait after an unsuccessful day is real. However, your 40 bux has already stimulated the economy so what does the disposition of a tank of bait matter? I would say that a bait slipping from your hand is incidental to fishing as would be chumming. You are correct on it being somewhat vague and I’m sure that there will be some tweaking. However, the overall improvement to the fishery offered by the rewrite of chapter 13 is worth sorting through some details. One reason for 50-13-1365 was to close the loophole that allowed catching trout on the lower Saluda to be used as bait on the lakes. I plan to freeze residual baits and use it as chum as I see that as incidental to fishing. The refresh of chapter 13 is anything but useless legislation.
I still say there’s no way to prove where a bait came from, so why not just ban live bait all together? Or at least using live Trout for bait, if they are the reason? And what constitutes a “body of water”? Isn’t the Savannah River System a Body of water, only separated by a series of dams? I know I ask a bunch of ?s, but I think they are necessary for such foggy legislation.
…Politicians aren’t the “Oldest Profession”, but the results are still the same!!!
Part of the reason for not releasing your remaining bait into the lake is the possibility, however small it may be of releasing an invasive species like the snakehead into a body of water it does not presently exist in. You may not know or cannot prove where your bait came from but why take the chance of ruining the lake by dumping the remaining baits into the water. Dump them on the shore…the raccoons and possums have to eat too.
Keep your bb alive till you get home and soak them in brime ( thick salt water) for an hour and freeze the on cookie sheets till solid, the put them in zip locks and use them insted of ballies, Have done well off shore with these!
Mixed, I understand your frustration and you raise valid points. I feel that the particular section that we are discussing should have been enacted 30 years ago, then maybe we would have avoided the white perch invasion. However, the issue has not been addressed until now and we will just have to adapt and do our part to protect and enhance the fishery. The authors of these rules worked with the user groups and did their best to respect traditional methods of fishing. This is the first major rewrite in a long time and brings chapter 13 into the 21st century. I will be doing my part to improve what I can and I hope that you will too. I will try to get clarification on your questions this week if time allows.
boatpoor, that’s a pro tip. especially with the baits coming from russell right now, some over 8".
quote:Nice try, but what if the bait was lost due to "incidental" reasons? It's still a foreign species released into state waters, and completely legal as I read the statutes.
Originally posted by Curly DogPart of the reason for not releasing your remaining bait into the lake is the possibility, however small it may be of releasing an invasive species like the snakehead into a body of water it does not presently exist in. You may not know or cannot prove where your bait came from but why take the chance of ruining the lake by dumping the remaining baits into the water. Dump them on the shore…the raccoons and possums have to eat too.
…Politicians aren’t the “Oldest Profession”, but the results are still the same!!!
quote:Thanks for your time answering my questions as best you can, and I'll look forward to your posts on this matter in the future. I want you to know as a sportsman I understand we're all in this together, but I just hate us being legislated out of the sport we value so much, like our saltwater brothers have!! Thanks again, Scott
Originally posted by dernflatlanderMixed, I understand your frustration and you raise valid points. I feel that the particular section that we are discussing should have been enacted 30 years ago, then maybe we would have avoided the white perch invasion. However, the issue has not been addressed until now and we will just have to adapt and do our part to protect and enhance the fishery. The authors of these rules worked with the user groups and did their best to respect traditional methods of fishing. This is the first major rewrite in a long time and brings chapter 13 into the 21st century. I will be doing my part to improve what I can and I hope that you will too. I will try to get clarification on your questions this week if time allows.
…Politicians aren’t the “Oldest Profession”, but the results are still the same!!!
You are right about what is going on with the saltwater fishery. That is coming down from the federal government, who is being influenced by animal rights activists. But that is not what is going on here. This bill was developed by our state by biologists that worked directly with the fisherman through groups of fisherman like the Midlands Striper Club.
The changes all make sense to me. If you have a snakehead or a baby asian carp in you bait tank you would notice it if you pick it out to put on a hook. Hopefully that person would not put that fish into the lake. If you are just blindly dumping $40 worth of bait out you could easily miss a different species.
The SCDNR has done studies and found that stripers released in hot water during the summer have a very high mortality rate. So people sitting at the towers catching and releasing 30 and 40 short fish are killing a lot of stripers before they can ever get to the 21". The evidence is in all the floating shorts around the big pool in the summer. Plus they say most of the dead sink, so you can multiply what you see on top. I will say that the language in the bill is kind of vague on this one. My interpretation of the bill on this is that you can not keep five fish and continue fishing to cull out the smaller ones you had. It doesn’t really say you can’t release small fish.
I agree Tom. there is some room for a loophole there. I just can’t see them trying to enforce 5 fish and then go home…that would really hurt the bait shops during their busy season.
That time during the year is when i take my son the most b/c i know he will have a blast reeling fish in. I don’t think i can look at him after 15 min of fishing and tell him we have to stop cause we caught 10 fish. and during that time of the year thats all it takes is 15/30min…lol…
I am all for getting bigger fish in the lake and i hope we are on the right track…
Side note if they do enforce 5 fish and go home i will be uping the hook size way up and pinching the barb flat. Hopefully that will take away the chance of catching the smaller fish and if you can feel its small just wait a min or two and it will come off. Jim I believe me and you talked about that at Richards tourny last year…
quote:Laws are Laws, no matter where they come from be it state or federal. We're still losing our rights as sportsmen!!
Originally posted by steelytomYou are right about what is going on with the saltwater fishery. That is coming down from the federal government, who is being influenced by animal rights activists. But that is not what is going on here. This bill was developed by our state by biologists that worked directly with the fisherman through groups of fisherman like the Midlands Striper Club.
The changes all make sense to me. If you have a snakehead or a baby asian carp in you bait tank you would notice it if you pick it out to put on a hook. Hopefully that person would not put that fish into the lake. If you are just blindly dumping $40 worth of bait out you could easily miss a different species.
The SCDNR has done studies and found that stripers released in hot water during the summer have a very high mortality rate. So people sitting at the towers catching and releasing 30 and 40 short fish are killing a lot of stripers before they can ever get to the 21". The evidence is in all the floating shorts around the big pool in the summer. Plus they say most of the dead sink, so you can multiply what you see on top. I will say that the language in the bill is kind of vague on this one. My interpretation of the bill on this is that you can not keep five fish and continue fishing to cull out the smaller ones you had. It doesn’t really say you can’t release small fish.
…Politicians aren’t the “Oldest Profession”, but the results are still the same!!!
Like Steelytom said , hopefully if you pull an odd bait from your tank you won’t use it or throw it overboard. A little common sense goes a long way. As also mentioned once the water temp exceeds 84 deg there is a 100% mortality rate.
I can relate to having to deal with a young one as my 11 year old has the attention span of a gnat but when we get 5 stripers it will be time to switch to a different species. What counts is you’re on the water and hopefully creating memories with your family.
quote:Hey man, I'm on your side, you just didn't notice it! Although I may be a little Common senseless at times, this is not one of them!! Seeya, Scott
Originally posted by Curly DogLike Steelytom said , hopefully if you pull an odd bait from your tank you won’t use it or throw it overboard. A little common sense goes a long way. As also mentioned once the water temp exceeds 84 deg there is a 100% mortality rate.
I can relate to having to deal with a young one as my 11 year old has the attention span of a gnat but when we get 5 stripers it will be time to switch to a different species. What counts is you’re on the water and hopefully creating memories with your family.
…Politicians aren’t the “Oldest Profession”, but the results are still the same!!!
No problem!
Organizations like Midlands Striper Club have been heavily involved with the development of legislation not only concerning baits and creel limits / size constraints but also the general health of the Lake Murray fishery. It’s pretty frustrating for a group of DNR biologists, fisheries managers, and sportsmen to come together for a common goal only to have some politician that thinks the lake is there for the homeowners and recreational boaters screw everything up. This state is way overdue to take hunting and fishing matters out of the hands of politicians and put them in the capable hands of DNR.
Just my .02 worth.