S. 1194 Sen. Gregory (6 rod limit per boat)

Fishing Clubs Midlands Striper Club
1

OK Guys…Senator Gregory is sponsor of the following.

Currently, for spider-rigging for crappie and cut-baiting stripers, catfish, etc., you can use an unlimited number of rods per boat IF ALL on the boat sixteen and over are licensed.

Senator Gregory wants to limit the number of rods to 6 per boat. (NOTE: The words “unlimited number of” failed to be stricken…and this will be edited out.)

S. 1194

STATUS INFORMATION

General Bill
Sponsors: Senator Gregory
Document Path: l:\council\bills\swb\5125cm12.docx

Introduced in the Senate on February 8, 2012
Currently residing in the Senate Committee on Fish, Game and Forestry

Summary: Fishing from a boat

HISTORY OF LEGISLATIVE ACTIONS

 Date      Body   Action Description with journal page number

2/8/2012  Senate  Introduced and read first time (Senate Journal-page 7)
2/8/2012  Senate  Referred to Committee on Fish, Game and Forestry 
                    (Senate Journal-page 7)

View the latest legislative information at the LPITS web site

VERSIONS OF THIS BILL

2/8/2012
(Text matches printed bills. Document has been reformatted to meet World Wide Web specifications.)
A BILL

TO AMEND SECTION 50-13-625, CODE OF LAWS OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 1976, RELATING TO THE TAKING OF NONGAME FISH, THE USE OF GAME FISHING DEVICES, AND THE USE OF FISHING DEVICES BY A FISHERMAN FISHING FROM A BOAT, SO AS TO PROVIDE THAT A FISHERMAN FISHING FROM A BOAT IS LIMITED TO USING SIX GAME FISHING DEVICES IF ALL PERSONS IN THE BOAT OLDER THAN SIXTEEN YEARS HAVE VALID FISHING LICENSES.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:

SECTION 1. Section 50-13-625 of the 1976 Code, as added by an Act bearing ratification number 121 of 2012, is amended to read:

"Section 50-13-625. Nongame fish may be taken with any lawful game fishing device. A fisherman may use only four game fishing devices. A fisherman fishing from a boat may u

2

and if I am trolling 3 planer boards, 1 cor, and 2 downrods per side ?

phil steude

3

6 rods per boat…period…is what Gregory is proposing. No more unlimited rods. No more cut-baiting with 24 rods out, etc.

He want to limit spider rigging for crappie, but will impact striped bass as well. The club needs to weigh in on this and be heard, Phil.

4

I don’t like this at all! I fish 8 for striper out of my 15’ jon boat i couldn’t imagine any other way. We don’t need this. Just sayin…

5

I sent the following message to Senator Cromer, Chairman of the Fish, Game and Forestry Commitee:

Dear Senator Cromer,
I hope that you and yours are well. It has come to my attention that Senator Gregory has introduced legislation to limit the number of rods fished from a boat to a maximum of six regardless of the number of anglers onboard. I and many of my colleagues find this to be overly restrictive. There has been much effort and many sources referenced in the recent revamp of chapter thirteen and I do not feel that this legislation is warranted. The restriction to six rods would unfairly limit Striped Bass anglers, especially the professional guides. I would ask that S 1194 be defeated. Thank you for your consideration on this matter.

Sincerely,

Jim Gibbs
President, Midlands Striper Club

I hope that all of us can find time to contact Senator Cromer to express our concern.

http://www.scstatehouse.gov/email.php?T=M&C=438636311

6

I posted on the old board too… I agree that our voice needs to be heard. This is ridiculous. First, it’s 5 and done…now, only 6 rods on the boat? What’s next with these guys? How about just one herring per rod per boat while we’re at it. Sounds about right.

Billy

—Team Pitt Crew–
Sailfish 236CC

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Maybe we can prepare a club letter to have individuals send out?

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Thanks for sending that letter, Jim!

Billy

—Team Pitt Crew–
Sailfish 236CC

9

Just sent a message to Senator Cromer. The legislation is unacceptable. We all need to make our position known.

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I just sent a message as well I hope everyone will chime in on this one to help make sure it doesn’t get passed.

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YES, this is crazy!!! Just the economics alone would be devasting to the sporting goods industry , and the bait industry. Two examples say you have a new person getting into striper fishing he sees that everyone around him has 12-35 rods on there boat so if he has a boat he eventally buys 12 or more rods with this rule he buys 6!!! On my boat when we live bait fish we are putting on 12-15 bait on at a time so I buy 10-12 dozen bait, with six rods I buy 5-6 doz bait!!! EVERYBODY IN OUR CLUB AND ALL THOSE PEOPLE WHO VISIT OUR SITE SHOULD SHOULD GET INVOLVED IN THIS ISSUE.

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I plagiarized some of your posts and put it on the striper forum here and on crappie.com

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To Douglas Ford
Research Director
Senate Fish, Game and Forestry

Doug,

Sen. Gregory may want to reconsider S. 1194. He is drawing the ire of not only crappie anglers, but striped bass anglers as well. Here are links to one of the Midlands Striper Club discussion threads:

http://old.charlestonfishing.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=120922

The club and others need clarification on the number of rods PER ANGLER in a boat. Is the limit 6 rods per angler per boat or six rods TOTAL per boat?

In addition, the following language is not correct (see my stricken text): A fisherman fishing from a boat may use an unlimited number of six game fishing devices if all persons in the boat older than sixteen years have valid fishing licenses."

Regardless of Sen. Gregorys intent to limit spider rigging for crappie, if that is indeed his intent, this bill will truly impact not only anglers, but the businesses that sell tackle, bait, etc, on down the line in a large ripple effect. Striped bass anglers, particularly fishing tournaments, regularly put out more than 24 rods per boat, regardless of the number of anglers, in hopes of catching the winning fish. Limits are in place for all species to limit the creelS. 1194 only impacts tackleand in a very negative fashion.

As you probably recall, I dealt with passage of H3864 and H3865 of Chapter 13 as a part of the striped bass constituency group. Striped bass fishing on a tournament level is already impacted by the no catch and release clause being extended into June due to Mr. Randy Saligas complaints last year. You will also recall the group agreed to the June inclusion as a compromise, which has impacted tournament scheduling and subsequently degraded the economics of a tournament set up to benefit SCDNR by Midlands Striper Club. It also is forcing MSC to move the clubs June through September tournament to Clarks Hill (Lake Thurmond.)

I remember meeting with Sen. Gregory several times dealing with budgets for S.C. Wildlife magazine and other issues when em

14

It also needs some clarity.
“A fisherman fishing from a boat may use six game fishing devices if all persons in the boat older than sixteen years have valid fishing licenses.” That could be interpreted to mean each fisherman on the boat may use up to six rods. 4 fishermen = 24 rods. Any club member with a legal background have an opinion on this?

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Message sent to Senator Cromer.

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I sent Sen. Cromer a message. Reminded him of all of the rods, reels, tackle and bate that would not be purchased in SC. Also, the number of people who would not come and stay in our hotels and eat in our restaurants when they could go to another state with less restrictive rules.

joby wetzel

17

Sent a message to both Senator John Scott and Representative Nathan Ballentine this morning. For anyone living in the Irmo area your Senator is John L Scott, Jr. (jls@scstatehouse.net) Couldn’t hurt to enlist Nathan Ballentine for any support he may offer since he’s also involved in the Lake Murray Association.(nathanballentine@scstatehouse.net)

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I immediately sent Senator Gregory an email on Friday morning. I plan to send him a registered letter and will be calling my local senator in Greer for a meeting. I just hope we can get an outpouring of complaints from our SC striped bass anglers.

Warren

To the Honorable Senator Chauncey K. Gregory,

Sir, I am a conservative republican that believes in limited government restriction on its citizens except where the regulations serve as a benefit. Since you promoted yourself as the same I hope you will give my question and concern some consideration.

Since the number of fish in our fishery are managed by creel limits, I am very interested to know why you are proposing a limit on the number of fishing devices used by people in a boat. This proposal would only serve as a method to restrict and reduce business and tax revenue. I use a technique called cut bait fishing for striped bass. I have purchased a large number of rods and reels all from SC businesses. I have two partners that fish with me and each of them also own dozens of rods. Every year we end up replacing some of this equipment. This brings revenue into SC. If I can only use 6-rod in my boat I probably will never need to purchase another rod and reel and I bet this will be the same for both of my partners.

We fish from a boat and we anchor in one spot fishing on the bottom. The law restricts others from coming within 50-feet of an anchored boat. Whether I have 6 rods out or 6-dozen rods out I am occupying the exact same space of the lakes bottom. So, my method of fishing has no restriction on others use of the water. And since the creel regulates what I take the number of rods have no impact on the fishery.

Another example of the loss of revenue for SC is from national fishing tournaments that bring striped bass and crappie fishermen to SC. This law would move these events to other states resulting in the loss of sales for gas, lodging, bait, food, etc.

Again, I hope you will give me the courtesy of explaiing exactly what the pur

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Thanks, Warren. Please report back with Sen. Gregory’s reply.

Take care, Jim

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Will do Jim! Also, for those intersted, here is a link straight to the Senator’s contact information for the SC Senate. Hope this helps,

Warren
http://www.scstatehouse.gov/email.php?T=M&C=711363551

Warren Turner
President, SBCC