Senate Bill S.304 relating to freshwater fishing

Fishing Clubs Midlands Striper Club
1

For everyone’s information:

S. 304</font id=“size3”> (General Bill)
Sponsors: Senators Shealy, Cromer and Campsen
Introduced in the Senate on January 29, 2013
Currently residing in the Senate Committee on Fish, Game and Forestry

The above bill is designed to “clean up” some of the confusing parts of the Chapter 13 revision I and others around the state worked on a few years ago and which was made into law last year.

The bill affects us to some degree. SECTION 2. Section 50-130-10(B)(1), as last amended by Act 113 of 2012, is further amended to read:

"(B) Miscellaneous definitions:

(1) ‘Bait fish’ means a fish allowed to be used as bait in the freshwaters including: Asian clams (Corbicula spp.), crayfish, eels, herring, shad, and fathead minnows (Pimephales promelas), golden shiners (Notemigonus crysoleucas), and goldfish, including ‘black salties’ (Carassius auratus). Except for bream, no other game fish is allowed to be used as bait."</font id=“maroon”>

This means no one may use trout or any other gamefish for bait, other than bream, in the fresh waters of the state. I spoke to DNR and currently that includes the Savannah River chain of lakes including Clarks Hill/Thurmond, even though there is a reciprocal agreement with Georgia. By the way, it has ALWAYS been illegal to catch trout below Lake Murray dam and then take them up to the lake and use for bait. That’s because no fish not currently native to a body of water may be introduced to that body of water.

SECTION 3. Section 50-13-60(C) of the 1976 Code, as last amended by Act 113 of 2012, is further amended to read:

“(C) It Except as otherwise provided, it is unlawful to possess any game fish without head and tail fin intact and, where a length limit is imposed on any species, it is unlawful to possess that species without head and tail fin intact.”</font id=“maroon”>

The above is self explanatory

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Thanks for the update Jim. I doubt many around Lake Murray are concerned about not having trout for bait since no one sells it locally. However their use in Hartwell is very popular as well as many other reservoirs around the southeast. Most fisherman that “target” trophy sized Striped Bass do so with big live bait. We don’t have many options for that here on Lake Murray and now they plan to take another option away completely? If the issue is trying to protect some stocked population of trout in SC, then just require a “receipt of purchase” for any trout being used for bait. The fear for the trout fishermen is that someone is going to catch a trout, put it on a hook for bait, catch a bigger fish and then repeat the process… no one will know how many trout were caught and used for bait throughout the day because the fisherman is never in possesion of more than the limit…Is the guy who is using trout for bait targetting the trophy sized trout for bait? I would think not. He probably wants a trout less than 14 inches for his bait. Reverse the scenario and let the same guy go and buy some trout for bait and he will probably be helping to stock the river with trout more so than depleting it…and the state gets tax revenue on the sale…and the reg would be more compatible with our border states…If trout fishermen fear that someone will catch more than the limit of trout with the intent of selling them for bait, then they are foolish and there are laws to prevent this already.

Now if they include a plan to make Gizzard Shad more readily available for fisherman on Lake Murray as a compromise for taking away the trout, then I might be OK with it…

Team Shad Up & Fish

I’ve spent about 85% of my life’s wages on fishing, the rest I just wasted…

3

Yeah…I know this will be unpopular with some folks. Especially since the latest state record striper was taken on a trout. And there are businesses set up to sell trout as bait down at Clarks Hill.

4

Jim, thanks for the update. Good info to keep in front of the club.