H.4876 is on the meeting agenda for Wed. April 13 at 11:00am in room 407 of the Gressette Building. http://www.scstatehouse.gov/agendas/121s1707.pdf It is important for anyone with an interest to eliminate June from the Lake Murray “5 and done” summertime restrictions to contact their legislators and let them know. While the summertime restrictions have had a great positive effect on our fishery, the inclusion of June is not necessary and represents a “restriction” that doesn’t need to be there.
If you recall, when H.3864 was first proposed back in March of 2011, DNR had held several “town hall” type meetings with the fisherman, of which I attended, and the proposal all along had been “5 and done” from July 1 through September 30. If you want to look at the history of how the proposed regulation changed back then, you can go to this link:
http://www.scstatehouse.gov/sess119_2011-2012/bills/3864.htm and go through the versions of the bill.
You will notice that the change to include “June” came after the Senate Fish, Game and Forestry committee met between May 19 and June 1 of 2011. This is when a former Lake Murray guide influenced the committee to include the month of June in the regulation. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out why a guide would want this added. He can basically take his guide party out, catch their limit of fish, and be back at the dock much quicker with this regulation in place. A business interest, not science, restricted your ability to fish for Stripers in June so now is your chance to get it back.
In my discussions with Ron Ahle, the fisheries biologist for Lake Murray, there is a concern for the lower than average numbers of small fish showing up in their gill net sampling for the Lake. It makes sense that a return to a 21” minimum in June will help return some of the smaller fish to the lake.
The bait dealers on the lake will also appreciate your support of this initiative as their sales are severely hampered by the summertime restrictions. David Clyburn