2007 Missouri noodling(hand fishing) season

[Whiskers]

Well today would have been the opening of noodling season,had it not been cancelled on April 20 by theMissouri Conservation Commission.What was supposed to be a 5 year study project allowing noodling(hand fishing) was canceled after only 2 seasons.There will be no season this year.MDC biologists claim that their concern was for Missouri catfish populations.I think it was probably more like opponents with friends in high places.Noodlers were only allowed to handfish in a few select locations.With a limit of 5 fish for noodling,that is codiderably less than other means.There were only 83 people who actually participated in the noodling season and only 27 fish were caught.That don't seem like that hurt the fish population much considering their studies show that roughly a half million people catfish in the state by other means and can keep 20 catfish a day.

Something smells fishy to me.I do not noodle but I believe in equal opportunity for sportsmen. I support all legal methods but it appears that noodling is for now not one of those methods in the state of Missouri.

[Critter]

Here is a story I just found in the Jackson County Examiner

Monday, May 14, 2007
Story last updated at 10:56 AM on Monday, May 14, 2007
State isn't giving some fishermen a fair chance

Guest Column


By Howard Ramsey and Gary Webb

The trial hand fishing season in Missouri was rescinded on April 3, but let's be perfectly clear: That decision was not based on information gathered by the Missouri Department of Conservation from the 2005 and 2006 trial hand fishing season, as you have been led to believe.

Here are the facts. In 2005 and 2006, 159 hand-fishing permits were sold, and 83 hand fishermen fished a 35-mile stretch of the South Fabius River near Palmyra, Mo. In two years, during a total of 193 trips to this river, hand fishermen caught 12 flatheads, 13 channel cats and two blue cats. According to a U.S. Forest Service study in 2002, approximately 467,000 catfish anglers over the age of 16 in Missouri fish with rod and reel, trotlines, bank poles and jugs. Conservation Department regulations allow them to catch and keep five flathead, five blue cats and 10 channel cats - 20 fish a day, 365 days a year. One conventional catfish angler can catch and keep 40 catfish in two days - almost twice as many as the 83 hand fishermen caught in two years.

As long as the Department of Conservation has a well-regulated season for catfish, hand fishermen should be allowed part of the catch.
According to a study by Mark Morgan, University of Missouri-Columbia, there are approximately 2,000 hand fishermen in Missouri. We are asking for a well regulated, 60 day hand-fishing season - June and July - with a five-fish-per-season limit, not 20 a day.

Some newspapers have said scientists are finding that Missouri catfish regulations are probably too liberal and need to be changed. Well, the Conservation Department did change the regulation just last year, from a limit of 15 a day per person to 20. With the two longest rivers in the United States, how can Missouri have a shortage of catfish? Even if we do, why can't we use the Conservation Department's state-of-the-art hatcheries and hatch some? We hatch and stock most all of Missouri's trout for our trout fishermen.

The Conservation Department does wonderful things for this great state, and it is the envy of most states. On the other hand, if you were to give the Iowa or Illinois conservation departments $98 million in sales tax money each year, they to would probably be the envy of most states.

Three surveys - one by the Department of Conservation, two by the Forest Service - in the past three years have asked, "Would you support or oppose a regulated hand fishing season in Missouri if it does not harm the catfish population?"

The Department of Conservation survey showed 51 percent in support and 23 percent opposed; the Forest Service surveys showed 68 percent in support and 7 percent opposed, and 70 percent in support and 9 percent opposed. Maybe, just maybe, this is why our elected officials have been listening to their constituents, and not just to be re-elected.

Some of the world's top catfish biologists have said catching catfish when engaged in reproduction is no different than catching bass, crappie or bluegill on the nest. The only difference is hand fishermen want to use their bare hands,

Fourteen states have a hand fishing season, and six of these states border Missouri. Can all of these states be wrong and Missouri the only one that is right? Studies in these states have shown no adverse effect on their catfish population.

Noodlers Anonymous has always believed that if a group of Missouri citizens want to enjoy of one of Missouri's largest renewable natural resources, catfish, and if that has no detrimental effect on the resource, it is the Conservation Department's duty to help make it happen, not do the opposite.

The catfish belong to all Missouri citizens, and as long as the Department of Conservation establishes a well-regulated season, hand fishermen should be allowed part of the allowable catch. Noodlers Anonymous believes the hand fishermen are being discriminated against by the Department of Conservation, and until it can be held accountable for its actions it will continue to discriminate not only against us but against anyone trying to make changes in the Wildlife Code, even if it doesn't have any data to support its positions.

Howard Ramsey of Paris, Mo., is president of Noodlers Anonymous. Gary Webb is historian and researcher for Noodlers Anonymous.

[Sinker]

As we said from th beginning of this site; we won't knock th other fellas way of fishin just cause we don't do it. I doubt th legal noodlin would hurt much. Especially if th local wardens an study team are on hand ta moniter. It might even help fer that ve
ry reason to slow down th illegal noodlin! N.A. should already know they are gonna catch th devil from th "purists".

[Critter]

That's right,just because I don't use one method or another don't mean I won't defend your right to do it.The rod n reel,juggers,trotliners,limbliners,bowfishermen,etc. need to stick together and defend fishing as a whole.Otherwise if you start playing favorites with one method over another who's gonna back you up when P.E.T.A supporters outnumber you on your favorite method and want it banned.

[Wolfman]

Study i seen from the MDC said season was closed due to the high mortality rate of the fish caught and released as well as the destruction of the nests the cats were pulled off of.
When the season first opened and later as well the polls i seen taken by the mdc showed those for the season as being the minority. Thats why there was so much wonder about it when the season actualy became real in the first place.

The cmoparison of bass and crappie on the nest to catfish is'nt even close. As you well know the female lays the eggs and the male cat guards the nest and DOES NOT FEED untill the fry leave the nesting area. being as cats lay in logs and holes in the banks and the males don't bite its kind of hard to catch one off the nest. One of the main reasons during the spawn it gets so slow catfishing.

Bass and crappies move to shallower waters amkeing them eaiser targets of scavanger fish. Crappie in that sense nest more like perch in groups giveing neighboring nest protection wheather they intend to or not. Bass will as well to a certain extent. Cats nest alone, not in groups.

Look long enough and you can find pols and stats favoring either side. Common sense needs to be used.
Noodelers annoyomus brought a LOT of political and out of state pressure on the MDC to get their limited season. The MDC did'nt want it in the first place. Political pressure in and OUT of the state played a MAJOR part in getting their season. Not bilogical pressure but Political pressure. They bowed to it then.
Now they say they have enough info thats it's over and done with and wont be back.

[Critter]

I still don't believe that a very small handful of people hurt the fish population a bit.If the population of catfish were in danger they wouldn't have upped the limits from 15 to 20 catfish a day by other methods.You didn't hear them mention needing to lower the limit back down.
I will agree with one thing,politics are always involved in their decisions...

Oklahoma,Kansas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky and Illinois all have legal noodling season and they aren't running low on catfish.I just don't buy into the idea that the MDC are the only ones smart enough to study it.

[Sinker]

It's up to all of us ta study it. I doubt there's any body that studies somethin better. It's a thing that holds our interst. I too believe there's no shortage of catfish. On the other hand, when I was a kid, fishin in farm ponds, I saw a lot of stunted fish. Heads way too big fer th body,etc. I don't think we got any of that in th public waters. BUT in my part of th country I don't see or hear of near th number of big cats bein caught.
I ain't convinced that th purists are correct in that we are threatening th fish by takin th bigguns out. Other species get harrassed or hungry, they change territories. Looks like a perty good possibility to me that fish can do th same thing. It's a stone cold fact that there ain't th cats there once was where I always fished, whatever th reason.
If somebody really does discover that my style and fishin methods or habits are derogatory to th catfishery, I hope ta H they got sense enuff ta present their findings appropriately. I know what happens when I git in th middle of accusations, an bickering.

[Whiskers]

I'm the same way,I am capable of changing my views on something but I like to study the facts and make up my own mind.
I wonder myself if the the smaller number of big cats has anything to do with the fact that now they promote the sport of catfishing so much and put so much emphasis on keeping the smaller ones.Maybe there just isn't as many small ones that get to grow up.They should realize that when you heavily promote a sport and you increase the number of folks participating by a 100 fold it is going to have an impact on the overall population of the fish,regardless of the size you keep.