Michigan Bass Season Support Materials
UPDATE: We have our new bass season in 2006 – see the Bass Season Action Page for the details. Thanks for all of your help. The federation could still use continued tournament results on the tournament results cards below. You may find the ‘Did You Know’ document at the end of this page interesting too.
Bass Season Petitions
Download PDF files if you have Adobe Reader
Here they are – the Bass Season Petitions with instructions on how to print copies after you open or download them if you have Adobe Acrobat Reader and instructions for petition circulators.
- Open petition circulators instructions – very important you read before using either petition.
- Open Michigan registered voters edition of the Bass Season Petition
- Open non-voters and non-residents edition of the Bass Season Petition
- Printing instructions for the Adobe PDF versions
If you have Adobe Acrobat Reader, you can click on the links above and open the circulating instructions and petitions above. You can choose File, Save a Copy from the menu of Adobe to save the documents to your hard drive. You will need many copies of the voter petition since you need a separate petition for each county. You can mix locations on the non-voter / non-resident version.
Please feel free to tell everyone you know about these petitions and get copies of them and instructions to people you know who may also be interested in being circulators.
**IMPORTANT: Please return completed petitions to the address on the petition as soon as you fill them. If you are filling several, we would appreciate once per week or so. We want to be presenting running totals at the MDNR public meetings that start August 2nd.**
You can download and install a free copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader from their website or email me if you would like copies of the documents in Microsoft Word versions.
Tournament Results Card
Results from bass tournaments needed
From Ron Spitler, Conservation Director, Michigan BASS Chapter Federation:
“Bassers,
Chris Horton, Conservation Manager at BASS (Montgomery, AL) has kindly offered to compile data on our bass tournaments in order to add strength to our arguments with DNR that we have the information (along with our conviction) that bass angling in Michigan is great. We need your help, whether you run a weeknight circuit or a non-Federation club, we need your records. Once compiled the data will be shared with all who contributed, and will surely be used to support our arguments for a liberal catch-and-release season. Attached (MS Word document) is a one page/two event records sheet for you to duplicate as much as necessary. Please follow the instructions, and use for the rest of this season as well. Mail to me (address listed on each sheet). Please complete one form for each event of 10 or more boats (20 anglers) since 1995 (about the time the 14 inch size limit effect stabilized). We need the data yesterday, so please get help if you need it and make it a priority. The more data we have, the stronger the trend and our proof.
On the line ” Limit per Angler/Team” put the number of fish allowed, then “per angler” or “per team” so there is no doubt. The number of smallmouth bass over 5 lbs and largemouth over 6 lbs is for our info to indicate how many potential Master Angler fish we catch. The largemouth over 5 lbs is a way for BASS to compare our results with others around the country. We compare well! Comments can include any pertinent thoughts or conditions worth noting.
As tournament directors there is nothing more important that you can do at this time to promote and protect bass fishing in Michigan, so please tackle this with enthusiasm. We should have thousands of events to process, so accuracy is important. We can’t thank Mr. Horton and BASS enough for such great help.
If you don’t know already, Chris, Conservation Director Noreen Clough, former Conservation Director Bruce Shupp, and a host of other scientists around the US are helping us with our fight for fair liberalization of the bass regulations. So please help, and pass this along to other tournament circuits for their contributions. If we all work together we’ll have a much stronger voice. Thank you for your generous assistance!”
Bass Season Survey
All Scenarios & Your Opinion on the Process
Please open and print the MS Word document survey distributed by the Michigan Bass Anglers coalition. Fill out your answers and mail it to the address on the survey or turn it in to a representative at an MDNR public meeting (Dan Kimmel, Anthony Adams or George Terrien). I don’t have the site capability at this time to do an online survey, but will look into it.
MBCF Scenario 8
Presented Aug 10 to the MDNR, supported by the Michigan Bass Anglers
Scenario 8 is an alternative bass season proposal written by the Michigan BASS Chapter Federation and B.A.S.S., and supported by the Michigan Bass Anglers coalition (ABA, NBAA, BBT with local circuits and individuals). The MDNR is behaving as if they may not allow any other scenarios (they already rejected 3 before the public could speak on them) and at least will delay giving them to the public before most of the process is completed and they feel they can propose what the ‘public’ wants.
Please read the Justification and then Scenario 8. Consider stating you support Scenario 8 if you attend a public meeting or if you write any letters. The more of us that show a consistent front the less likely the MDNR gets one of their restrictive scenarios passed. We may be able to ensure that the MDNR has to include Scenario 8 before the whole process is done. Scenario 8 is the most likely compromise that all bass groups and the MUCC will support. Very important if we want to be successful.
Did You Know?
My handout for the public meetings – 1 page
Click here for the MS Word version you can print and handout. Click here for HTML version.