MDNR CDR Bass Season Public Meeting Waterford

[djkimmel]

MDNR Public Meeting to discuss the proposed catch-and-delayed-release bass season study on 16 inland lakes starting in 2016 that would run from the last Saturday in April until Memorial weekend.

Lake Erie Management Unit
Tuesday, July 21, 7 to 8:30 p.m. (EST) at the Waterford Fisheries Office, 7806 Gale Road in Waterford.

More information and the list of lakes on the thread: Michigan Bass Season Public Meetings in July

[djkimmel]

I will be at this meeting but a great turnout would go a long, long ways towards showing that we are serious about this test season, and that it is very important to us. Someone suggested we pay for the study, and my opinion is we have already paid for it over and over by ~600,000 fishing licenses sold to bass fishing that supports lots of study and planting of fish other than bass. This is our chance to get a little bit of our fair share back for bass while working towards more fishing opportunity based on science not social restrictions and popularity contests.

[djkimmel]

A few people have told me they will be at this meeting. I hope to see some of you there. I will be there.

[djkimmel]

We had a great meeting in Waterford with really good attendance probably 20 people or so. There was no one against the CDR test season happening though there were some questions from a few people about should there be some limits on how many tournaments, and clarification on if this means the registered tournaments have priority over others, which of course they don't. It is not a 'reservation' system in that all MDNR public access sites are still first-come, first-serve as always.

No one spoke out against any of the 16 lakes being on the list. A few people asked why other lakes or more smaller lakes were not in the initial study.

It was discussed that the NRC directed the MDNR to look at additional bass fishing opportunity by doing this type of study and that their plans at this time are to handle it similar to how they handled the special brook trout regulations. They looked at the issue conservatively on a few streams and when it appeared things were going well after a time they added a few more streams.

There are no plans at this time to add all the lakes. The issue will need to be followed and monitored for a number of years, unknown how many at this time yet.