Federal Order might affect tournaments

[JT Bagwell]

Here is something you guys may really want to look at.

http://www.aphis.usda.gov/vs/aqua/

Look at the Federal Order for VHS (no I don't mean the VCR tape).

Could greatly impact tournament fishing.

JT Bagwell

[Guest avid]

sorry jt but I didn't the potential for "greatly affecting" bass tournaments.

can you expand on your statement?

[eastkybass]

I saw something on this on another site it stated that what was going on is that basically you are not aloud to take live fish across state lines.  So tournaments on waters that cover 2 states like border lakes and rivers if you catch a fish on one side you can't take the fish back to the other for the weigh in.  That will make it really hard on alot of people.

[JT Bagwell]

Correct...

For example if you are fishing the Mississippi River (this affects more than just the Mississippi) and your tourney launches on the Illinois side, you can not catch fish on the Iowa side of the river and bring them to the scales. Also, a lot of rivers and lakes have locks in them. According to the current Order, you would not be able to lock up or down river to fish and then bring those fish to the scales because each pool is considered its own body of water.

Even if you fished on the same side of the river that you launched on and you are running the navigation channels, a lot times they cross the center of the river (into the other state). If this occurs, you are technically breaking the Federal Order because you are crossing state lines.

JT Bagwell

[llPa1nll]

To be honest I see the goal with this proposed order, not allowing the influx of new diseases or other aquatic non-native organisms from spreading to new waters. The reality is this, if its in a river system its only a matter of time before the entire water shed has been over taken, just like a chain of lakes, or one large lake. This is going to be extremely hard to enforce and I dont see this happening personally.

[squid]

THINK HOW THAT EFFECTS THE GREAT LAKES....SUCKS TO BE US RIGHT NOW :-/

[JT Bagwell]

To be honest I see the goal with this proposed order, not allowing the influx of new diseases or other aquatic non-native organisms from spreading to new waters. The reality is this, if its in a river system its only a matter of time before the entire water shed has been over taken, just like a chain of lakes, or one large lake. This is going to be extremely hard to enforce and I dont see this happening personally.

This is in effect right. I emailed a guy at APHIS and he said right now there are no provisions for

tournaments but they are aware of the concerns.

I agree that it will be very hard to enforce and I also understand the logic behind it all. However, on a

body of water like the Mississippi or Ohio river, not allowing anglers to take fish from one side to another is kind of dumb. It isn't like the fish couldn't just swim over there if they wanted to.

JT Bagwell

[tugboat]

The bass club to which I belong to, two to a boat catch a fish measure the fish on a golden rule with both measuring.  The bass are return to the water with no fish in the

live wells. All legal size fish are recorded on a piece of paper, at the end of the turny.

best 5 fish are counted. Works out great with us with no dead fish at the end of the day!

[vaparrothead]

I'm not sure how the law would know where the fish came from.  The fish ain't talking and unless they follow a boat around all day no one would know which side of the river the fish came from.  Sounds like one of those impossible to enforce rules.  Understand what they are trying to do-- keep invasive species out but whether the fish came from the Maryland side or the Virginia Side of the Potomac; it's still in the Potomac and therefore already present.  Moving the fish (or even the water from the Potomac that might be in live wells on boats) to a completely different lake/river is another issue entirely.

[JT Bagwell]

I agree, enforcing the rule will be very difficult. They might be able to enforce the

part about taking fish from one river pool to another via the locks. Also in a lot of

big tournaments, they will give the top few finishers a polygraph test. Maybe that is

how they will check the winners.  Who knows what is going to happen with all of today's

crap they have going on.

JT Bagwell

[Redlinerobert]

I don't see how this could be reasonably enforced JT.  

[Guest avid]

I see the intent and it is good.

Of course the regulation needs to be realistic in order to be meaningful.

It is obviously absurd to regulate state boundaries regarding  the the catch and release of fish in a single body of water that borders 2 or more states.

The reg needs to be fine tuned, but there are very diseases out there that must be contained.

One that comes to mind is "whirling disease" in some Western trout systems.  This is fast spreading and fatal disease that has decimated some famous streams.

Keeping it from spreading to the east was a primary concern of fisheries managers.  Some rules were very strict.  For example on Long Island the Connequot state park prohibited wading.

You were restricted to the bank or fishing platforms.

This is a beautiful place loaded with chunky trout. (It is a state hatcery and the stream below is not only scenic but catches can be incredible.

the rule was enacted and strictly enforced.  The concern was that an angler would have gone to Montana and picked up the parasite on his waders, then it would be released when he entered the water at Connetquot.

Pretty extreme eh?

this was about 15 years ago, so I have no idea what the current status is.  But it demonstrates just how aggressive regulations can be.

I stopped fishing the stream after the reg went into effect.  

Trout fishing with a flyrod is an in water proposition for me.  Just wasn't the same.

If anyone out there knows the current status, I would be curious to know.