Reminder: Length limit on Mississippi River cats

[Catter]

Just a reminder that there is now a length limit for cats on the Mississippi river bordering Tenn/Ark for cats.....

(pasted from AGFC)

"Along the section of river bordering
Tennessee, only one (channel, blue or flathead) may exceed 34 inches."

I think it's a great idea, not that it will effect me too much tho. :p

A friend of mine talked to the local warden and he said that comercial fishermen can't keep any over 34" and he has already caught 2 of them with cats over the limit. Not sure if he gave a warning or a ticket tho so just be warned that the wardens will be checking your cats.

Joe

[TOPS]

Joe, thanks for the info, I may never get to fish that far up on the Mississippi but I will get to fish out of Tunica[hopefully]

[TimberTalker]

I am not sure what the agfc's reasoning behind the law is though I am confused by it. The times I have been on the big muddy, there seems to be no shortage of catfish. Their is no limit per person on catfish under 34 I believe, but you can only keep 1 over 34? Just don't see what this is going to accomplish.

[Salmonid]

Its possible, just speaking from what I heard from talking to a Ohio DNR guy in reference to the State of Ohio going to the exact same limit. And he made mention that the Ohio River fisheries team, was looking at this same limit to be enforced on the entire Ohio River with all states that border it so its possible, that may be in the works and may fall into the Misissippi as well, Not sure, just speculation here. In Ohio, it was pushed through to discourage commercial over harvest of big fish and more specifically the lone incumbents who were catching , lineing, jugging for trophy cats and selling to pay lakes, we had a huge problem with that here and ODNR had several undercover stings and busted a ton of folks for that a few years back.

Just my .02 worth, your mileage may vary....:cool:

Salmonid

[three_rivers]

Tennessee was the first to put a slot limit on catfish and its done wonders for trophy potential. Its been a long time coming for arkansas and i think its a great idea but thats just me. Mississippi is trophy blue cat water and since arkansas borders tennessee that more than likely had a part in it. I do know alot of sportfisherman that has been wanting it for a while as i am one of them. It would be awesome if one day one of my own would still have the opportunity to land that elusive 100 pounder......... Isn't that what most people fish the sip for... a biggun? If its eaters, white, st.francis, languille,cache all holds plenty of those. I cpr everything i catch all i want is that infamous "mugshot". LOL

[JimF]

I think its a great idea, I wish IL would do the same. Stop the commercial fishing from murdering the big ones.

[Catter]

I did some checking and it's as Three Rivers said. I believe they said it was started because of the sale of the larger cats to pay lakes. It seems there is a large market out there for fish over a certain size in the pay lakes. Just seems like shootin fish in a barrel to me to go to a pay lake that operates like that.

Joe