catfish fishing gear restrictions‏
From: Hale, Scott (
[email protected])
Sent: Mon 2/25/08 1:54 PM
To:
[email protected]
Cc: Latham, Angela (
[email protected])
Hello Shawn,
Thank you for your interest in catfish fishing in Ohio. Catfish fishing in Ohio is clearly growing in popularity and the number of large fish that our anglers are catching is remarkable. We take our responsibility to manage these fisheries seriously and have responded with regulations to help keep our catfish fisheries strong.
Trotlines, banklines, and setlines are allowed for limited use in restricted areas and in a limited way. Trotlines are limited to very few areas. Setlines and banklines are limited to six lines in public waters less than 700 acres, checked every 24 hours, and removed when not in use. You will notice that the limit to the number of setlines and banklines in waters less than 700 acres is the same as the daily limit for channel catfish, that is, six fish per day. In this way, our regulation on these smaller, stocked waters is consistent with your idea of allowing enough tackle to catch up to the legal limit.
We agree that it is better to limit the numbers of fish anglers are permitted to keep per day and the lengths of those fish rather than the gear they use. However, most anglers seem to be satisfied with a two-rod limit and consider this to be very fair. At this time, more catfish anglers contact us with concerns about the increasing number of catfish caught and the limited restrictions on catching them, rather than expressing an interest in relaxing regulations or increasing the amount of tackle that is legal to use. In response increased catches of large catfish and the concerns we share regarding their overharvest, we have added trophy catfish regulations to protect larger fish and these regulations have been very well received.
Regarding the allowance of extra rods, we have never heard from anyone in the tackle industry indicating that our current catfish regulations have limited their revenue.
Your suggestion to sell special stamps to allow extra rods is unlikely to be well received by the public in general, and is equally unlikely to generate a significant amount of revenue. The current anti-tax sentiment of the public would make it nearly impossible to develop a rod stamp and in fact, we would not favor such a proposal.
Please feel free to contact me directly if you have further questions. I am sorry that you did not get a response to your previous e-mail.
Scott Hale
Scott Hale
Inland Fisheries Program Administrator
ODNR, Division of Wildlife
2045 Morse Road, Building G-3
Columbus, OH 43229-6693
Phone: 614.265.6554
Fax: 614.262.1143
e-mail:
[email protected]
You Wrote:
From:
[email protected] [mailto:
[email protected]]
Sent: Tuesday, February 12, 2008 1:01 PM
To: Wildinfo
Subject: Comments from users
Shawn Dostie at
[email protected]
I have emailed before with no answer, hopefully one of these days someone will grace me with a reply. I would like to know why anglers in Ohio are limited to two lines (two rods) when trotlines, banklines, limblines and the like are allowed up to 50 hooks at a time? It seems redundant to have rod limits AND creel limits. If there are creel limits, who cares how long it takes to get them or how many lines are used? I am a catfish fisherman who likes to fish for trophy flathead catfish. These are wiley creatures and it is a burgeoning sport. This regulation costs sporting goods retailers a fortune which in turn means less revenue in sales and corporate taxes to the State of Ohio. Additionally, if properly marketed it could mean extra revenue to the DNR, if in fact a 3rd and 4th rod "stamp" could be purchased with fishing licenses. I would be pleased with a response, astounded but pleased. Is there any way a citizen can take steps to get legislation introduced to change this unfair law?
Thanks,
Shawn J. Dostie