people don’t understand,fish cannot compete with pressure and techniqes we now have.people population and knowledge continue to expand.use ellsworth it use to have an abundance of big fish [blues].now we got,like a pound and half average,with a occasional good fish.they just grow to slow.what are they doing with so much fish?i practice catch and release on all species,except for what we eat at a couple of meals.for sure the big blues.just sharing my opinion.lets save some for the kids and the kids,kids.conservation and management,a good choice. and lets give the wildlife and fisheries some respect,this is what they do.

This was a thorough and needed study, six years of research peer reviewed and accepted in fisheries journals. Yet we have ONE lawmaker bought and paid for by a lobby allowed to make law for the whole state. When did Ben Sherrer get his wildlife degree?, He should know from animal husbandry that to get the best stock you breed for the best genetics.

There are plenty of fisheries studies out there which show that population dynamics in fisheries when certain sized class fish are continually targeted that the result is smaller and smaller fish.

It has already happened to the states blue-cat fishery, and the study did nothing more than bear this out with LACK of capture of 30″ fish or longer as part of that study in spite of best efforts. When you take out the most mature best egg producing catfish from a watershed you eventually hurt the entire fishery.

This was a mis-informed bunch given a petition that was misleading and I question the veracity of the names on the petition — shame on Ben Sherrer playing $5,000.00 worth of political games to determine what the meaning of IS may be.

I continue to contact all my representatives to not support Joint Resolution 1047.

We have good scientists at ODWC trying to improve our fisheries, why should one group in one portion of the state be allowed to dictate sound management decisions.

Oue bluecat population is fairly robust , but it can be even better given proper management.

A 30″ bluecat is 12-15# given the watershed it comes from and as much as 25 years old. A four person limit in any one boat could potentially net over 1000 pounds of bluecat in a single days fishing. At a 15 fish per person limit thats potentially over 130# of unprocessed meat per person per day. Thats even WITH the regulation change — who needs that much meat? it would feed my family for a year.

The Cherokee Nations arguement before the legislature was laughable, they darn sure aren’t starving with this regulation change.

I agree with Tony’s comments. The catfish new rule should stand as proposed by the ODWC. Why would any fisherman need more than one 30 inch fish?

Thank you for the article. I hope more state legislators will listen to their “entire” constituency and not just one big one.

I hope that the proposed new limit is passed. It only makes sense to be good stewards of this resource and is backed by sound scientific research.

There is only one reason that I can think of that someone would want to keep any more than the limit would allow and that would be to illegally sell the meat.

Mr. Sherrer is using two lines out of the report and taking them out of context in order to mislead potential backers of his proposal. I would hope that our leaders take the time to read the ENTIRE report and the SEAFWA Proceedings journal in order to see the justification for the recommended proposal.

When we found out that the ODWC (Oklahoma Dept of Wildlife Conservation) had decided to try to get the limits changed to 15 per day with only one catfish of 30″ or larger most catfishermen that I’d spoken with kind of breathed a sigh of relief. Finally our bluecat may be allowed to grow again but it was shot down by a bogus petition signed by 800 people that stated Quote: “We are against the wildlife department’s 2009-2010 rule change proposal 800:10-1-5 restricts angler harvest to one blue catfish over 30 inches.” End Quote. now if they wanted that limit enforced then I’d have probably signed that petition. Here’s a link to a photo of the actual petition http://www.catfishing.tv/pics/okpetition.jpg

That was a very misleading petition that was drawn up and that’s not what ODWC was recomending at all. Their recommendation was as stated earlier … 15 fish with only one 30 inches or greater which is still a very liberal limit by anyone’s standards. Texas is going to enforce a slot limit this year to where you can’t harvest any bluecat between 30 to 45 inches. Ohio only allows one bluecat per day and it has to be over 36 inches. Alabama’s regulation is only one flathead or bluecat over 34 inches is allowed to be harvested. I didn’t see the total number of fish that an angler could have in alabama that was under 34 inches. These states have excellent bluecat fisheries due to a little bit of protection for the bluecat. We lost our great fishery by 1993 and you only hear about big fish being caught out of the red river as of late and those are few and far between now. I usually hear of any big fish caught out of Keystone lake and I only heard of one fish caught out of keystone last year that was 40 lbs. A 12 year old caught a 40 lb blue from my boat this year and it was released thanks to conservation minded individuals that went fishing with me that day. They caught 3 big fish that day and all of them were released. Most of my clients are conservation minded and will release those big brooder fish as they’re too few and far between to be taking them out of the lake. Some don’t however and this new proposal will help in getting people to think more of conservation instead of being greedy and wanting to take every fish out of the lakes that they can. prior to 1993 I could expect to catch a 30 lb bluecat on almost every fishing trip … out of maybe 140 days of fishing last year we caught only three 30 lb blues with only a hand full of 20 lb’rs. In the mid 80′s you could go to the Navigational channel and catch 10 to 15 thirty lb or bigger fish in a day’s time. You can’t hardly find fish like that any more except every once in a while on a few days pre-spawn you might catch two or three big fish right up below the dams. but they’re dissappearing at a very rapid rate with the vast amounts of fishing pressure the lakes and rivers are getting on them. If we don’t follow suit with the other states that are now protecting their larger bluecat population we’ll have to drive out of state to find good fishing. Whether this rule gets passed or not we all need to promote more catch and release. I’d love to be able to go out and catch fish as easily as I did in the early 90′s and 80′s. That could happen again if we were able to get a little help from our legislators to protect some of our bigger fish. It probably won’t happen if we don’t.

How long does this type of anti-conservationism have to go on before we’re all aware of what it’s doing to the bluecat. Sizes are down. Plainly. Look at the lakes that are hit the hardest by fishermen. Will we see the day when a 5 pound blue is a huge fish? If our lawmakers don’t take heed to what the professionals say, those who are robbing our lakes of quality fish will soon be robbing our water of the remaining smaller fish. It’s just an ugly cycle that has to stop.

Listen to the professionals. They are not trying to change the rules for any one group. It’s for the betterment of the resource and those who love to fish for blues.

AM A NEW PERSON IN THIS FEILD OF FARMING BUT DETERMINED TO MAKE IT.NEED A JUVENILE TO START WITH.I HAVE WORK IN THE POND FOR SIX MONTH BUT WANT TO START ON MY OWN .I NEED YOUR ENCOURAGEMENT AND PROPOSAL PLEASE FOR A LOAN