UPDATED Please take a moment to read and respond. Important

[MrE1979]

I smell grant money.  Who is gonna join me?

[Jay Fat City]

Sounds like you had a great meeting!

One other suggestion I wanted to toss into the ring is opening up Quabbin and the Chu to limited ice fishing on a lottery basis. I toss in a couple of bucks in order to win a chance to fish those waterbodies in the winter. You can frame this as more money for the state. I heard Massachusetts loves money.

Jay

[Icyboy]

1. Yes - limit all species. I see too many people 'meat packing' their fishing trips and it is hurting the populations.
2. Yes - This is an important resource and we need to protect it.
3. Good Idea - Bringing in better fish will be a good draw for the state. I wonder if there is data that can be compared to the out of state license purchases as a percentage to in state versus states like Michigan or Minnesota?

Thanks for your help on this and asking for input!

[FishinAddiction]

I agree there should be some type of creel limit. I did not read all pages so I do not know if anyone mentioned SMELT. There are not many bodies of water around that hold smelt and its becoming more and more popular. There is a season for them but also needs to be a daily limit. I hope you can open some eyes. These lake draw downs are ridiculous also. GOOD LUCK.

[hillguy25]

On question 1, yes. On all the rest, I would like to see the current funds managed properly before we start throwing more money at them.

[jonnywalker]

Thank you Tafts for your efforts!!  Greatly appreciated.

[lowaccord66]

Drawdowns are ridiculous and one of my only complaints!  Oh that and I cant use dead sea meats anywhere in the state but the CT river and Merrimack...why???

[swampa]

Swampa I speak with facts behind what I say.  You might have caught another bass with a missing eye.  Here is a link to one article from BASSMASTER Magazine who probably would not publish an article that was not fact.  When I find the article that I read about a 5lb bass being 30 years old in this area I will post that for you also.  Here is a clip from the article below. "But a 6.78-pound bass caught in New York’s Mariaville Lake still owns that honor. Back in 1992, biologists used otolith rings to determine that the fish was at least 23 years old, and it was in good condition, meaning that it could have lived longer."

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&ved=0CCYQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bassmaster.com%2Fnews%2Fbig-old-bass&ei=9BerVKrYGMmGyAT7_4GgAw&usg=AFQjCNF13uJL-6oqgq6ALV1Wt2c5qwipCA&sig2=n7YDXl9qd9KFsxsJR-rm9A&bvm=bv.82001339,d.aWw

what are the chances of another bass , in the same small pond, missing the same eye , from the same area of the pond ? all I know is what I experienced and that is a fact. and that chart of bass weight / to length ratio makes me laugh , I iced a 21.5 inch largemouth at a small pond on the Hardwick / Barre line and that bass was weighed on a certified scale at a bait shop and it weighed 5 pounds 4 ounces and the bass from worcester was 23 inches and a little over 6 pounds those are the 2 biggest bass I have ever iced and they both dont come close to your chart and that is a fact as well

[MrE1979]

what are the chances of another bass , in the same small pond, missing the same eye , from the same area of the pond ? all I know is what I experienced and that is a fact. and that chart of bass weight / to length ratio makes me laugh , I iced a 21.5 inch largemouth at a small pond on the Hardwick / Barre line and that bass was weighed on a certified scale at a bait shop and it weighed 5 pounds 4 ounces and the bass from worcester was 23 inches and a little over 6 pounds those are the 2 biggest bass I have ever iced and they both dont come close to your chart and that is a fact as well

Ok and by those numbers LMB grow even SLOWER than the chart shows. 21.5" 5.4lbs and 23" 6lbs 😮👟

[MrE1979]

Where in the "North" that was done is unknown it could have been Maryland for all we know and bass grow slower here than they do there.

Oh and I  think I pointed out the fact that the chart might be off a little.   But the research already done about LMB must be wrong.  Go ahead and kill big fish cause they grow fast up here.

[MrE1979]

I'm sorry Tafts I'm done on this post.

[GrizlyGarou]

Digging up a corpse here...

I finally found some research done on bass age vs. breeding abilities. I only got the abstract of the research, which was done in Maine so it's almost the same conditions as around here. This study points to bass over the age of seven starting to decline in terms of viable breeding. If anybody feels like paying to read the entire study, here's a link to the abstract. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1577/1548-8659%281962%2991%5B23%3ASMAFOT%5D2.0.CO%3B2

Seems to me that any slot limit on bass requiring the release of the bigger fish would end up hurting the fishery. I'm definitely not saying go yank all the big ones out.

[troutncrappie]

Tafts I agree with everything your doing and thank you for it as well. I didn't read all of the pages in this post just the initial post and some responses after; so if this is included within the pages I apologize in advance but what about the chemicals they pour in the lake to kill weeds think the state would be willing to give or take on that? I cant tell you how many times I see dead floating fish after they treat a lake not to mention how the fishing dies off for a week or two after..... Anyone else notice that?

[mjcjr1]

1. yes
2. yes
3. good idea
4. thanks for what your trying to do. john

Ditto!

[fishinfool]

yes,yes,yes,but you know we are the ones who will get stuck with the bill.just saying