Post by djkimmel on Jun 11, 2004 20:35:37 GMT -5
There's a meeting planned for 6:30 PM this coming Wednesday 6/16 at Wonderland Marine West on East Grand River Ave between and Howell and Brighton Michigan to talk about our strategy to combat the MDNR's attempt to limit bass tournaments by at least 3 more weeks with the version of the season proposal they are pushing hard.
They want to push back the regular opening day STATEWIDE from Memorial weekend to the 3rd Saturday in June. In exchange we would get catch and release starting the last Saturday in April for the lower and May 15th for the upper. So we even lose the season we had all of April on the existing catch-and-release lakes.
They are generously offering us January 1 until March 15 to make up for this. They don't think we'll have a lot of regular tournaments then. (Yes, I'm being sarcastic, but they are serious.)
The MDNR says they aren't trying to limit what the public gets to choose from but rumors have it that they have discussed ways to compensate for a possible onslaught of bass tournament anglers that could 'skew' the apparent support or lack of for the various scenarios. They may be doing things to make it appear that the only real choices are the one I've described above.
The option the MDNR doesn't want and will fight hard against is scenario 2 which is the one I've been pushing for. Leave the regular season as it is right now and just make catch-and-immediately-release legal the rest of the year (Jan 1 until Memorial weekend, or Jan 1 until the 3rd Saturday in June for the St. Clair area).
If you don't want to lose at least 3 weekends of our already short tournament season, and only get an extra month of catch-and-release in exchange, you need to be involved. This 1st meeting is a start.
There will be additional meetings at Bass Pro Shops and possibly D&R in Kalamazoo along with one or two others in the coming weeks. Please make one if at all possible. We will need to be determined and smart to get a reasonable extension to our fishing opportunities like most other states enjoy.
They want to push back the regular opening day STATEWIDE from Memorial weekend to the 3rd Saturday in June. In exchange we would get catch and release starting the last Saturday in April for the lower and May 15th for the upper. So we even lose the season we had all of April on the existing catch-and-release lakes.
They are generously offering us January 1 until March 15 to make up for this. They don't think we'll have a lot of regular tournaments then. (Yes, I'm being sarcastic, but they are serious.)
The MDNR says they aren't trying to limit what the public gets to choose from but rumors have it that they have discussed ways to compensate for a possible onslaught of bass tournament anglers that could 'skew' the apparent support or lack of for the various scenarios. They may be doing things to make it appear that the only real choices are the one I've described above.
The option the MDNR doesn't want and will fight hard against is scenario 2 which is the one I've been pushing for. Leave the regular season as it is right now and just make catch-and-immediately-release legal the rest of the year (Jan 1 until Memorial weekend, or Jan 1 until the 3rd Saturday in June for the St. Clair area).
If you don't want to lose at least 3 weekends of our already short tournament season, and only get an extra month of catch-and-release in exchange, you need to be involved. This 1st meeting is a start.
There will be additional meetings at Bass Pro Shops and possibly D&R in Kalamazoo along with one or two others in the coming weeks. Please make one if at all possible. We will need to be determined and smart to get a reasonable extension to our fishing opportunities like most other states enjoy.
