Missouri Conservation Commission nixes noodling

Friday, May 4, 2007

By Steve Moyer

Nevada Daily Mail

A two-year experiment in hand fishing, also known around this area as noodling, has ended. The Missouri Department of Conservation rescinded the hand-fishing season at their April meeting on recommendation of the Regulations Committee.

"The inescapable conclusion was that current regulations prevent catfish from reaching their growth potential," said Conservation Department Assistant Director John Smith, who chairs the Regulations Committee. "In light of the knowledge we have gained in the past two years, it is clear that several changes are needed if anglers desire larger catfish. Discontinuing hand fishing is the first and most obvious one."

The decision to end the experimental hand fishing season was based in part on findings of an experiment designed to learn how removing catfish from nests affected the survival of their eggs. Hand fishing is effective only during the nesting season when adult catfish remain with the eggs, fanning them with their tails. Researchers discovered that when adult catfish are removed and no longer fan the eggs, which bathes them in oxygen-rich water and clears mud from them, the eggs are killed by a fungus 100 percent of the time within 12 hours.

A 2004 survey of Missouri hand fishers by a researcher at the University of Missouri estimated their number at 1,915 statewide. However, when a sample of all Missouri anglers was asked whether they would take part in a legal hand fishing season, 11 percent said they would. Eleven percent of Missouri's 664,000 licensed anglers is estimated at 73,000 hand fishers.

"The Regulations Committee and the Conservation Commission agreed that the need was urgent enough to make the change immediately," said Fisheries Division Chief Steve Eder.

"This information raises serious questions about all our catfishing regulations," said Eder, "not just hand fishing. We need to determine the desires of catfish anglers, and if they want to catch catfish bigger than 10 pounds more frequently, we need to consider changes to our regulations."

Eder said any further changes to catfishing regulations will not take effect before 2008. The Conservation Department plans to hold meetings in several regional locations to publicize catfish research findings to date and gather public opinion about catfish management.

The commission also established an Apprentice Hunter Permit. An Apprentice Hunter Permit is not permit that allows hunting, it is a permit that allows someone who has not completed an approved hunter education course to purchase a hunting permit. The purpose is to get more people interested in participating in hunting. According to Jim Low, print news services coordinator, the Apprentice Hunter Permit allows someone who may have an interest in hunting to get a hunting permit and go hunting with an adult (over 21) who has passed an approved hunter education course. The adult has to have passed the hunter education course even if they are old enough (born before Jan. 1, 1967) to have been grandfathered in when the requirement for hunter education certificates was established.

"You have to be with a person who is at least 21 years old and who is hunter safety certified," Low said. "I'm old enough to have been grandfathered in but I wouldn't qualify unless I took the hunter education course."

The commission also is asking boat owners to help keep Missouri waters clear of a pest that is more than a piffling nuisance -- it can cost considerable damage. The zebra mussel has already become an economic nightmare for businesses and taxpayers in the Great Lakes region, the cost of removing them from equipment and structures that sit in the water is in the millions of dollars annually.

After a brief period of living free in the water, microscopic zebra mussel larvae, known as veligers, attach themselves to solid objects. One female zebra mussel can produce millions of young annually. Subsequent generations attach to surrounding surfaces or existing mussels. When this happens on municipal or industrial water intake pipes, the mussels eventually clog the pipes.

The same thing happens to boat hulls, marine motors, fishing and boat docks, sea walls, hydro-electric power generating plants and other submerged objects. Even a fine coating of tiny zebra mussels on boat hulls increases water drag, which reduces speed and raises fuel bills. On boat motors, zebra mussel infestation can cause overheating or increased drive-train wear. Infestations can become so heavy that docks and other structures buckle under the weight.

Prevention is the mainstay of the MDC's response to zebra mussels.

The idea is to deal with the pest proactively, to prevent their arrival in a body of water instead of trying to eliminate an infestation after they arrive.

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