dolomieu

Ha! Found his sibling!

Norris, actually. The TWRA commission just voted on the regulation change today. I think the slot will go into effect in March. DH was the only lake around I could think of that has a similar slot. I'm glad to hear it's still working. Even though I'm living in Cookeville now, I haven't had the time to get up there and fish.

A gentleman from CT actually spoke about this yesterday at the commission meeting, but it was shot down pretty quickly... I have no qualms with the new regulation (which will essentially create a catch and release SMB fishery), just wondering what to expect in a few years. Hopefully, 22" bass will become as abundant as the 17"s are now

Looks like a high slot limit (17-22"- 1 under, 1 over) for smallmouth will be going into effect on my home waters early next year in attempt to create a trophy fishery. There are a lot of mixed emotions about changing the present regulations (18" min), which seems to be doing alright. Most of this comes from tournament fishermen who rely on those 18 inchers to bring in the money. So, I was just wondering, has anyone had experience with a high slot like this on lakes you fish? How has that fishery changed?

Bass survival is almost directly proportional to the temperature of water. I remember as a child having a ~5lb smallie out of water for at least 15 min, and it swam away after some reviving. It may have (and probably did) experienced delayed mortality, but it was alive when we released it. This was in the dead of winter.

If I had to take a guess, I would say that this is probably caused by the protozoan Epistyles, a common parasite in Missouri. This is kind of an allergic reaction to the parasite. Shouldn't be much to worry about as far as the fishery is concerned.

Is there a chance anyone around here fishes for lake trout in east Tennessee??

Just a note- the records on the Field & Stream website are over 5 years old, I went to the IGFA website to see if they have changed, but you have to be a member to look at the records. I really hope they havent changed much.

I never really used many berkley products until I read Keith Jones's book, "Knowing Bass." He is the Director of Fish Research for Berkley and he definately seems to know what he is doing. Every lure they sell has been tested and tweaked for years to maximize catch (much more than any other lure manufacturer). I've recently started catching a lot of fish on the frenzy, and at $2.99 each, its hard to find a better value.

I use a 7' ML St Croix Avid spinning rod and a Shimano Stradic w/ 6 or 8 lb test. I fish a lot of 3.5"tubes and this rod has excellent feel. There's nothing funner than fighting a 4lb small on this combo!