#DARK HOUSE SPEAR FISHING IN ND#

[Guest]

#DARK HOUSE SPEAR FISHING IN ND#

Amendment 3 to the 2000-2002 Fishing Proclamation
Dark house spearing shall be legal from December 1 through February 28 of each fishing year.

Personally I think this is a big mistake!

BAD BAD IDEA!!

Spearing is indiscriminate in nature and Leeds to trophy fish depletion in a very short time. This is why it was removed from the books years ago, and the same is true now.

Bad plan ND!!

------------------
"Backwater Eddy"
Backwater Guiding Service
10409 Co. Rd #17 S.
Horace, ND. 58047

[email protected]

1-(701)-281-2300

[Guest]

Ed, they won't let the MN spear briggade in on the fun so maybe the numbers of spear fisherman will be low.

[Rockin Rod]

BWE,

Seems to me that spearing is as indiscriminate as you want it to be. If a fish comes in that I don't want, I don't spear it. You don't have that option in angling. What's more stressful for a 10 lb. northern; to be fought on a line, handled, have a hook taken out, and released down the hole, or just let him keep swimming?

[Guest]

I do agree it is up to the person who has the spear in hand to make the call. That call is always harvest once he commits to a fish and the spear hits it's mark.

Anglers have 2 choices once they set the hook, keep the fish or release it. In most cases harvest is still a option once you commit to setting the hook.

My greatest concern for spearing is the opportunity for a few fisherman to harvest large amounts of trophy fish during a vulnerable time. Even 4 spear fisherman set up on a spawning bay on late ice can, if they wish to, remove a high percentage of the top spawners and trophy class fish in a short time. If guides were to do this on a regular basis the system would be trashed in a couple of years. Many may, we may need to wait and see on that. I certainly hope they do not! I won't, and I also hope others will stand down on this.

I would also like to remind everyone that the spearing bill only allows for spearing on a few systems as it stands now. It is not open state wide so be sure to check the new NDG&F listings as to the regulations concerning spear fishing harvest.

Dark house spear fishing is allowed only in the following areas:

Beaver Lake (Logan Co.), Juanita Lake (Foster Co.), Buffalo Lake (Sargent Co.), Lake Laretta (Nelson Co.), Buffalo Lodge Lake (McHenry Co.) , Mallard Marsh (Stutsman Co.), Carpenter Lake (Rolette Co.), Morrison (Ramsey Co.), Cavanaugh Lake (Ramsey Co.), Powers Lake (Burke Co.), Coal Mine Lake (Sheridan Co.), Rice Lake (Emmons Co.), Coldwater Lake (McIntosh Co.), Round Lake (Kidder Co.), Cottonwood Lake (Williams Co.), School Section (Rolette Co.), Devils Lake (Ramsey Co.), Spiritwood Lake (Stutsman Co.), Dry/Goose Lake (McIntosh Co.), Sweetwater (Ramsey Co.), Etta (Kidder Co.), West Napoleon (Logan Co.), Flood Lake (LaMoure Co.), Grass Lake (Sargent Co.), Horsehead Lake (Kidder Co.), Lake Oahe (South Dakota border to McLean Bottoms boat ramp), Lake Sakakawea (Garrison Dam to Highway 85 bridge at Williston)

Complete regulations can be seen at;

http://www.state.nd.us/gnf/licenses/fishguide.html#dark-house

I have a concern as a angler as well as a guide, I do respect you concerns as a spear fisherman even if I disagree with the bill.

------------------
"Backwater Eddy"
Backwater Guiding Service
10409 Co. Rd #17 S.
Horace, ND. 58047

[email protected]

1-(701)-281-2300

[Scoot]

Interesting issue. I certainly can see both sides of the issue and see both as having merit. I wonder how many people actually demonstrate a conservative attitude when a monster pike is below them. It's probably not much different than the people who catch them on a hook and line. I've been harping on people about putting big fish back for a long time and more often than not, I find that I just make people who have caught a big fish mad. Of course when they don't put them back I have this annoying little tendency to raise my voice and say things about their limited intelligence- for some reason that doesn't seem to help.
Anyway... with a hook or a spear I think there are too many meat-hogs out there. I wish there was a faster, more effective way to get the word out that the people who are keeping the trophies just don't get it. I guess I'll keep putting the word out and hope that it effects as many people as possible.
Scoot
P.S. I'm not trying to start a debate with my comments about keeping trophy fish. If you've kept a trophy for mounting, please don't respond (we've all heard the debate a dozen times now). My problem isn't with the person who kept a trophy, it's with the people who keep on keeping the trophies, typically out of ignorance or arrogance.

[Piker]

This spearing debate is an interesting one. I enjoy spearing and agree with every point on this post. I believe it all comes down to personal responsibility. When I spear I usually am not fortunate to get big fish, but I enjoy a two pound northern all the same. Winter Pike make for a great meal. It would be hard to pass up a nice 10-20lb Northern aproaching your decoy, but I would have to hope that even if a person were to spear one that they wouldn't sit on one spot such as a spawning bay or something and take 15lber after 15 pounder. That would be a disgrace. I think that if you spear you either do it for meat, in which case the 2 pounders would actually be more desirable or the chance to spear a nice trophy fish. Now having said that I think that a trophy can be defined differently no only to different people, but also to different lakes. If you got a 12-14 pound fish out of some lakes that would be huge! Whereas at Lake of the Woods or something that wouldn't be that big of a deal. So it depends how you look at it and it all comes down to demonstrating some personal responsibility and spearing responsibly. I agree with Scoot on the trophy thing. I wish people would eat the eater fish (1-2 lbs or so) and let the potential trophies swim for another day, to become trophies. Just my thoughts on the subject. Great posts guys.

[Guest]

I have now developed the impression through some conversations with friends that the NDG&F may not have been on the bandwagon with this bill from the start, it may have been pushed through by influences outside the department.

The whole deal felt odd to me from the start? A bill to change a game law this late in the season, weird?

Ask yourself this once, why run this Dark House Spearing Proposal as a bill and not as a normal alteration to already existing regulations that were available if the NDG&F chose to alter them? The logic of this alludes me?

My assumption that the NDG&F was the primary instigators of this bill appears to have been off base. I had never before recalled the need for a bill to be sent through the legislature to get a regulation altered unless there was a emergency situation, and why it was necessary now and for this bill I have no clue? I am no politician despite what some may think, politics often smells as bad as catfish bait, or worse to me.

Sniff,,,,Sniff,,,,,"What's that smell?

I smell politics, do you?

[Scoot]

What exactly are you thinking Ed? When you put it that way it makes me a little skeptical too. What's the skinny? Who has something to gain through this?

[ibwhnt]

As of today Jan. 9, 2002 there are 774 people that have called into the ND Game and Fish Dept. for a # to spear. I for one beleive in returning trophy fish. But if people are so worried about this why doen't the Game and Fish shut the season down during the spawing season. Have you guys ever seen the people fishing Channel A on the north end of six mile in the spring. Guys walking away with there limits of 10 to 15 plus pounders. Along with the trophy Walleyes. This is where the should start, Not with the few that spear. Just my two cents.

[Guest]

I agree that special spring conservation regulations should be instituted in areas where fish congregate to spawn or stage to spawn.

The Spring Conservation Season on the Red River system has proven to popular with anglers and well observed. Such regulations balance the sportsman's needs and the needs of the fishery, win-win for everyone.

As for spearing you won't change my mind on that issue very easily. My concern is not about numbers of spear chuckers it is about vulnerability of trophy fish. I feel it should be repealed and better structured, if allowed at all. (IMHO)

------------------
"Ed on the Red"
Backwater Guiding Service
[email protected]
fishingminnesota.com/ed-on-the-red/

[red bricks]

I have a little place on a small lake in northern Mn. I am big on the catch and release thing. I am also very much into spearing pike through the ice. The two don't go together. I'm pretty sure that spearers can hurt the population of large pike if they go nuts. The spear fisherman has better odds of getting a large pike. A 20 lb pike would give you quite the fight on a crappie rod with 4# test line. I know that when I let the trophy swim by under my spear hole that I might get a chance to meet him again when the fishing season begins in the spring. It is thrill enough to have a huge pike come into your spear hole slowly and look at your decoy. Let everything over 6 lbs go. There is really no reason to spear the big ones. They are not good eating. Let them go and some 10 year old kid might get a chance to fight a big one some day. Can you imagine the fishing we would have if we let them all go back in the water. Maybe the trophy slayers will get too sick from mecury poison to hold up their spears.

[Guest]

I don't think that people spearing Northerns is going to harm the population 1/100th as much as those people you see taking limit after limit of spawning fish in the spring. If people can't learn to catch and release spawning fish maybe ND needs to have seasons on fish like most other states do. I enjoy spearing Northerns, but I don't spear every fish I see under the ice and I would never spear a bunch of spawners. I enjoy fishing for the spawners in the spring as much as everyone else, but I never keep them. Makes me sick to see a stringer full of 10-15lb Northerns or 4-7lb Walleyes.

[decoy]

Willeverette has a good point there.!

[Guest]

Area and seasonal specific harvest regulations as well as limited creels are wise management tools. I would encourage ND to do so on many waters.

One thing I do know is once you spear a fish, you have speared a spawner, they all spawn if allowed to reach sexual maturity.
Spearing can be much more detrimental to potential spawning pike in late winter then angling can be. The pike congregate in vulnerable areas and spear chuckers find them, as they are doing right now.

I see some forums with guys bragging about how many 10-15's they have zapped this season in ND. "Three today and six the day before that, going back tomorrow too." was one post word for word. They are top potential spawners and no longer will contribute to the population. Not much C&R there as I see it?

Spearing needs to be highly regulated and limited just as a deer season is today. Issue a few tags and that is it, done for the year.

------------------
"Ed on the Red"
Backwater Guiding Service
[email protected]
fishingminnesota.com/ed-on-the-red/