SEMSA Meeting Wednesday

[Guest]

SOUTH EAST MINNESOTA SMALLMOUTH ALLIANCE (SEMSA) will be meeting again this Wednesday, August 8, at Sandy Point Supper Club. We begin to gather around 6:30 with the meeting starting at about 7 p.m. If you met some of us at the fair or you would like to find out more about us, this meeting would be an excellent opportunity to "get your feet wet'. One of the topics of discussion will be the upcoming river clean-up project.
Please feel free to join us and bring a fishing friend with you.

------------------
Fish On!
Big Lew

[This message has been edited by Big_Lew (edited 08-06-2001).]

[This message has been edited by Big_Lew (edited 08-06-2001).]

[This message has been edited by Big_Lew (edited 08-06-2001).]

[Jim W]

Has SEMSA addressed the CPR situation!! I personally feel this to be one of the largest concerns for streams and rivers in SE MN and the smallmouth that inhabit them!!!

Jim W

[Guest]

Jim W - As I'm sure you already know. The Smallmouth Alliance is very much pro catch and release of the smallmouth bass.To this end we feel that our best opportunity to promote catch and release is through the education of fishermen and women. To this end, we have already posted a number of "Free the Fighter" signs near known smallmouth bass hotspots. This particular sign points out the need to release smallmouth bass because of it's slow growth rate. Catch and release of smallmouth bass was also the focal topic of our booth at the Olmsted County Fair. Other projects are open for discussion at our monthly meetings. We had a couple of new ideas brought to us at the fair that we will be examining further. By all means, if you or anyone else have ideas that you would like to share, please join us at our meeting at Sandy Point. If that is not possible, feel free to send your ideas to me at [email protected] and I will take those suggestions forward to our group.
We hope to see all fishing enthusiast join our group. Obviously our focus is the smallmouth bass, but as a conservation organization SEMSA hopes to benefit so many more people that enjoy the streams and rivers of South Eastern Minnesota.

------------------
Fish On!
Big Lew

[Guest]

CRP is a very important issue for all outdoorsmen. As yet it is not an issue addressed by SEMSA. The reason for this is quite simple. We have not had time to get to that point yet. SEMSA is a new organization since about February. We are yet small and relatively unknown to the fishing folks as well as to the general population in our area. At our first meetings we had to make some very definate goals for our young organization and our primary goal at this time is to educate our fellow fishermen and women as to the importance of catch and release to the smallmouth bass population. At the same time, we have chosen to adopt the Zumbro River below the Lake Zumbro Dam, meaning that we intend to work at doing what we can to maintain this waterway as a trophy smallmouth fishery. To that end we have the up-coming river clean-up project. I believe that there are also some of "Free the Fighter" signs up along this stretch of water. These decisions do not mean that it is our intent to ignore other stretches of the Zumbro River or the Root River or any of the other streams, creeks and rivers in our area. Nor does it mean that we choose to ignore other important issues relating to the area waters. Quite simply, we don't want to bite off more than we can chew as we work to gather membership and support of our organization. As mentioned in the previous post, all suggestions and ideas are welcome and will be heard. It will be up to the membership of our organization to decide which issues we will take up and when we will be ready to take action on these issues. I hope that we will see you at one of our meetings.

------------------
Fish On!
Big Lew

[Jim W]

Big, Lew,

Sorry I miss typed. I meant CRP.