By Dan Kreher, Missouri Smallmouth Alliance

I appreciate the amount of attention that River Hills Traveler has given to the management issues surrounding smallmouth bass in Missouri’s streams and the responsible manner in which you have covered this topic.  As you well know, Bob Todd is a very experienced angler with well developed opinions about fisheries management and angler interests.  As a member of our Blue Ribbon Advisory Panel over the past two years, his input has been quite valuable in particular providing some keen insight into what consumptive SMB anglers might be looking for in terms of fisheries management changes.  And, we believe that the Panel’s proposals recently put forth to the MDC, despite Bob’s seeming disdain for the expansion of Special Management Areas, are both sensitive to the interests of catch-and-release anglers such as members of the Missouri Smallmouth Alliance as well as to those anglers who prefer to take home their legal limit of stream SMB.

In fact, in developing our proposal for a statewide length and creel limit change, the interests of consumptive anglers are well represented as 3 SMB exceeding 15” in length would be able to be kept to eat, plus a total of up to an additional 3 other black bass (largemouths and spots) exceeding the 12” MLL (unrestricted on spots in Meramec basin) for a total daily black bass creel limit of 6 fish.  Again, in the Meramec basin, anglers can currently and still would be able to keep up to  12 spotted bass daily (in addition to their largemouth and smallmouth take).  So, it seems to me that even with a reduction in the daily SMB limit, anglers would still have plenty of bass they could take home or clean for a shore lunch. The proposed updated statewide regulations for stream SMB — the current regs have been in place for 35+ years — in addition to supporting sustainable fisheries would provide better fishing for everyone while not unduly infringing on anyone’s past times.

The Missouri Smallmouth Alliance’s proposals involving the expansion of the well-established Special Management Areas were based upon maximizing the quality (defined as both increased numbers of SMB and larger average sizes) of our better smallmouth streams through the use of regulations that have been proven to work to significantly improve angler catch rates, average sizes and proportional stock densities of larger SMB in the areas where they’ve been enacted by the MDC.  True as documented in the  White Paper, many of these existing Special Regs Areas did not meet the MDC’s stated goals of doubling the number of SMB between 12-15 inches and those over 15 inches, but it is hard to determine whether those doubling goals were realistic during the time of the study given the slow growth rates of Ozark stream SMB and their naturally low densities as  predator species.  Regardless, fishing was generally much improved in these areas compared to both the recent past and the control areas outside the Special Regs waters.  Folks can certainly argue whether the Special Management Areas have improved angling enough to warrant their expansion, but MSA believes, as does the MDC, that the regs were effective and anglers generally supported them and would not oppose to their being more of them.

Bob’s contention that these areas “ran folks off” needs to be put into context as well.  Obviously if an angler’s goal is to take six SMB home to eat, he is going to avoid a stream section where you can only keep one SMB.  However, the statistics cited by Mr. Todd are based upon the limited angler survey data obtained during the first few years of the Special Areas and are heavily skewed by the initial results on the Meramec stretch.  But if you look as these figures more closely you’ll find that angler effort also fell off greatly in the control areas of the Meramec outside of the Special Regs Area during those early years and in nearly the same magnitude.  If anglers were being run off from the more restrictive regs areas, were they going to an entirely other stream when less than 10% of the Meramec’s main stem was affected by these regs?  It’s hard to say.  Over time, however, as word spread that the quality of the Special Areas was indeed improving under the new regs, more and more anglers (likely C&R guys) began to frequent these reaches in search of better fishing.  Angler surveys conducted in the later years of the study would bear this out and just about every article you read in outdoor publications about Missouri’s SMB stream resources notes one or more of the Special Management Areas as being bronzeback hotspots.  MSA does not believe it productive to debate the angling pressure issue still further as the MDC appears to be convinced that the regs areas have been successful and popular with anglers.  But, if one has a beef with the MDC’s numbers, I suggest they take it up with them.

MSA’s proposed expansion of the SMB Special Regs Areas may appear to some as an aggressive campaign as we suggest essentially doubling the number of stream sections included in the program and increasing total stream mileage from about 350 miles up to 760 miles in total.  Even so, this would still represent but a small minority  of the available SMB stream resources in the state and would effectively provide a greater number of avid SMB anglers with increased opportunity to catch more and larger fish.  Undoubtedly, there are some serious SMB anglers in the state who somehow don’t want to catch more fish or even larger SMB if it means throwing more back to let them grow up for a few more years, but as a long-time fishermen who is in a fishing organization more than 300 members strong, I cannot say I know many of these folks.

Again, I believe that your publication’s coverage of this issue provides a forum for healthy debate and offers a great opportunity for angler input to help shape the future of stream SMB management in Missouri.  Most who pursue stream bronzebacks are indeed passionate about it and have genuine interest in how these fragile stream fisheries are managed and sustained for current and future generations.  Throughout the Ozarks, we are clearly blessed with some of the most beautiful streams in the country and are well recognized for this; the recent proposals offered by the Missouri Smallmouth Alliance are simply designed to make our stream SMB fishing resources just as noteworthy and appreciated by fishermen.  We will continue to work on behalf of the resource and for the interests of avid SMB anglers across the state.