07-13-2010, 04:26 PM
if you read the posts from the eastern and western parts of the state it would seem the eastern part of the state has about 150 times better fishing. if we didn't have brownlee we would have just about nothing. there are several postings regarding fishing below swan falls. the fishing there now is 5 % what it used to be before the dam was redone. i used to fish right above the dam where it is fenced off now across the dam and below and absolutly way lay smallmouth . many approching and some exceeding 20 ". and catfishing was wonderful. the western side of the state does have some gem waters to fish of which some i won't mention, due to some people keeping every fish they can catch. which is why i feel the fishing is slower than it used to be. the droughts don't help either but as a native i have noticed with the increase of people the quality of fishing has decresed . where as the eastern part of the state with more moderate growth would appear to have great fishing. as an example i was fishing at anderson ranch saturday. the trolling was good we brought home 16 fish. nothing to write home about 10"-14 ". anyhow, when i got to the dock a boy said " man the fishing was good look at all of these fish ". they had a 100 quart cooler full i mean full of 4"-8" perch with some smallmouth that weren't 12" . what are you going to do with 600 or more 5" perch? i know they need to be thined out at some point or they will stunt but i still believe we need some sort of limits on the non game fish. look at cj crappie. this febuary and march the crappie were thick. now you really have to work for the fish. the brunow arm looked like the wallmart parking lot every boat had tons of fish. i believe it was fished out. i feel no one needs to keep more that a hundred fish in a weekend per person for any reason.
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