Public Meetings Scheduled to Discuss Susquehanna River Bass Proposal

[DaveKile]

Public Meetings Scheduled to Discuss
Susquehanna River Bass Proposal

HARRISBURG, Pa. (March 10) – The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission (PFBC) has scheduled three public meetings to collect comments on a proposal to remove the closed season on Smallmouth and Largemouth Bass at the middle and lower Susquehanna and lower Juniata rivers.

The proposal – outlined at the January quarterly business meeting – would allow anglers to practice catch-and-release fishing for bass from May 1 through mid-June. However, tournaments would remain banned during the bass spawning period from mid-April to mid-June period, like all other waters of the Commonwealth. Catch-and-release regulations for bass would remain in place throughout the rest of the year.

The meetings will be held from 6-8 p.m. at these locations:

April 17 – PFBC Headquarters
Susquehanna Room
1601 Elmerton Ave., Harrisburg PA 17110

April 18 - Columbia Crossing River Trails Center
Columbia River Park
41 Walnut Street
Columbia, PA 17512

April 19 - Susquehanna University
Charles B. Degenstein Campus Center
Benjamin Apple Meeting Rooms 2-55
14 University Avenue
Selinsgrove, PA 17870

Interested individuals may also submit comments online from March 11 through May 10.

The May 1 to mid-June closed season for all bass has been in place since 2012 on approximately 98 miles of the Susquehanna River from Sunbury downstream to the Holtwood Dam and on 31.7 miles of the Juniata River from Port Royal downstream to the mouth. It followed action in 2011 which imposed catch-and-immediate-release regulations on the same sections. Surveys conducted from 2013-2016 revealed increasing numbers of adult Smallmouth Bass compared to severely reduced numbers collected from 2005-2012.

If approved by the Board of Commissioners on final rulemaking, the proposed changes would take effect in 2018.

 

[Dave_W]

Thanks for the heads-up on this.

I'll be sending the PFBC my opinion and may try to attend one of the meetings.

 

[raftman]

Thanks! I'm going to try to make it to the Columbia meeting.

 

[Susquehanna]

I will also be sending comments and attending the meetings.
I'm surprised this subject is not garnering more comments.

IMO the dates were never effective in protecting the bass spawn, not because of enforcement but rather because the dates never covered the major spawn. They are way too late and it needs to be adjusted to an earlier date. Moreover, I would fear that the problems facing the Susquehanna has been masked by environmental factors. Another crash is going to happen, I am almost certain of it and then we will be right back to where we were. They should be protecting the spawn so when it does, the protections are already in place and we get a maximum return out of our bass population now.
They should also be studying these fish hard after removing the spawn regulation and should negative effects be shown, it should then be re-instituted.

Other than money factors and pure greed of the resource, I can not in good conscious explain why this would be a good thing. I also can not fathom why fishing over spawning fish would be considered sporting. Next will be the removal of C&R regulations which everyone should fight. The fishing for larger adult bass has been absolutely spectacular when compared to the 80's and 90's.

 

[1manwolfpack]

Just a reminder that these public meetings are coming up. Please get out and make your opinion known, as long as you think the spawn fishing ban should remain. For those that don't there are separate meetings on the 23,24 and 25. Thanks

 

[Beefheart]

I'm going to do my best to attend the Columbia meeting as well. I'll also submit written comments.

Anyone know if we need to pre-register to speak at the meetings or is that done first-come first-serve? Is it the kind of meeting where the public can get up to give their opinion?

 

[1manwolfpack]

Did anyone go to the Harrisburg meeting? I wasn't paying attention to the calader and my procrastinating *** was stuck doing taxes.

 

[Beefheart]

I went to the meeting last night and wanted to share a bit of the information I gathered. First, it sounds very likely that the current closed spawning period on the Susquehanna will be lifted. The fisheries biologists went over data that showed three measures they were evaluating to determine whether or not to lift the regulation. Because they found what they deem acceptable numbers of 15"+ fish and an acceptable distribution of all size classes they are proposing to lift the closed season. The Young-of-Year numbers are not acceptable, but that isn't enough to outweigh the other two categories.

The PFBC is also proposing what I believe they called "adaptive management" where they would divide the river into three sections that have different management strategies. So, the middle Susquehanna could have closed spawn while the lower would not. That might also affect catch & release regulations, but that wasn't specifically stated.

The turnout for the meeting was pretty low with as many PFBC representatives as non-affiliated citizens in the room. At the end of the meeting, four or five people voted to lift the regulation and I was the only one who opposed it. They did say the previous night in Harrisburg had about 20 people, many guides, and their vote was split.

You can still submit your views on the regulation online. Please do so because even though Arway and others feel it's time to lift the closed season, the commissioners may decide differently. Our voices can impact that decision.

Arway spent a good amount of time talking about pushing for an impaired status to the river. My feeling is that lifting the closed spawn regulation weakens the argument that the river is impaired. I really think that paired with the loosening or removal of regulations on water (EPA, energy, agriculture), we should wait and see what happens before we start removing protections.

 

[afishinado]

http://abc27.com/2017/04/17/proposal-would-allow-bass-fishing-over-spawn/