Demise of VFW
 

During the past four weeks I have not caught a lot of fish. I have had the kayak in the water a lot at Laurel Hill. Been using and learning the side imaging a lot. Laurel Hill has plenty of Gills still in the lake. I can get on it and it doesn't take me long to find them in 30-50 feet of water suspended at 15 to 26 feet deep. Have found big schools of them. Haven't caught many of them as I am still working on my skills of fishing for them deep out of a kayak....a lot different than fishing for them deep off the bank. I will learn though and hopefully get back to catching. I have not spent much time at Pickwick as I normally would as I am spending a lot of time using the side imaging. On Tuesday I spent the whole day at VFW Lake scanning for fish....have fished there many afternoons after spending the morning fishing Laurel Hill also. Been giving the kayak a workout. Sad to say there are not many fish there. You see the catfish....carp.....but the Gills are noticeably absent from shallow and deep water. I fished there a few times this spring and caught fish but that was to be expected for that time of year. The catches out of VFW in the summer have been on the decline for a couple of years now. This year they have been almost non existent. My findings coincide with the same results of a fishing buddy who lives close to the lake and has the same results. Even though there still seems to be plenty of Gills left in Laurel Hill according to sonar the catch rate this summer is way down....so down that on many days there will only be a few boats on the entire lake and hardly anyone fishing from the bank. That is not to to say fish can't be caught but it has fallen off rapidly for most. Have had many talks with the concessionaire who has to open every day 30 minutes before sunset and stay late. His business is down.....cricket sales are way off due to lack of active fish. While I may return to Laurel Hill some this year I have made my last trip to VFW for this year. It is a shame that so many fish have been harvested that it has hurt the lake that much. Many of us who fish down there...including several TWRA officers......have reached the conclusion they need to cut the limit of 20 Gills in half to 10. I can only hope that something will be done about it. Meanwhile I am headed to the White River in the a.m. for some trout catching...LOL. Will give a report when I get back but fully expect to catch a lot of fish. Arkansas here I come!

Regards

Good luck with the trout. That is crazy to think that you can actually almost fish out a lake.

Not almost - a lake can very much be fished out. The data has been around for over forty years from many studies. Alpha, it's heartening to hear that finally there may be a chance for progress in the bluegill regulations in this state. Lowering the daily creel limit would be a start; adding a minimum size limit, or ideally a slot, would be much better.

Good luck and have a safe trip.

Keep us posted on the catch.

This is too bad, Alpha. I've always thought tht having a free for all on the gills could have an adverse affect.

Good luck trout fishing. Look forward to seeing some pictures.

Alex

That's interesting of your findings Alpha, and I'm sure you are correct. The trouble with regulations like that is enforcement. I've seen several people keep short fish, and over the limit on bass at Williamsport, and I've called the concessions to report them, and then shortly after went up to the concessions and it looked like nothing had been done. I also know that our TWRA Agents are minimally staffed.

That is a main factor in the trouble with enforcement of regulations. It used to be (not sure if still is) the number of agents across the state equaled out to about 1 per county. Can you imagine the ground you had to cover? In addition to hunt/fish regs they are or were required to be cross trained in aiding on all calls in their territory regarding things like backwoods meth labs/drug crops.

Yeah I don't blame the agents.... not enough of them. This spring at VFW I witnessed several folks take limit home then come back for one or more limits. I would remind them that is illegal...but no phone service so can't call anyone. Just a shame a nice little lake has turned into this. Jeremy you are right about Williamsport also. Too many bass taken from Blue Cat and Shellcracker. Not too many get removed from Goldeneye due to it being difficult to get a boat in there. Hopefully it can be turned around.


Regards


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