OK’s New Blue Catfish Reg. already under fire….. - Catfish & Sturgeon - Catfish & Sturgeon

Oklahoma has recently passed a new catfish regulation allowing a angler to keep 15 blue catfish per day with only one of those over 30 inches. This new regulation is a change……Right now anglers can keep 15 blue catfish of any size per day. Statewide there has been much support of the new regulation. Very recently 1 state representative Mr. Ben Sherrer has opposed the new reg. and had a house resolution put in place to get the new regulation overturned. He is moving very quickly so don’t hesitate to get involved now.

If you are in support of the new regulation allowing a angler to keep 15 blue catfish with 1 blue per day over 30″ in OK please contact our representatives and let them know!

Here are the email addresses and here is the letter I sent them. Pass this email list along to all that might be concerned and have them too speak up. These are the facts………Oklahoma Wildlife Dept needs your help now. If nothing else, just forward the OK Reps. my letter and let them look at it again………

Hello and thank you for reading my email,

I want all the OK representatives to be informed and be aware of what you are getting ready to vote on. Please review the facts I have put forth. Contact our states fisheries biologists at the ODWC if you need to check facts or references. The fisheries division employees will be happy to visit with you about the new Blue Catfish regulation change that Rep. Sheerer is opposing with the House Joint Resolution 1047.
House Joint Resolution 1047 will strike down all the findings of the Oklahoma Dept. of Wildlife’s 5 year study on blue catfish in our state. It also strikes down the Wildlife Committee’s vote to move forward with the new blue catfish regulation change put forth by our Dept of Wildlife.
Please know the facts on our state’s age and growth data for blue catfish before you vote. Blue Catfish are very slow growing catfish species. On average, it takes 13 to 16 years to grow a 30 inch/10 pound Blue Catfish here in OK’s lakes and rivers. Please ask yourself….Why do we need to harvest more than one 30 inch 10 lb. Blue Catfish daily when we also get to keep 14 other Blue Catfish up to 10 lbs and 30 inches long? This is very important public data put forth by our own wildlife dept for everyone to review.
Here is a fact sheet that was sent to me from the ODWC after I requested updated information regarding the status of the new blue regulation change. I became concerned after I saw there was an opposition to the regulation change mounting. I became aware of this after reading a recent post on an OK based fishing forum, and after reading the story in the OKC Daily Oklahoman newspaper regarding the new regulation. I personally helped the biologists in the study and want to see the blue catfish in our state protected if that’s what the states biologists think we need to do. My opinion is based on the findings of the study. Here is the latest news….
“The latest news is, the House Wildlife Committee voted to oppose (7-1) House Resolution 1047 that would rescind ODWC’s blue catfish regulation (15-fish daily limit, only 1 of which can be over 30″). The Resolution then went to the House Rules Committee for a vote. During that time the Rules Committee only heard from Rep. Sherrer, author of the Resolution 1047, butdeclined to allow the House Wildlife Committee and ODWC’s representatives speak in opposition to the Resolution 1047. The representatives of the Rules Committee voted to pass the Resolution 1047 (7-2) which will rescind the new blue catfish regulation put forth by the state’s biologists. The Resolution 1047will now go to the floor for a vote.
A recent petition, signed by 800 anglers, opposed to the new blue catfish regulation was given to Rep. Sherrer. However, the petitionstated that the ODWC’s new blue catfish regulation wasonly going to allow the harvest of 1 blue catfish over 30 inches. The petitiondid not state that the angler’s daily limit would be unchanged; thereby allowing OK angler’s to harvest up to 14 additional blue catfish under 30″

Please review the facts from the OK Blue Catfish study……Here is a fact sheet on the blue catfish studies provided by The Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Fisheries Division.

JUSTIFICATION FOR RESTRICTIVE HARVEST

REGULATIONS ON BLUE CATFISH

Angler interest in catching “trophy-sized” blue catfish has been increasing nationwide. A survey of blue catfish anglers indicated that 75% of anglers were in favor of developing trophy fisheries but only 2% of management agencies managed for trophy fisheries. Increasing popularity of “trophy” fisheries has lead to formation of catfish tournaments and out-of-state anglers traveling to Oklahoma to fish for large blue catfish. Due to increased angling pressure on large blue catfish, the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation initiated research studies on the status of blue catfish populations in reservoirs.

· Biologists collected population information over a 5-year period on 13 reservoirs statewide. Results of these studies indicate:
o blue catfish growth rates are slow statewide: 13-16 years to reach 30 inches; 10 years to reach 25 inches (6 lbs.)
o growth rates are highly variable; the largest fish aged (Texoma) was 102 lbs and 29 years old; the oldest fish aged (R.S. Kerr) was 34 years old and weighed 6 lbs
o numbers of fish are high in most reservoirs but the populations are dominated by small fish (less than 5 lbs); less than 1% of the blue catfish in Oklahoma lakes are 30 inches or larger
· Game Wardens conducted a 2-year statewide creel survey to determine the numbers and sizes of blue catfish being harvested by Oklahoma anglers. Current statewide regulations are15 channel and/or blue catfish, in aggregate, with no size restriction.
o blue catfish outnumbered channel catfish harvested 3:1
o less than 2% of catfish anglers caught their daily creel limit (15)
o only 1 in 5 anglers catching blue catfish caught one over 30 inches
o over 50% of the anglers that caught blue catfish over 30 inches caught more than 1 fish over 30 inches
o 8% of the blue catfish harvested were greater than 30 inches (as compared to less than 1% in the population)
In efforts to maintain the quality of catfish angling in Oklahoma and maintain the numbers of large catfish in the state’s lakes, the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation felt the need to restrict the harvest of blue catfish over 30 inches in length to 1 per angler per day. At the current rate of harvest (large blue catfish being removed at a rate 16 times higher than the abundance in the lakes) biologists feel that we will not be able to maintain the high quality catfish angling currently available to the state’s anglers. This regulation still allows catfish anglers to keep a large number of fish (15) less than 30 inches and, in a good day of fishing, anglers can keep more than 50 lbs of filets.

I hope you have found this email informative and factual. Please look at the last sentence in the new justification for regulation change. Anyone who needs more than 50 lbs of catfish fillets a day is doing something with their catfish other than eating them. My family couldn’t get close to eating 50 pounds of catfish a month, and I eat plenty of catfish, have for years. I will never run out of catfish for my friends and family to enjoy with ODWC’S new regulation change. Let’s get real……How much is 50 lbs of blue catfish fillets? Let’s put 50 lbs of catfish fillets into a perspective that anyone with any common sense can understand……. 50 lbs. of pure blue catfish meat (fillets) is enough to feed a family of 5 at least 10 times per week on 1 angler’s daily limit. Again, that’s 5 people, one pound of catfish per person, eating catfish 10 times a week. This is totally legal under the states new regulation change using an angler’s legal daily creel limit. Just imagine how much an anger can accumulate if they had success like this catfishing 4 days out of the month! That’s a pretty liberal regulation compared to many, many other states catfish creel limits across the country.
Please ask Representative Sheerer or any other Representative that’s voting yes on House Joint Resolution 10 47 this one simple question. What are the residents you are representing doing with all that catfish meat if they need over 50 lbs of blue catfish per day? I would personally like to know, so if you get an answer from Rep. Sheerer please let me know what that answer is, as he has declined to answer this in other email’s sent to him regarding this subject.
If you have any further questions, please visit with the state Representatives on the OK Wildlife Committee. Rep. Phil Richardson and the committee are informed and understand the findings of the ODWC blue catfish study. Please vote NO on House Joint Resolution 1047.

THANK YOU……..Jeff Williams