Hi All,

We need every bass angler's help on this action.

Brief history: NY spends 10’s of millions annual on trout/salmon and walleye – yet there numbers show that bass are the economic engine that drives the show. We are looking to increase bass fishing opportunities in the state and we occasionally run into road blocks with Lake Associations or certain DEC regional managers…
This “poll” while it addresses one specific issue I think is also being looked at as a way to “judge” just where bass anglers are in the political process…

Unlike the Trout Unlimited, Duck Unlimited, Wildfowlers, NWTF, etc… our membership is not as active as we'd like and if we aren’t active we can easily be overlooked when “hot topic” issues come up.

We place few demands on anybody. And our membership is happy to get the occasional bone throw to them

We in NY are trying to make this more equitable. We don’t want or feel we need any additional spending to support our species… we just want more angling opportunities!!


PLEASE READ AND RESPOND TO POLL: (hopefully after you read the regulation – you’ll ask that it be changed #2)

If you remember a few years ago the NY DEC granted us some state wide C&R regulations for bass. In Onondaga county, as proposed all waters would have been eligible for C&R from Dec. 1 to the third Friday in June. Then at the last minute the Oneida Lake Associations Board of Directors using their political connections lobbied to have the regulation changed on Oneida Lake to close all bass fishing from Dec 1 until the first Saturday in May (opening day of walleye season on Oneida). Essentially the OLA shortened our already short season because of the weather by a month or so.

The reasoning – concern that bass anglers or people pretending to be bass anglers would poach walleye. On the same body of water over the exact same time period if an angler were to go out and target perch, crappie, bullhead, catfish, bluegill, white perch, sunfish anglers etc.. the OLA has no problem with this. Yet the minute, an angler targets bass for some reason this is an issue.

There is a poll at http://blog.syracuse.com/outdo...ments <http://blog.syracuse.com/outdoors/20...l#comments>

We ask as many bass anglers as possible to help show support.

In NY bass anglers contribute over $6 million annually, and we as a group don’t ask from much from the NY DEC except for the right to fish. We don’t mind that a large percentage of our funding continually goes to supporting other species. Especially those species that need help sustaining their populations; however, it would be greatly appreciated if those same anglers would work to help provide us as much angling opportunity as possible.

Additionally the DEC regional manager in Jefferson County – still limits our ability to C&R fish for bass. We attend meetings about Lake Ontario and continually see and hear about how bass populations are doing well and how the bass are growing at amazing rates and then they put up a slide showing that usage on the big lake is down. We believe that expanding our bass angling opportunities would provide the communities and anglers additional benefits.

Bottom line: the more anglers fishing (regardless of species) the more money coming in that is available for all fish species management.

Thanks for reading and again we ask for your support for option #2

Burnie Haney
Conservation Director
NY BASS Chapter Federation