Mounting Evidence Prompts Conservation Commission to End Handfishing Experiment

Story by: Guest Contributor

First posted on 04-20-2007

After reviewing mounting evidence that catfishing regulations are too liberal, the Missouri Department of Conservation has voted to end a two-year experiment with handfishing. Fisheries biologists say that carefully selected fishing regulations could increase the number of large catfish available to anglers within a few years significantly.

The Conservation Commission voted at its meeting April 20 to approve a recommendation from the Conservation Department’s Regulations Committee to discontinue the experimental handfishing season. That recommendation was based on information about catfish behavior, angler surveys and data about the number and size of catfish taken by various methods, including handfishing.

‘The inescapable conclusion was that current regulations prevent catfish from reaching their growth potential,” said Conservation Department Assistant Director John Smith, who chairs the Regulations Committee. “In light of the knowledge we have gained in the past two years, it is clear that several changes are needed if anglers desire larger catfish. Discontinuing handfishing is the first and most obvious one.”

The end of the experimental handfishing season is effective this year, although season dates and other details are found in the 2007 fishing regulations booklet.

“The Regulations Committee and the Conservation Commission agreed that the need was urgent enough to make the change immediately,” said Fisheries Division Chief Steve Eder. He said any further changes to catfishing regulations will not take effect before 2008. The Conservation Department plans to hold meetings in several regional locations to publicize catfish research findings to date and gather public opinion about catfish management.

For the past two years, people who bought a special handfishing permit could take catfish with bare hands from June 1 through July 15 on parts of the Fabius, Mississippi and St. Francis rivers. Handfishing is effective only during the nesting period, when adult catfish are holed up in overhanging stream banks, in hollow logs or under rocks, laying and guarding their eggs.

Handfishers typically try to catch large catfish. A survey of handfishers showed that the average catfish they consider desirable is a little over 17 pounds. Catches of 30- to 50-pound flathead and blue catfish are not unusual for noodlers, as handfishers also are known.

Fisheries biologists have always expressed concern that targeting the largest, most productive spawners could hurt catfish numbers. The same is true for other fish species that live a long time, have relatively low reproduction, nest in protected sites and are subjected to high fishing pressure. Without more extensive study of catfish, however, the Conservation Department had no way to gather data that would shed light on catfish populations and fishing impacts.

The Conservation Commission approved the experimental season for the past two years as part of a comprehensive study of catfish biology and behavior and the effects of all kinds of fishing on catfish populations in lakes and rivers. The Catfish Harvest Evaluation Project (CHEP) has allowed biologists to gather information about the size and number of catfish present in different Missouri waters, the number and size of catfish taken by handfishing and other methods and the portion of the catfish population harvested by anglers each year. Part of CHEP was a study to determine the effects of handfishing on flathead catfish nest success.

“Over the past 40 years the Conservation Department has been a national leader in developing effective fisheries management strategies based on reliable scientific data,” said Eder. “We implemented harvest restrictions on largemouth bass in lakes, crappie in large reservoirs and smallmouth bass in streams—based on a good understanding of their biology and the effects of fishing—we improved the numbers of fish that were available and the average size that could be harvested. Now it’s time to determine if catfish anglers would prefer more abundant, large catfish.”

The decision to end the experimental handfishing season was based in part on findings of an experiment designed to learn how removing catfish from nests affected the survival of their eggs. Researchers discovered that when an adult fish no longer was present to fan eggs with its tail, bathing them in oxygen-rich water and keeping mud from settling on them, all of the eggs fell prey to fungus within 12 hours and died.

A 2002 survey of Missouri anglers showed that 64 percent fished for catfish the previous year. That makes catfish the state’s third most popular sport fish in Missouri, after bass and crappie. Forty-seven percent of catfish anglers said they wanted more trophy-sized fish.

A 2004 survey of Missouri handfishers by a researcher at the University of Missouri estimated their number at 1,915 statewide. They reported taking an average of 10 catfish totaling 186 pounds per noodler annually. Based on these figures, the potential statewide handfishing harvest could be 20,000 fish with a combined weight of 356,000 pounds annually.

However, when a sample of all Missouri anglers was asked whether they would take part in a legal handfishing season, 11 percent said they would. Eleven percent of Missouri’s 664,000 licensed anglers is estimated at 73,000 handfishers.

Other phases of the ongoing catfish study revealed that:
* Of 17,000 flathead catfish and 2,850 blue catfish counted by fisheries workers, 1.7 percent of flatheads and 1.8 percent of blue cats were 36 inches (approximately 22 pounds) or larger. This amounted to approximately one large catfish per two miles of stream.
* Tracking the movement of radio-tagged catfish, researchers found that 14 percent of flatheads and 8 percent of blue cats moved up into tributary streams from larger waters. Since nine out of 10 handfishers said they target small streams, migration is unlikely to replace fish taken by handfishing.
* Flathead and blue catfish do not begin spawning until they are 5 to 10 years old. They take approximately 10 years to grow to 7 pounds and 13 years to reach 17 pounds—the minimum weight handfishers say they want to catch.
* Preliminary data based on tag returns indicate that at least 13 percent of flathead and blue catfish in a body of water are taken by all types of fishing each year. These data are not adjusted for normal tag loss, nonreporting by anglers and natural mortality, so this is a minimum estimate. The number likely will increase with information gathered in the next two years. Computer modeling of the catfish population indicates that few fish survive long enough to reach trophy size. Biologists call this “growth overfishing.”

“This information raises serious questions about all our catfishing regulations,” said Eder, “not just handfishing. We need to determine the desires of catfish anglers, and if they want to catch catfish bigger than 10 pounds more frequently, we need to consider changes to our regulations.”

Besides ending the experimental handfishing season, the Conservation Department is considering whether length limits for flathead and blue catfish, reduced daily limits on these two species “ which can reach 60 to 100 pounds if they live long enough “ and changes in regulations governing other methods of taking catfish are needed to improve catfishing in selected waters.

For example, one plan currently being considered would test more stringent harvest regulations on the Lamine River and the Missouri River between Glasgow and Jefferson City. Anglers could find more 24- to 30-inch catfish in the first three years after such regulations went into effect.

“There is nothing sacred about current statewide catfish regulations,” said Eder. “They were set decades ago, with limited understanding about catfish populations and fishing impacts. Both have changed today. We are not going to change current regulations simply for the sake of change, but as we gain more knowledge about catfish population dynamics and how they are affected by fishing, we will fine tune regulations to provide better fishing.”

Eder said he and other fisheries biologists are excited about prospects for catfish management. He said regulations will have to be tailored to fit particular waters, since catfish population dynamics vary from stream to stream and lake to lake.

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