Is it not? Your letting the results of a few bad "apples" make your mind up about the sport.
My point was that you can't compare deer and flounder management to Gar management. That's what I meant by "not comparing apples to apples". Am I letting a few bad apples make up my mind? It takes way more than a few bad apples to create the scenes I see every time I go to the river or the lake.
Because the new rules for alligator gar were not based on sound science. Even when the studies were done and completed, the commissioners did not listen to or even understand their own studies.
Come on Tony, we both know that none of those studies were done during an active spawn. I shouldn't have to tell you that! I thought you were there and a part of it. It's just another example of trying to use irrelevant studies to support your side. I've said this to you multiple times! We don't have any proof that allowing the harvest of Gar during a spawn would affect the population either way. By the way, Science is science. There isn't right science and wrong science. Your science is not different than my science. We both have the same studies. Bad interpretation and application in real life is where we have a problem.
Tell that to the guys in the mid-west and our northern brothers that have to deal with constantly muddy lakes due to an over abundance of common carp. How about our Texas brothers from Lake Falcon who see their bass population being eaten up by too many alligator gar. What about the invasive asian carp species, the big head and slivers?
I'm not going to talk about the Big heads and the silvers, since those are a totally different topic and doesn't apply to what we are talking about. Common Carp are considered Naturalized in our state. They have been here over 100 years, and during that time they have lived along side our native fishes just fine. I think you are referencing the shallow lakes up north that have problems with the common carp, and if they have a problem then I'm all for doing something about it. HOWEVER, lets not use studies that don't apply, just like your last point....We are talking about Texas here. Texas doesn't have an overabundance of very clear lakes to begin with, but almost all of our clear lakes have a healthy population of carp. Guess what....almost all of our trophy bass lakes also have very healthy populations of common carp. The bass feed on the fingerling carp every year. If common carp are so detrimental to plants, then why are we stocking grass carp in lakes where there are already plenty of common carp? My point is that while some fish cause problems in some ecosystems, them don't cause problems in others. Besides all that, even if the carp were as bad as you say, bowfishing couldn't even put a dent in the population on a large lake....So yet again I say, don't act like bowfishermen are doing the ecosystem a favor by removing these fish when there wasn't a problem to begin with, and you aren't taking enough out to make a difference anyway. Stop grasping for straws to justify your love of shooting fish, yet not utilizing them.
As for the Gar on Falcon....It's amazing how you only hear what people say when it benefits your sport. This is exactly the way the original rumors about gar got spread. So the bass fishing isn't as good on Falcon, but we are seeing more Gar. So that means the Gar must be eating them? Yes, the Gar play a part of it, but lets look at some real facts that we know....
1. Low water levels have plagued that lake, which causes fish crowding.
2. Bass fishing efforts increased 135% from 2006-2011.
3. Bass Harvest increased by 95% during that period.
4. Half the lake is in Mexico, and virtually unmanaged.
5. Seems like the bass fishermen are always complaining about the amount of trophy fish that people don't release back into the lake.
I'm pretty sure they are going to increase the Gar limits on that lake, which is probably a good idea. I've always supported varying limits based on populations. My point is that people need to look at the facts, and see that you can't base your opinion on what a few angry bass fishermen have observed, and then use it to support bowfishing. I realize that Gar will throw up their stomach contents when stressed, but in the gar that did have stomach contents in the study of falcon bass were only around 8%.
Tony, I really don't want to argue about it any more. All I'm asking is for the misinformation to stop. Y'all like to kill for sport, and if your moral compass allows it then so be it. Just don't lie to people and try to make your sport look better by acting bowfishermen are helping out our ecosystem.
You know what? This is not bungle in the jungle! This forum is for the Bow Fisherman in the 2Cool community I am really getting tired of reading all this ****! I come here to see what people have caught or shot and not what I am reading up above. Take all this BS to the appropriate forum.
Sorry if I offended you, but me and TTG have a little bit of a history. As long as bowfishermen aren't spreading BS, I leave them alone. So, if you don't want me around, then take note of that. I actually really enjoy seeing the pictures of Gar that are shot when they are followed with pictures of the meat on a grill. Gives credit to the ones that say they eat them.