While Tennessee Wildlife Commissioners listened closely and voted on behalf of area bass anglers on Wednesday, they turned a blind ear to concerned sauger fishermen.
Seven years ago the Commission voted to establish a 15-inch size limit on sauger. Except there was an “exception” made for West Tennessee. On Kentucky Lake the size limit is only 14-inches.
Bill Reeves, TWRA Chief of Fisheries management says there is no biological reason for the exception, and agrees it's not fair for the two ends of the state to have to live by different rules. His recommendation has always been for a statewide 15-inch size limit.
But there is considerable political clout in West Tennessee where sauger fishing on Kentucky Lake is big business. That clout is well-represented, and well-voiced on the Wildlife Commission by Tom Hensley.
Once again on Wednesday Chattanooga-area sauger anglers asked the Commission to be fair and either make the size limit 15-inches statewide, or reduce the East Tennessee limit to 14-inches. In support of the 14-inch limit, well-known angler and TV host Benny Hull told Commissioners, "most sauger fishermen I know are disgusted when they go out and fish all day and maybe catch one or two fish they can take home to eat. A lot of them I know have just quit sauger fishing."
But Reeves is convinced that a 15-inch size limit is the best for the resource. He says his research indicates that a 15-inch limit actually doubles the number of spawning sauger in any given area. He says to reduce the East Tennesssee size limit to 14-inches "would be walking backwards."
Reeves also insists that there will never be an abundance of sauger over the size limit, no matter where it is set.
TWRA has several Creel Clerks who ride the water surveying fishermen, just to see what they've caught. The data collected by those clerks indicates the Kentucky Lake sauger anglers are taking home more fish than the East Tennessee folks.
I wanted to compare Kentucky Lake to Watts Bar Tailwaters and Nickajack Tailwaters. Fisheries Biologist Tim Churchill tells me the most recent year that they have data for all three bodies of water is 1997. That year the data indicates that fishermen who fished ten hours in Watts Bar tailwaters took home one sauger. Ten hours in Nickajack tailwaters resulted in 3.6 sauger. Sauger anglers on Kentucky Lake took home 4.4 sauger for every ten hours on the water. These are legal fish "kept." It doesn't include the small ones caught and released.
Churchill says technical problems prevented the Agency from compiling creel data for 1998.
In 1999 Watts Bar sauger fishermen took home 4.3 fish every ten hours. On Kentucky Lake, sauger fishermen got to keep 5.9 sauger every ten hours. There's no data available for Nickajack because the creel clerk position in the area has been eliminated.
Reeves and Churchill both say creel data is not a precise measurement and includes statistical errors. But they agree that for now, it's the best measurement they've got of what fishermen are actually putting into the livewell. And according to that data, Kentucky Lake anglers are taking home more more sauger than the folks in East Tennessee. Whether it's a lot or a little depends upon your viewpoint. To me it feels like a lot.
In the case of the bass size limit, Commissioners weren't afraid to override Reeves argument. Not so for sauger fishermen. Apparently we don't count for much. There is, of course, strength in numbers. Bass fishermen win that race handily.
So Commissioners refuse to buck the political power of West Tennessee... and on this issue, they refuse to buck Reeves wishes. It's simple logic... they are either being unfair to the resource, or unfair to the fishermen... one or the other. But the stalemate continues with East Tennessee sauger fishermen stuck squarely in the middle.
I respect what these men and women do for our wildlife resources, but in this case they are doing a disservice to the sportsmen of Tennessee.