Freshwater lobbying in Indiana

[wvandeman]

I am looking for suggestions or support. I am a spearfisherman from Indiana, a state that limits spearfishing to inedible fish (carp, gar, bowfin and shad). I spear abroad every chance I get (my wife has allowed me three trips to the lower keys this year), but I have been thinking more and more lately how nice it would be to be able to practice my craft locally in some of the deep clear Indiana rock quarries. I know several of you spearos in Canada and out west (Montana, Utah, Arkansas and others) are allowed to shoot walleye and catfish. Have you always been able to harvest gamefish, or are these recent amendments to the fishing regulations?

I have started recruiting a local petition and network (Hoosier Underwater Hunters), and written a letter to our DNR, but I am open to any other ideas or cooperation with existing spearfishing lobbies. I would love to hear from any of our saltwater brethren as well.

I am not a civil action kind of guy, but I am seeing more and more (particularly with the Red Grouper debate in Florida) that our fishing rights are not set in stone. . .for better or worse.

[ErikY.]

In Alberta we are somewhat restricted, but can shoot a few 'edible' fish. A sidenote that my wife cooks up suckers(carp) and they are fantastic. Burbot is excellent meat too.
We have about 5 active spearos in Alberta and haven't even considered trying to change the laws due to our small numbers. Saskatchewan has no spearo-specific restrictions, but it's a good 3+ hours drive for us.
Our Alberta laws were changed in 1999 as far as I can tell, after a few idiots were caught shooting lots of big monster Pike near a power plant up here.
I think that if you have a well written statement that is spoken in the proper language (legalease; get a lawyer) and enough people to sign a petition, then someone might listen...maybe.
We have a commercial fishery up here too, plus Natives/Metis can do just about whatever/whenever with no license or monitoring, which shows that money and volume of complainers counts more than a small bunch of ethical and ecologically sound guys :mad:
Peace,
Erik Y.

[wvandeman]

Thanks, Eric. It does seem like the only time freshwater spearos get any pub is when some poor yokel tries to skirt the fishing laws (I remember the two uncertified scuba divers who got pulled into a damn poaching monster catfish at night).

Does your wife smoke the fish you get? The carp we have are these monster grass and buffalo carp that have had fish consumption advisories for the past six years. I have been tempted to blast a few 10-15 lbers, but I just can't get around shooting something I won't eat.

[Swimsuit]

wow there are spearfishermen in indiana? sooooo cool...i'm from IN & it's great to know that there are others there interested in something besides just farming. just wanted to voice my admiration:)

[wvandeman]

Nice to hear from another Hoosier transplant. You can't really shoot anything edible up here, but several of the Southern Indiana lakes and quarries are great for improving your freediving skills, if you can stand the cold. Most of our spearfishing is done in the lower keys so I am pretty jealous of anyone who wakes up each morning South of Homestead.
We had a blast down there for mini-season in July.