Bullhead Length Update 1/10/10

I’m a little nervous! If this actually goes through, there won’t be any purpose to my life! (Be nice Stuart!)

I had the opportunity to be invited the the ’10 MN DNR Round Table this last weekend. Since all the players were in one room, I took advantage of the captive audience and spoke first with the young lady that I’ve be emailing since 2004. Then with Commissioner Holsten.

January 13th is the date. I have the champagne glasses standing by. Although I’m not cracking the seals until the official word is spoken.

Good Luck BK I hope all your hard work on this matter pays off for you

Should have taken Stuart with you.

Doc, you know what being able to use a 10″ bullhead means don’t you??

Bigger Walleyes!!

My fingers are crossed buddy! Thanks for all the hard work so far on this matter.

Only 10″? So my 14″ bullheads will still be illegal?

Nice work Brian!

I thought you were down at Blackdog yet Pug?

Still not time to celebrate…two more days and it should be on it’s way to the Governor if everyone does what they say they will do.

So when can you use Bluegills?…

Rub it in will ya.

Here is keeping our fingers crossed.

I’m patiently waiting on this… Hope this gets passed!!!! I’m counting down the days until I get to lob that 1st smoothy out of the season.. Hopefully one that is 9 7/8’s.

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So when can you use Bluegills?…

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You beat me to it!

So, the current regs in MN still allow bullheads, mooneye and Goldeye up to 7″; and suckers up to 12″? And, soon you can use some bigger bullheads. That does leave a number of good options.

The nice thing about states where you can use sunfish, is you can easily catch numbers of them, and like bullheads they’re pretty hardy. Especially green sunfish…maybe in the future, MN will allow catching sunfish species as long as they are taken according to the rules where thet are taken and/or used.

shawn

They could be…but the DNR would not go along with it. We would have to force it down there throats.

Since I’ve never caught a flat on a gill, I don’t know if they work THAT much better?

I’m toying with forming a catfish association.

Most all of the other “popular” species have advisory groups that the DNR listen to. Over the last weekend one thing became very clear, only one mention of cats and two mentions of sturgeon.

What I was thinking was to ask the MN cat fisher people if they were interested in something like this. Don’t worry, the IL and other states would be included too in some way.

No fees. Basically being a member would be like pre registering at the poles. We would need to know where the votes were coming from when approaching the DNR. On line meetings when needed in our GROUPS forum.

Then someone to hike on down to St. Paul that could relay the groups feelings/thoughts/comments.

It’s a half baked idea, but your post Shawn started me on a roll.

I don’t really use bullheads much, so I can’t speak to effectiveness of one over the other.

Suckers often get destroyed by channel cats (still fun!) before flatheads can get to them.

Which of those fish would you rather eat? I’ve used both and much prefer gills. other than that it is easier to keep the bullies alive. I’ve had days where we would have to go back and catch more gills. Sometimes they come back like they went through a belt sander.

In my opinion learning from people’s posts here over the years, early in the year up until spawn bullheads seem to be the bait that out performs. But they seem to be less effective other times of the year than chubs, suckers and even cutbait. Still I have a hard time believing a flathead in the summer would pass up any meal and it didn’t matter what kind of fish you used for bait.

The meeting with the commissioner was move to Thursday at 3:30.

Maybe we should give her ring on Thursday just to check if it’s changed. Only if you have the time.

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The nice thing about states where you can use sunfish, is you can easily catch numbers of them

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As an interesting sidelight, in South Carolina you can use game fish (bluegill) for bait in salt water if you count them toward your possession limit. That might be easier to swallow for the MNDNR.

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That might be easier to swallow for the MNDNR.

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Not a chance. They don’t want to go down that path.

Now back to the regularly scheduled thread. When is it again Brian?

The meeting with the commissioner was move to Thursday at 3:30.

Tick tick tick tick…

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other than that it is easier to keep the bullies alive.

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I can’t think of a bait that is hardier than bullheads. They’re just super tough. Green sunfish can last a long time, more so than ‘gills, but bullies can take a lot of abuse.

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I can’t think of a bait that is hardier than bullheads.

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As River Rat Randy would say:

R-A-P-A-L-A.

Do you think the cut bait works better after spawn because there is less current and the cats are on the move more?

Thursday’s here,have a good day at work BK.

Thanks Stuart. You and your FW have a good time celebrating your anniversary this weekend.

What if anything happen yesterday?

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The meeting with the commissioner was move to Thursday at 3:30.

Tick tick tick tick…

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Just went into voice mail this morning. Waiting on a call back.

Canceled meeting and rescheduled.

Time for plan L.

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Canceled meeting and rescheduled.

Time for plan L.

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I think they are toying with you. When you get a hold of them do they do a lot of, “Um, yeah, a the bullheads thing”. Do they also repeat your question before answering? If you ever want to know if someone is up no good or lying to you, just ask them questions and if they repeat your question, they are so busted.

GF – “When did you say you would be home from catfishing”?

ME – “What? When did I say I would be home from catfishing”?

Oh yeah, keep us in the loop. I just thought I’d throw a filler post in here.

still have the fingers crossed…. hang in there! Its been a hectic week for alot of people.