NEWS RELEASE

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission

17 December 1999

CONTACT: Jerry Krummrich (904) 758-0525

FWC TO HOLD PUBLIC WORKSHOP ON FISHING RULES FOR AREA LAKES

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) will be conducting public workshops during January to discuss quality management regulation, biological information on fish and ideas about supplemental stocking, feeding, and attracting fish to the fisherman.

"These will be informal workshops where we hope to meet one-on-one with area fishermen and talk about how to make fishing rules to provide quality fishing for the average fisherman," said Jerry Krummrich, fisheries administrator for the FWC. "Also, we will be talking about some of the research we have done on age and numbers of sport fish in local fish management areas".

The workshops are scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 11, at the Jasper Civic Center, Wednesday, Jan. 12, in Lake City at the Columbia County Public Library, and Thursday, Jan. 13, in Live Oak at the Suwannee River Regional Library.

Regulations to be discussed include:

• Lang Lake and Suwannee Lake rules that require largemouth bass to be a minimum length of 18 inches and black crappie (speckled perch) minimum length of 10 inches.
• Montgomery Lake and Watertown Lake rules to require black crappie to be a minimum length of 10 inches and reduce the bag limit to 10 fish per day. Also, it reduces the panfish bag limit to 20 fish per day.
• Watertown Lake rules to increase the minimum length of largemouth bass to 16 inches.

"These rules are consistent with other lakes in the state that are managed for quality fishing in urban areas. Age and growth, along with other information, shows that protecting these sport fish will provide more large fish to be caught by fishermen," said Krummrich.

All meetings are informal and open from 6 P.M. until 8:30 P.M.