ThinkingAfield.org

As water temperatures warm, manatees naturally disperse from their winter habitats, traveling to other areas of the state and beyond. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) is asking Florida residents and visitors to help keep manatees safe, especially while out on the water.

Manatees are leaving their winter refuges and are more likely to be in rivers, canals and nearshore waters. Florida boaters are also enjoying the season, so it is crucial to stay alert and avoid manatees while traveling through Florida’s waterways.

From April 1 through Nov. 15, seasonal manatee zones require boaters to slow down in certain areas to prevent manatees from being injured or killed by motorboats or personal watercrafts. Boat strikes are a major threat to Florida manatees. FWC law enforcement officers are on patrol in state waters to remind boaters of the seasonal manatee speed zones and take enforcement actions. Read more

At 33 Pounds, Muskie Beats 2017 Record

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) confirmed a Washington County man has set a new nontidal state record for muskellunge. Kyle Mullenix of Hagerstown caught the 33-pound, 49-inch long record muskie on March 2 along the banks of the upper Potomac River.

Regarded as the “fish of ten thousand casts,” muskies are the largest freshwater fish in Maryland and among the most difficult to catch.

Mullenix is credited with the first Maryland state fishing record of 2022. The 32-year-old lifelong angler said he has spent decades trying to catch a muskie. Using a 7-foot spinning rod and live bait, his luck finally changed.

“He put up a good fight, but we didn’t think it was that big until it was on the bank,” Mullenix said. “Things don’t always go as planned, but now life has gotten a lot better.” Read more

— Frank Sargeant

While the headline of this story is likely to raise bass angler hackles pretty much everywhere, biologists across the southeast are finally starting to suggest that the idea is not as nuts as it sounds.

While anglers have had it drummed into them for the past 50 years that catch-and-release fishing makes for great fish populations, it’s becoming pretty clear that many waters, particularly in the fast-growth South, are overpopulated with small largemouth and spotted bass, and that some harvest might result in more large fish.

Jason Olive, Assistant Chief of Fisheries for the Arkansas DNR, is one of the more outspoken advocates of tossing a bunch of two pounders into hot grease instead of back over the side.

“A lake has a certain carrying capacity in pounds per acre, and that means you can have a whole lot of little fish or a few big ones, or a mix. Right now, a lot of Arkansas lakes have a whole lot of little ones and not as many big ones as anglers would like to see,” says Olive. “One way to change that is for anglers to take home bass under two pounds for the table.”

Olive’s theory, in agreement with the majority of fish managers today, is that many lakes are much like a limited acreage of forest, where researchers long ago established the fact that a certain amount of habitat can support only a limited number of whitetail deer, among other species. Too many deer eat themselves out of groceries pretty quickly and body condition, reproduction and antler growth suffer. Read more