# Legal changes to the Mad River



## sbreech (Jun 6, 2010)

ODNR is set to announce today that fly fishing is no longer allowed on the Mad River. This is to include Tenkara as well. The regulation stipulates that fish may only be taken using non-artificial bait and the use of glowing bobbers must be in place.

What is today again?


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## Flymaker (Jan 24, 2013)

hell....dont laugh...ever see all the pay lakers soaking bait in the holes....


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## christianfishn (Apr 23, 2011)

I also heard you have to use swivel clips to attach our hooks.


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## Salmonid (Apr 14, 2004)

yup, nothing worse then a corn Chucker or a plunker emptying out one of your better holes for the year up there. seen it many many times. 

Salmonid


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## fishinnick (Feb 19, 2011)

Plastic red and white bobbers are the new Thingamabobbers

Wait so we can't use Powerbait? It is artificial...


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## TheCream (Mar 19, 2009)

So I can't swing spinnerbaits on my 10wt in the Mad anymore?


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## Flymaker (Jan 24, 2013)

I cant understand why that river isnt a catch and release only river.....it is a very valuble resourse....at least to me it is....I cringe every time I see someone throwing treble hook spinners.....I would at least like to see a few miles catch and release only or even better fly-fishing only......


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## ostbucks98 (Apr 14, 2004)

What a stupid comment.

posted using Outdoor Hub Campfire


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## Salmonid (Apr 14, 2004)

Flymaker, sure it sounds good to make it CNR or a Fly fishing only section but from all the DNR studies done on trout, they both are very bad for a fishery. Let me explain, first if we had 10% of the troutable water on the mad as CNR section, lets say that would be 3 miles of water. Everyone and there brother would fish that stretch much harder then what the mad is already fished and the end result would be two fold, first since there have been many studies done on this, where trout released have a 10% chance or mortality from a number of things such as being dropped, removal of slime when handled, infection or being gut hooked or even soremouthed to the point a fish will not eat and starve. Sooooo, this means once a fish has been caught and released 10 times, he is on barrowed time and this has always been a problem on the Mad where you have limited habitat and folks continually catching fish over and over again. This is one of the biggest reasons we do not have more holdovers, too much pressure and ultimately too much catch and releasing going on, if there was a small section, it would be even worse and the few fish that were still around would ultimately become very wise and tough to catch so the end result would be that most folks would get skunked int hat area and not be able to figure out why??

Fly fishing only would have the same effect as it would increase pressure on a small area and ultimate overfish it it immediately. In a perfect world, Ohio would have hundreds of miles of troutable water and then could offer a few small areas of CNR or FF Only stream miles but at that point he pressure would be minimal since there would be so many other options for anglers to spread the pressure ut, BTW a surey done in 1994 I think it was showed the Mad River per surface area was the most heavily fished inland body of water in Ohio. Lets face it, if a smallie stream had 20 miles of quality water and had an average of 6 people on every mile of that stream every day of the year, what kid of fishery do you think it would end up looking like....Nuff said, 

Salmonid


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## riverKing (Jan 26, 2007)

I agree with the C&R or fly fishing only, there is no reason to not allow anglers that would like to eat fish or donnot fly fish from fishing the river. Also, the mortality rate of trout varies from less that 1% to over 70% based on the variables in the study, so saying that 1 in 10 trout die I think is a huge overstatement on the mad where most anglers fly fish and the water temps rarely reaches stress levels. I think that limiting live bait would help, not that bait anglers are evil, but because fish often swallow the hook it does have a higher mortality rate. Often times beginning anglers are fishing live bait and because as beginners we don't know any better they are more likely to allow the fish to swallow the hook or treat the fish poorly after being caught, until they learn how later. As far a a section of river, if they do any special regs is should be the whole trout section, the fish migrate it won't help to limit one stretch. Before live bait I would like to see some limitation on the larger fish, but that is probably a pipe dream. I also think that stocking a few more fish would help, somthing that I think the DNR will decide to do when they finish the current study on the river.


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## Flymaker (Jan 24, 2013)

ostbucks98 said:


> What a stupid comment.
> 
> posted using Outdoor Hub Campfire


I dont think my statement was stupid.....maybe uneducated...but not stupid....I myself as a fly only angler value the Mad great deal.....And believe we as its stewarts need to respect and value it......I myself fish the Mad and stillwater alot.....I dont keep any fish and my hooks are barbless or at least have the barbs pinched down and I try very hard not to remove a fish from the water while unhooking it.......I can see the error in my comment thru what Salminoid stated as well as Riverking.....but to call my comment stupid is a bit rash.......


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## Troutchaser (Jan 1, 2013)

April fools!......


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