Removal of trout permit requirement for youth among changes

The Kansas Wildlife & Parks Commission has approved a variety of changes in fishing regulations, effective Jan. 1, 2008. At their public hearing in Colby Oct. 18th, commissioners took the following actions:

• Removed the requirement for youth 15 and younger to possess a trout permit to fish in designated trout waters and, in related action, established a daily creel limit of 2 trout for youth 15 and younger fishing in designated trout waters (unless they purchase a trout permit, which allows a daily trout creel limit of 5);
• Added Willow Lake in Tuttle Creek State Park to the list of lakes at which a trout permit is required to fish (for any species) from Oct. 15 through April 15;
• Added Lake Shawnee in Shawnee County to the list of waters where a trout permit is required to fish for and possess trout from Oct. 15 through April 15;
• Approved gigging as a legal method for taking non-sport fish;
• Removed the requirement mandating use of barbless hooks for paddlefish snagging on the Neosho River;
• Clarified that the regulation governing use of the tournament bass pass and prescribing weigh-in procedures for such tournaments applies to black bass (smallmouth, largemouth, spotted);
• Established minimum weigh-in procedures for all black bass fishing tournaments featuring weigh-ins, holding them to the same standards currently required of tournaments in which participants hold a black bass pass;
• Added diploid (fertile) grass carp to the list of species illegal to import or possess in Kansas;
• Increased the wiper creel limit from 2 per day to 5 per day at Coldwater City Lake, Douglas County Lonestar Lake, John Redmond Reservoir, Leavenworth State Fishing Lake, Paola’s Lake Miola, and Lake Shawnee;
• Established a 20-inch minimum length limit and 1 fish creel limit on brown trout in the Mined Land Wildlife Area;
• Established a 5-fish creel limit on blue catfish at Wilson Reservoir;
• Established a 35-inch minimum length limit on blue catfish at Wilson, Cheney, and El Dorado reservoirs; and
• Clarified boundaries for designated paddlefish snagging locations at Burlington and Chetopa on the Neosho River, Marais des Cygnes River below Osawatomie dam, and the Browning Oxbow Lake of the Missouri River.

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