Remove the confusion from our fishing regulations.

Fishing rules should be simple, easy and result in more fun and fewer headaches.

Is it just me? Am I the only angler in this state that feels the DNRE’s current Fishing Digest is too complicated, too redundant, too filled with quasi-legalistic jargon, and too boring to read?

The DNR’s Fisheries Division has asked  the public for input about their annual Fishing Digest. Should you desire to make comments on trout lakes and streams, go to: < DNR-InlandTrout@michigan.gov >.

Here’s my take on this situation. The DNRE has messed around for many years trying to get their fishing digest in order. Along the way, dating back into the 1980s, there have been some atrocious mistakes. In those years, the standard answer was the computer messed up. Folks, computers do mess up but it’s often the result of operator error.

Give the DNRE some thoughts on their complex fishing regulations.

We’ve suffered with the old computer adage: garbage in, garbage out, and in the past it has applied to the DNRE. Other times, when things went wrong, the people ultimately in charge blamed subordinates for not editing the copy properly. And then, back in 2000, the DNR decided to copy what neighboring Wisconsin did.

Their fancy new idea was a magazine-size format with maps and charts that told us what we could and could not do. We had to skip from one page to another and to a third page to determine what the trout fishing regulations were for a particular stream or lake.

If anything, this change that we’ve suffered with for years was a lesson in optimistic failure. All it did was make people throw up their hands and go elsewhere and do something other than fish for trout.

The rules often are poorly written, redundant, and frankly boring. Reading it could put an insomniac to sleep. Pity the person who is color blind. The maps of county lakes and streams had several different colors, and anyone who had a red-green vision problem, was in deep trouble.

Frankly, the rules were stupidly written and have been for as long as I can remember. Apparently the DNRE is so broke that those drawing up the rules can’t find a calendar with the proper dates. Need an example. Here are a few being quoted directly from the 2011 Michigan Fishing Guide.

Page 8 under Lake Sturgeon for Black Lake in Cheboygan County: 1st Sat. in February through the following Wednesday or until  the quota is reach(whichever comes first).

Can’t someone read a calendar and give a specific date?

Under the current regulations, some streams have different size restrictions on trout in one area and something else in another. There are numerous types of lakes and a similar number of stream types. Looking at a map that shows these types in different colors looks like a bad color photo of someone’s varicose veins. It’s hard to determine, in some cases, where one set of regulations start and another stops.

I’ve griped for years about the length of our Fishing Digest. Some steps have been made since 2009, and the 2011Michigan Fishing Guide has been reduced to 39 pages. That’s not of a reduction.

However, reading the regulations necessitates completely reading the entire thing … and understanding it. Some conservation officers I know frankly  admit they can’t understand some of the legalese. If they can’t, how does the DNRE expect us to understand it?

Is it really necessary to have so many different rules? Can’t the Fish Division  find someone who can write, or hire someone who can write and edit, and reduce this monstrosity to a manageable size. Cut the thing in half, and the following year, trim it down some more. The fishing regs in some state take up only one or two pages.

Some of the DNR’s regulations are not working and should be trimmed away. A first-year student in journalism school could edit countless lines from the Digest without changing the meaning of a single sentence.

Avoid all the complexity, and make it simple and easy to understand.

The sad fact is that government-speak has crept into the DNRE, and they write these fish laws as if people can’t understand common English. They can, but most people balk at trying to decipher the Lansing legalese.

Sadly, the DNRE and the state and its citizens, have fallen on hard times. Now they come, seeking our help in changing their fishing regulations, and it’s time for each of us to stand up and be counted. If you’ve got a gripe, voice your concerns. Be  nice about it, but tell them what problems you see with the laws as they are now written.

Make it clear that you want the legal mumbo-jumbo spelled out in simple terms, want the specific dates listed, and remove anything that isn’t needed. I’ve listed a few examples, and I’m certain you can find more.

Stand up and argue this point. Now is the time to speak out, and have some impact on how our fishing laws are written in the future. We need laws that are easier to understand, not more difficult and vague. Let’s have a complete re-do of the Fishing Digest in 2012. If necessary, hold public meetings far in advance, and ask our citizens. Most would be happy to help if they knew their time and effort was appreciated.

Title: Remove the confusion from our fishing regulations.

Tags: ((Dave, Richey, Michigan, outdoors, simplify, fishing, regulation, remove, redundancies, name, specific, dates, plain, English))

Posted via email from Dave Richey Outdoors