Fished fayette for the first time since February and caught 25 In about 5hrs of fishing. I can’t believe the amount of cast net people there are on the lake starting at noon it’s crazy. Every cove or bank has 4-5 guys walking in the reeds or the whole bank with cast nets. They could careless if your fishing they just walk by and keep throwing. I must have seen 50-60 guys if not more and that’s not including the kids. There where women on the bank scrapping the fish and throw whatever left over on the bank and the smell was horrible right next to the boat ramp. I can’t believe the people running the place allow this to happen. I finally had enough and went home it’s crazy. They are ruining a great fishing lake!

Been happening for years

?que?

as small as the lake is u would think they would fish it out

They are only allowed to keep the tilapia and have to filet them before leaving the lake.

1. Positive - This has been allowed and will continue to be due to the over population of tilapia, they are out of control.
2. Problem - bass fisherman have to deal with cast-netters walking every shallow area they can access to do so with disregard to boat/bass fisherman.
3. Problem - Cast-netters are allowed at all times of the year, which a majority of us feel, is detrimental to bass spawning due to they bedding areas constantly get walked on. Why not close this down during the spawning months? IDK?
4. Problem - The Cast-Netters constantly overload their boats and a majority of the time there's not one life vest aboard. I've see aluminum boats taking on water as it crosses the lake and a couple of the members are bucketing out water so they don't sink.
5. Problem - There have been many drownings over the last few years due the the mentioned above in 4.

I had a buddy that moved to town and wanted to go out to Fayette to fish for his first time. I called that morning to see how it was going and he was in the middle of giving a statement to police because as he was fishing down the bank he came across a dead body to washed a shore from a drowning the night before from the problems I mentioned above.

I've talked, each time, to game wardens as they check my vessel as to why they still allow this and I've was told it's not going away.

So, I guess you learn to fish off-shore or shallow until a boat load of cast-netters show up in your pocket or until there's no more bass because they either keep them secretively or the bass can't reproduce anymore....?

I had no clue this was occurring at Fayette. Should definitely be closely regulated and paused during spawn.

when you leave bait out to attract cockroaches and they come in mass numbers... they will not leave until the resource is depleted. Happens in all arenas of life.

There is a problem with this post in the very first line. "They are only allowed to keep the tilapia and have to fillet them before leaving the lake." There are certain groups that will keep every fish caught in their nets, no matter the size or species. This happens all over the world.

Rayzor, you're correct. Some will keep everything they keep, especially if no one is watching them. I tried once to give a legal bass I gut hooked to a boat with a couple of cast netters and they denied it. They didn't want to get caught with a bass because the wardens do check, when they are around, and how would they explain having it if they only had cast nets.

Another problem is that the tilapia also hang out, out of reach, in the deeper timber where you don't see them throwing nets. If you ever go out and graph through the timber it's loaded with big 3-5lb tilapia.

Buddy caught this one out in 13' thorwing jerk baits through the timber. They get huge and the bass can't handle them.

Saw a post on Facebook with a pic of wardens giving out tickets to about 10 people

There is no game warden checking these people and if they are it’s rare. When you see a big ski boat full of people with no motor on the boat being pulled by a Jon Boat you know that boat is not legal and should not be on the lake. They are also riding 2 on a kayak with one standing on the back and not a life vest anywhere on these boats it’s crazy. The lake still fishes good and you catch a lot of fish, but this is just crazy what they are letting these people do. If you want to get rid of some tilapia have a bow fishing tournament.

These cast netters do not care about the lake or what they are doing to it. Wish they could address this and get them out of there. They are destroying this lake. They pull up all of the shallow water vegetation and I'm sure they are destroying bass spawning beds. Not to mention the small fish they kill because they don't throw them back in when first caught. They just lay in the bottom of their boat till they go through them. I have seen hundreds of small shad dead around the boat ramps and yes, it stinks.

They are ticketing cast nutters for not having fishing licenses which is a good start

Several years ago, I went to that little cove to the NW of the intake and threw a cast net. The net was so full of large tilapia that I could hardly pick up the net. I doubt that the tilapia population is that prolific today.

There is a post on Facebook that the game wardens were writing cast netters tickets for no fishing license and then wrote them for no registration on their boats. Maybe it's a start.