An extension of the catch-and-release segment of the Middle Raccoon River in Guthrie County is being proposed by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

DNR Fisheries Biologist Bryan Hayes says a regulation change was initially proposed last summer to move the upper limit of the black bass catch-and-release segment of the river from the Lenon Mill Dam 1.5 miles upstream to the Lake Panorama Dam. The regulation that was first established in 1986 currently stretches 20 miles from the Lenon Mill Dam to the dam at Redfield. Hayes says one of the justifications for this change is the Lenon Mill Dam’s current state of disrepair, “The other reason is really law enforcement. You know it’s hard to enforce that regulation when you have smallmouth bass on both sides of the Lenon Mill Dam. It just makes it difficult for law enforcement to enforce that catch-and-release regulation, because currently it’s legal to catch and possess smallmouth bass above the Lenon Mill Dam but not below. And so it’ll be easier for enforcement if we just extend it on, up to the Lake Panorama dam.”

Hayes adds the catch-and-release program benefits the smallmouth bass fishery, which has seen declines due to a loss of habitat from flood events in the last 30 years. The proposal has yet to be approved by the state Natural Resource Commission, but Hayes hopes it will go into effect this spring.