The city of Mexico and the Missouri Department of Conservation have reached an agreement for fishing regulations in the city’s waters.

Mexico Parks and Recreation Director Chad Shoemaker told the Park Board last week the agreement’s details have been finalized and the signing of the document should happen soon. The document will be a memorandum of understanding between the two parties that will allow the MDC to enforce the regulations. Shoemaker said by state statute the MDC has the right to regulate any waterways in the state but the agreement spells out the details and makes everything more clear for everyone involved.

“Fishing is really important in Mexico, it’s a big, big thing,” Shoemaker told the Ledger. “At the same time, we have to have things to protect the fish. It guarantees to the conservation department that the public has free fishing access to our lakes and it guarantees we have some assistance in managing the public.”

Shoemaker gave a real example of when MDC had to intervene in a situation. Shortly after stocking one of the city’s lakes a fisherman used a large casting net and dog food to harvest trout that had just been added to the lake. Shoemaker said the fisherman was caught and the fish were returned to the lake. Shoemaker said it would have been much more difficult to prosecute if an agreement wasn’t in place.

“It’s already within their rights to do so but this makes it clear,” Shoemaker said.

The agreement also states that stocking the lakes with fish will be done by the MDC and there will be regulations such as how many fish can be harvested from the lake and the size of the fish. The agreement is set to last 25 years.

The two sides have been working on an agreement since last fall but sticking points within the new document were holding the agreement up from the city’s perspective. Shoemaker said many things have changed from MDC’s perspective since that last agreement was signed.

“We had some hurdles to get over that maybe some other cities would not have a lot to negotiate,” Shoemaker said. “It just took a long time. It’s really difficult for someone who has worked at a state agency to just say, ‘Oh year I can make that change.’ There are 10,000 different people they have to go to.”

Shoemaker said many of the changes the MDC has made over the last 25 years have outpaced the resources that Mexico’s Parks Department has. Some of the things in the agreement that would have been required are outside the city’s capacity.

“MDC has had to change how they do some things for good reasons,” Shoemaker said. “But we can’t agree to keep up or maintain something that doesn’t exist.”

The MDC will host its first event of the spring/summer on Saturday, May, 20, at Lakeview Park from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. with a fishing jamboree that will feature prizes for the first fish, the biggest fish, and the most variety of species. The event is free and open to all ages but children must be accompanied by an adult. Anglers are advised to bring their equipment, however, MDC agents will have equipment on hand for those who need it.