On the day of March 18th, 2020, Governor Steve Sisolak put the state of Nevada on a lockdown to try and slow the spread of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) which was a very logical thing to do. If you aren’t aware of what that means, it means that as of today, He’s shut down all businesses that aren’t considered essential. Traveling to nature was encouraged, as it can be widely considered as social distancing, if done properly. 

On March 21st, 2020 the Lake Mead Recreational Area was overfilled exceeding over 40,000 people. I myself was at the lake, and I saw a lot of folks there, having a good time mind you, which is great.. but also not practicing social distancing too much. This raised a red flag to the state of Nevada. I get it. I am part of very amazing, informative groups for anglers, called the “Reel Vegas Fishing Crew” & “The Nevada Striper Club” and these are some of the most well put together groups to represent Nevada’s fishing community, hands down. With this new order put in place, that the entry ways will be completely closed to vehicles, it takes away not only the ability to fish, but it takes away Nevada anglers ability to do what they regularly do. I’m sure this lockdown was not meant to cause panic, or chaos. When you start taking away things that happen normally, it causes boredom that transforms into different things. It’s not necessarily fair to the anglers that go to Lake Mead/Lake Mohave every week, to be denied of something so relaxing, yet so isolated from others. Which is what’s asked of us as American citizens at this time.

We are all trying to stay safe, and healthy during this time. We are also trying to feed our families with fish that we catch, or unwind from being literally quarantined in ones home for no telling how long. This petition is to bring awareness to the Governor’s Executive Order put in place to show how many anglers regularly fish for food, peace, joy, and many other things. If we can get enough signatures, I believe it will hold the attention of those of authority  at this time, which in turn they could make it so that the lake entrances are open for anglers to fish, but that’s it. Even if they want to keep only a couple entrances open, to monitor who is going to fish or not, if they are fishing legally etc, that would be better than closing us off completely. We don’t want poachers, we don’t want accidents, and we don’t want litter. We just want to fish in this time of true unknown.