...Some of which I agree with and some that I don't but I'd like to hear what you all think...

The is one minor correction that is different than the one printed in the JCAA Newspaper. The JCAA Newspaper was mailed out today and I will let you know when it is posted at web page. If you need copies of the newspaper for you club call up the office 732-506-6565 or Phil and set up a time to pick them up.

STRIPED BASS UPDATE

Amendment 6 to the Striped Bass plan is moving forward. As usual, I attended the last striped bass meeting representing JCAA. The schedule is to have the Amendment 6 ready for public hearing by mid October, after ASMFC’s annual meeting. We will start discussing the JCAA position at the next JCAA meeting. We need to discuss uniform size and bag limits for the coastal and producing areas and how to implement these limits. Will we look at raising the size limits for the producing areas or make greater use of slot limits for everyone?

We will also look at plans to continue the existing limits on the commercial catch. The commercial fisherman will be looking for an increase and try and justify their demands with the fact that they have been at status quo since 1995 along the coast. What they will say is that the recreational catch has increased and they will be right. They will fail to mention that commercially along the coast they are allowed to harvest up to 70% of the catch during the base years. In the producing areas the commercial harvest has exceeded those of the base years. The recreational community is still fishing under restrictive rules and landing much less than they landed during the base years.

I have been fishing for striped bass since the late 50’s and some JCAA members think of me as the new guy. We’re lucky to have our eighty years plus members of JCAA to remind us of the history of striped bass fishing.

The final version of Amendment 6 to go to public hearings has not been voted on by the ASMFC, but it seems the battles have already begun. I felt the recreational community was able to work together on Amendments 4 and 5. Although we didn’t get everything we wanted, we were working as a unified force. I am fearful that will not be the case for Amendment 6. Some recent postings on the message boards have concerned me greatly.
I don’t really have the time to participate in the message board conversations. I frequently find people are not there for discussion but to promote their agendas. However, I feel I must reply to some recent comments about JCAA. There is nothing more frustrating than when people ignore our history of striped bass management in New Jersey. When other states had no bag limit the anglers in New Jersey decided in the 50’s to place a bag limit and had the highest size limit of any state. We did not allow for the netting of striped bass in state costal waters since the early 50’s and eliminated commercial hook and line sale in the mid 80’s. JCAA was instrumental in the passage of the striped bass gamefish bill in 1991. JCAA was consistently represented at striped bass board meetings since 1988 and has attended many of the technical committee meetings and other workshops and symposiums.

For anyone to claim that JCAA cares only about catching more fish is ignorant and untrue. Because of our work at Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission Board meetings and hearings JCAA have saved millions and millions of pounds of striped bass and are proud of the increase in the stocks that we are seeing. We did not save these millions of pounds just for ourselves. We saved for the common man. Everyone who wets a line should have an opportunity to participate in this fishery. It makes me ill when I read garbage like this, “That the Common man should not be allowed to catch fish. There aren’t enough bass to go around if everyone takes one home. Who is the ‘common man?’ It’s the guy who isn’t willing to learn the ropes, put his time in, pay his dues you know what I’m talking about. The guy who thinks he can buy a clam, walk down to the beach at one in the afternoon and is ‘entitled’ to a bass.” I think what upsets me the most is that these statements come from people residing in states that make no effort to control their commercial fishery, either the illegal sale of fish or the illegal landings. If we made striped bass a gamefish we would dry up the illegal sale of fish because there would be no market for sale. We would eliminate the high grading in the net fisheries and eliminate some of the bycatch. These actions would make more fish available for everyone. Spending so much time beating up on recreational anglers leaves little time for dealing with the problems created by the commercial fishery.

Nor do these people make an effort to look out for all the recreational anglers. They continue to allow different size limits and bag limits in different parts of the recreational sector, creating confusion and an enforcement nightmare. This has splintered groups dramatically and this dissension further damages any impact they have politically. They continue to complain that we have a 24- 28-inch size slot limit, while their size limits range from 18 28 depending on where you are. JCAA has always been consistent in demanding the same size limits in both producing and coastal areas to provide for some realistic rules for enforcement.

Under Amendment 6 we will continue to fight for unified size and bag limits in the producing areas and the coast. One of the things I am proudest of is that JCAA has always had a broad view. We have always looked beyond our own state borders to protect the resource and the anglers. And this definitely includes the subsistence fishermen, the poor and your average guy who just wants to take his kids fishing. This is why, for the last 18 years, I have devoted tens of thousands of hours without pay and donated money to JCAA. I am not unique in JCAA. We are volunteers who do this for the love of the sport and the protection of the resource. We do it not just for ourselves, but so everyone can walk on the beach and have a chance to catch a fish. Who is anyone else to say who has right to this public resource?

If other states follow the lead of JCAA and are successful in getting striped bass gamefish bills, there will be more fish for everyone. With the growth of national organizations I was hoping for more success in this area. When JCAA was alone we tried to help fledgling organizations in other states in their effort to make striped bass gamefish. Lately, I don’t hear any serious conversation about gamefish in New York, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Maryland, Delaware, North Carolina or Virginia. I don’t know of any striped bass gamefish bill introduced in any of these states in the last five years. Instead of creating dissension we need to work together for coast wide gamefish status for striped bass. We need to stop being parochial, fighting amongst ourselves just to make ourselves or our organizations look better. Here’s my suggestion: stop fighting and get to work forming coalitions to make striped bass a gamefish from Maine to North Carolina. JCAA has supported a federal striped bass bill lets all join in to make happen


Tom Fote
Release for Tomorrow
<@((((((>< <@((((((>< <@((((((><
Legislative Chairman
Jersey Coast Anglers Association
New Jersey State Federation of Sportsman's Clubs
22 Cruiser Court
Toms River NJ 08753
<tfote@JCAA.org>
Phone 732-270-9102
Fax 732-506-6409
Email tfote@jcaa.org
WEB PAGE <<http://www.jcaa.org>http://www.jcaa.org>
WEB PAGE <<http://www.njsfsc.org/>http://www.njsfsc.org/

Well, I don't know about the Gamefish status thing. I am on the fence. It seems to me that all factors have to be examined for instance forage and baitfish need to be abundant. Do we have that now? I don't think so , so what will all these newly unmolested fish eat to get large?each other? maybe so ,they do eat their young ya know.So I would need more convincing for gamefish status coastwide. Certainly the waste and by-catch being rid of wouldn't be a bad thing.

About this "common man" thing... the rest of the quote may be applicable to get the jist of what was meant, I think ??? here it is



The common man is the guy who hasn't "paid his dues," hasn't spent the cold, wet nights without a fish, learning his trade; hasn't learned the tides and the wind and the movement of bait, hasn't learned how to feel a bucktail along the bottom of a rushing inlet or "tune" an Acetta spoon for use while trolling sandworms among the rocks of Long Island Sound.

He is the guy who, because he hasn't spent time learning the ropes, has never developed the respect for his quarry that marks so many of the people who post here.

He will kill carelessly, frequently and without regret, because the fishing was so easy that he paid no significant price for his success, and so he gives it little value.

He's not a bad guy, but he had bad teachers, from the photos in the papers that laud catches of barely mature bass to the regulations that say such kills are OK. They call the fish a "keeper," and so it is kept, and if he throws it away some time later, freezer-burnt and ruined, he may feel a pang of regret--but probably not enough to keep him from doing it again.

Once, they fished for flounder and porgy and fluke, later for bluefish, but now too many target the bass. And the bass can't withstand the pressure. We're seeing the results already, and without a change in management, things cannot get better, but can only get worse.

There's nothing wrong with being a "common man." In one respect or another, all of us are. But in the bass context, "common man" status doesn't entitle you to a fish. You should have to work--educate yourself--elevate yourself through a dedication of time and labor, to reach your goal of being a successful striped bass fisherman.

And once you have, you'll probably let most of your fish live, because you've learned that they have a higher value than a mere chunk of meat.

(OK--maybe not in fewer words...)


End......................



I don't like to see groups that fight a common cause bicker about stuff, I wish they would get along.Maybe I'll join them anyway, if my voice will be heard.

What are your thoughts John? or are you waiting for ours first?

Tom Fote is the father of that unconscionable and ridiculous "slot limit" in NJ. That's about the nicest thing I can say about him. "Release for tomorrow"--what a pair he has to post something like that as his signature. His organization actually assisted people in obtaining their so-called "trophy card" which allowed them to keep a second "trophy" of 28" or greater, as well as their daily one 28" or over and one 24"-28".

Anyone wonder why the guys in NJ are all coming up to the Canal to fish these days? All I read, on SOL and every other NJ board, is how much the summer (resident fish) fishery has sucked the last 2 years since they went to the slot.

Basically, what Fote and other like him want is to turn the striper fishery into the equivalent of a crappie fishery--acceptable numbers of panfish-sized bass for the common man to take hiome, stuff in the freezer and toss out in February covered with freezer burn.

I started my reply this morning and maybe I'll finnish it tonight

I agree that as a group(s), we haven't been as focused as we should be and I agree that there should be consistency among all of the states in the regulation of bass (actually most species too). Two systems, one in regards to the coastal states and one for the producer states is what is needed. But groups are being too splintered. There also has been a lack of opinion at these meetings. Last year, hardly anyone showed up (including myself – ill at the time) at the Amendment 6 meetings.

My view on what should be done generally pisses everyone off because I’d like to see both com and rec back off their quotas a full third plus major reduction on the forage fish pressure. This won’t help just the bass but other resources as well…

As far as this “common man” crap – I really don’t care about allocating more fish to the “common man” at the expense of another group, whether it’s the superior/elitist anglers like ourselves :P or the “clam tossing tourist”. Protect the fish some more – not the collective asses of this group or that. Get more big fish, get more small fish and allow them to subside on more forage fish in a better environmental setting (like that would ever happen). The people that are fishing striped bass for table fare aren’t doing themselves or their families any good when they go spend 5 smackers on clams and worms to take one or two “Legal Keeper” fish (if they are even respecting current regulations). That 5 bucks would buy far more chicken, ground beef, or rice than 4 tiny bass fillets.

If the “common man” needs to improve his fishing skills in order to be successful in a more protective environment – tough poop. Call it some form of Angling Darwinism. There isn’t going to be a fishery if it keeps crashing. It’ll all be moot. We’ll be distance casting worms 100 yards for a chance at a fluke or scup to keep our obsession in check…

I can’t comment about the success or failure of the slot limit in Jersey or Maine or CT. It’s not much of a slot in Jersey though as there are a lot of Jersey Keepers out there (in what your allowed to keep anyway). So I can’t bitch too much about it as I’m just not up to date on it. Gamefish status? Maybe – but it wouldn’t be necessary if everyone backed off a bit. 36 inch coastwide, rod & reel, no high grading (I’d like to if I had a boat and it was done safely but it just ain’t right, at least right now). No 40 fish bag limits for the Mass Comms and no crazy limits on the little fish for the Chesapeake comms…

Aw dagnabit – I gotta go to work….

It sure would be nice to see a 1 fish @ 36" limit for all recs. & some corresponding equivalent for the comms. Coastwide!
I simply can't understand this 24" limit. Even if people are just after meat, and don't give a rats *## about the fishery, they should compare the fillets of a 24" vs. 36" fish & then maybe they would be in favor of a one fish 36" limit. I bet an average 36" fish fillet has 5x the meat of a 24" fish fillet. I can't say for sure, because I've never even imagined filleting a 24" baby. Are people greedy, ignorant or is it just that today the only day that matters.

Don't know anything about this dude, but he is right about one thing.

If all the recreational anglers who for the most part agree that conservation measures are needed were to band together and make their voice heard, we would be very powerful. I would say far more powerful than the small number of commercial fishermen.

The question is:

What can we do? How do we voice our concerns? And to whom?

I'll bet alot of us are in the same boat. I have a full-time job, a full-time family, a full-time house and regardless of my political stance and opinions... those things HAVE to come first. Gotta start with your own yard.

How much time and energy does that leave me? Enough to be a little selfish and go fishing and spend some time for myself. Sure. Enough to storm the whitehouse demanding gamefish status for the striped bass? Nope.

But I know I can and should do more or I should just shut up and deal with a declining fishery. Kinda like voting. If you don't vote, you have no right to complain about who's president.

Though I guess I do take action everytime release a fish or everytime I pick up some @$$hole's fishing line or everytime I teach my daughter that litter is bad and that if we let a fish go, it will be there to enjoy tomorrow. Anytime we chose to do these things we are certainly helping, however the reality is that only through a show of power can we influence the mental giants that make the decisions.

I mentioned in the last conservation discussion/rant that we could learn from Florida and use their success as a case study. They worked hard and banded together and are saving several of their prized gamefish. I realize we are talking about influencing over half a dozen states, but there is precedence.

I'm sure that I and alot of others may be surprised at little ways we each can help. Join this organization, sign that pettition, donate $20 (tax deduction) to that group... perhaps this would be some good topics of conversation after the season. I'll bet alot of the crusty veterans out there have some good info on some of these organizations and groups, etc.

Greg - there is a fair amount that we can do. This winter, when things slow down a little (like that's gonna happen :P ) I want to push some issues across the board and see of we. as a small group, can make a contribution (not monetarily) towards these issues.

One of things I would like to do is along the lines of a conservation comitee of sorts, for which I'll need a volunteer, to help keep us informed and to help us inform others.