Oh, I'm not confused at all. I was being sarcastic. It's an open secret that a good part of our quota gets filled with fish from RI/NY waters, and, shocking to say, from the EEZ. ;)

To be, a dead fish is a dead fish no matter where it was caught, but legally, you can't possess 30 fish in RI, CT or NY waters with a Mass commercial license. As a guy who only fishes Mass, and only from the shore, I'd prefer that 25% of the quota comes from out of state. As long as there's a quota and the season shuts down when it's filled.

FatCow Every one that we saw with a fish on except on a rare occassion, were sticking a hook into the fish. Then they would throw them in the box with out even measuring them. That is a factual account over the past three weeks.
Now do you suppose that some of these fish are not being added to the quata?

Again the lack of enforcement has resulted in a few bad apples to get away free and clear from paying a penalty.

That is except in one case on the upper Cape where a resteraunt was busted for having severel hundred pounds of short fish. They made a mistake in showing the size of the fish when they advertised the special they were running

I've heard the idea of them making the striped bass a game fish being thrown around by quite a few people. But, I am wondering what would that mean? Slot limits? 1 a day? close of commercial? Or is it different for every game fish? I am really curious what it would entail.

Gamefish = no sale = no commercial fishery at all. Maine, NH, CT, NJ and PA are all currently "gamefish" states where there's no commercial striped bass fishing allowed.

I launched out of Ryders Cove the whole season. If u did not make it back to the dock by 1:00pm u were checked by not 1 but 3 epos waiting at the dock almost daily. I sold most of my fish to Atlantic and i have a great relationship with the the people that work there. They would check every fish that looked short. I also seen them measure hundreds of fish and reject plenty. Those fish are not put on the limit unless they get by. I seen the epos write at least 20 tickets this year:uhuh:. I also seen way less fish floating this year. Maybe a dozen all season. Those who brought in the shorts and got caught by the truck just brought home dinner. The trucks got checked daily also down there. If the epos found a short on the truck they would of kicked them out of there. Resulting in alot of lost revenue for the company. Why lose $$$$$$$$$$$$$ for a short. Thats why the truck was checking all the fish and the epos were down there daily because traditionaly lots of shorts come from down there. Hats of to them for smarting up and going were the problem lies.

Fat Cow you have made some very good observations in regards to the selling of fish at the trucks . They have become more diligant since the bust last year that resulted in some problems for them.

This does not address the many who do not sell to the trucks, especially on the lower cape area. Many still find a way to circumvent the process and sell them to other sources. Such an example was brought to light in the town of Dennis a week or so back.

You are right about one thing, we also did not see many floaters as well, why do suppose that is????

You know how many little docks an landings there are between the outside and inside beyond the ramp at ryders ...my goodness you could fill tractor trailers full of fish an no one would say boo...I know of 3 who putt by the ramp and unload in that small pond and no one has a clue...Thank the lord these folks are on the up an up, otherwise they could fill their pockets with much $ from shorts.

I like fatcow launched out of the same ramp and he is 100% on there was always 3 epos there checking fish...and an FYI the epos also spread out to just about all the other ramps. I had numeriouse buddies state that they where checked at the small ramps...and there they had every fish measured before they where allowed to leave the ramp.

bigbuck28 I hope you took your father along for some of the fun on the water.

He must be tired of catching those small fish over at Peter's Pond?

YOU KNOW IT... he was out there a few days with me and he DIDNT even puke. He had his patches and braclets on..:biglaugh:

bigbuck29 Does pops get sick??? If so he may want to try some ginger capsules before he goes out on the water.
This is an old seafarers remedy, that when ever we used to go out into the deeper water we found to have some merits. It can be bought at most drug stores. For me It worked a whole lot better then the pressure point application approach or the the behind the ear med.

Then again with all of your background ,
Maybe you could work up an emergancy shot ???

ll have to have him try that bc he makes a great chummer....:rotf2:

Chumming is a critical part of fishing , especially when the bite is slow. Then again if you have the magic bullets any thing can happen.

I can vouch for the fact that the EPO's assigned an extra officer to the area making it three. There were some very dramatic and serious law enforcement actions taken this year. They also had a boat out with the fleet as well. Did that eliminate the cheaters...hell no. I hope everyone with all this experience is ready when the next time we get a hearing to clean out the bad apples from the rod and reel fleet.

Also....there was a pretty significant commercial bite on Scorton Ledge (as usual) over the last two commercial weeks...just saying it wasn't all Chatham.

Good to hear the epo's are doing a great job. We did watch a few smaller bass get gaffed and wondered what they planned on doing with them. The net use seems to be catching on for most bass fisherman. It's next to impossible to figure out if a fish is 33.5 or 34 inches while swimming beside the boat.

Passing on the comm season this year for me was the best move. I think pin hookers end up with a conversation piece and never a dime to show for it. .95 a lb for scup and bumped it up to 800lbs a trip...still not worth it. just ask mike who's shopping for a motor.


The money, time and aggravation in exchange for actually enjoying what you do,, you can't put a price on piece of mind.

Perhaps the EPO's were at Chatham, but at the several other areas none were ever seen. The Coast Guard did have a plane out doing some picture taking, where the three mile limit line is. Perhaps they spotted some of the poachers and that would be a good thing if were able to identify the boats. You can always look to next years season, where the talk is about going to a 36 inch min. limit. The use of nets would seem to be the way to go, during the period of time, but then again how can you enforce another regulation that up to this time still has not been fully implimented.