Just read the Projo fishing report by Dave Monti? - had a few paragraphs about the meeting last night - mentioned the charter boat recommended options along with RISAA's position. Nothing about the feedback at the meeting supporting a one fish bag.

Consider the source that#^&Captain Dave Monti is a member of the Rhode Island Party & Charter Boat Association.

That man doesn't strike me as the kind of man who speaks what he truly believes but speaks the way a few people want him to speak.

He should have at least quoted Charlie or some of the Block Island charter captains, a surf caster--get some line in from the other side.

thats the fundamental problem with the way ASMFC operates- they are accountable to no one, and can be as capricious as they damn well please. they frequently ignore their own scientists' best advice

[QUOTE=goosefish;1051869]Haha

I don't think that would be best either. Scientifically the best way is to close all fishing and some scientist might just do that. So in lieu of that we get the pi$$ing contests, ahem, fisheries meetings. There is no balance in the Force.

The truth is that there is nothing that anyone can do to get a successful spawn and the resulting big year class of fish. The success of the spawn is up to the weather gods and there is nothing any human can do about it. All we can do is try to make sure that there are enough spawning females to produce the eggs when the weather does turn favorable.

Then after a "successful spawn", we cross our fingers say a few novena's light a few candles at church and hope and pray that x amount of fish make it past age 5 so they are at a lower risk of dying from myco (age 8-9), then maybe they become successful spawners... maybe...

All the more reason to control what we can..

So does anyone think Monti gives a &^%? His report yesterday stated that someone caught a 28" bass near Conimicut Light. A 28" bass and this guy writes a weekly column for the only paper of note that is published in "THE OCEAN STATE" and he thinks a 28" fish is noteworthy! Please save me! He's looking out for his charter business. Not that there would be anything wrong with that if the Striper stocks were health.

I think Monti writes a decent column when it comes to fishing, but when acting as a reporter there is a conflict of interest to have a charter captain biasing his assessment to the point where he did not even mention the fact that the audience which was overwhelmingly recreational was voting for the one fish option. In addition, there were other charter captains including several from Block Island represented by Zach Harvey who wanted to see the one fish option. That to me was one of the most significant revelations of the meeting and there was absolutely no mention of it by a man who was present and should be acting as a reporter of news events.

I might have been approached by him Wednesday night, he asked me what forum, I told him. And he goes message boards and reports, right?

I said no reports, we try not to burn spots. His smile faded away, said thank you, he'd check it out, and left.

I have no problem with the guy, but his story was rather one sided, which one can assume is bias.

Interesting development - RISAA has altered its previous position and is now recommending one fish larger than 30".

Very interesting - and good to hear

"You don’t need a weatherman
To know which way the wind blows

Get sick, get well
Hang around a ink well
Ring bell, hard to tell
If anything is goin’ to sell"