No #^&#^&#^&#^& Mike !
They will be crying the same song in another 11 years from now.

i remember this post. i only wish todays fishing was 1/2 of what is was back then....

What ever happened to StriperMan

I know. :smash:
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Ok now all of a sudden we all think there is a problem . Some of us have been being the harbingers of doom. All you kids have said we were full of it. Now you've finally seen what we've been talking about for years. AGAIN WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO TO FIX THINGS ? . Bob Pond Hit the nail on the head . GREEDY WILL BE GREEDY. So what do the rest of us do?
I make custom tackle. Many of you use my plugs and enjoy them. The money is what hurts the stripers. How do we deal with this issue. I'm a hippocrit in that i sell striper gear but I still preach conservation. I'm one of the old crowd.. Been on the band wagon since I helped Bob Pond wage the war in the early 70's . We all know what needs to be done so what are we going to do about it ? I'm retired and will do what ever I can to help. WHAT ARE YOU WILLING TO DO TO HELP? Oh by the way --- you charters Capts-- Lets be real. I've been a Master Capt for 30 plus years. The future is what we releas/ e not the shack money we pocket. 30 plus yrs of Charters or a few yrs of commercial sales. MMMMM Let me think on this. MMMMM RON MCKEE ---- THE STRIPER MAINE _ IAC

i keep sayin
freshwater striper program for the bigger lakes
take the pressure off the salties...
sorry, i just have faith in Hatchery Science
and think trout are over rated distributionally (my word)

I'm a hippocrit in that i sell striper gear but I still preach conservation.


My exact thoughts when I walked by your booth at RI !

2004 was slow, 2006 was great, 2007 pretty pretty good, but it started going downhill then and became very noticeable 2009+

2004 was a cornucopia of fish compared to today


How is that hypocrite? Sure, technically we are all a bit hypocrite in that we fish but also want to reduce pressure on the fish - well, 'cept for the kill 'em all sort. But we don't need to take every last one, or the next to every last one. I actually think it is a good thing that someone can profit from something AND be a steward of that resource. Stripers are certainly a case where two in the bush are worth more than one in the hand.

Custom plugs don't kill any fish ? Haven't seen 1 with rubber hooks.
And last I checked custom plugs are not being given away free, matter of fact lots sell for stupid $




How is that hypocrite? Sure, technically we are all a bit hypocrite in that we fish but also want to reduce pressure on the fish - well, 'cept for the kill 'em all sort. But we don't need to take every last one, or the next to every last one. I actually think it is a good thing that someone can profit from something AND be a steward of that resource. Stripers are certainly a case where two in the bush are worth more than one in the hand.[/QUOTE]

Was bob pond a hypocrite?
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I'm not ready to give the stripers Piping Plover status quite yet . For those that are predicting " no fish for our kids " and other extreme outlooks then yes you are hypocritical if you sell tackle or even run a web site that promotes the catching of striped bass . Telling others they are greedy for selling fish or the chance to catch a fish and then satisfying your own hobby isn't cool.
The resource can be managed as a renewable one and it will be .
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Your logic is flawed. A person can release a fish and not take home or purposefully kill a fish for his entire life if he wanted to. Catch and release is conservation.
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What are we doing to help?

We just took a 50% reduction in our daily bag limit. As a charter operation, that had the potential to hurt our business, but we took what we felt was the long term approach to managing the future.

30+ pages bitching and complaining, Mass stood up, took a big reduction, and no one here even acknowledged it.
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This is what I remember and my logs indicate as well. Cheferson and I were crushing fish on eels all season long from 2004 up until 2007-2008ish. We would expect a 20# fish almost every outing. After that it started to go downhill fast. No big resident fish anymore, all dinks.

We had it good then. We had a #^&#^&#^&#^& ton of peanut bunker, too. Huge blues. Where the hell did they all go?!?

What I would give to go back to those days/nights....

[QUOTE=Raider Ronnie;1067155]Custom plugs don't kill any fish ? Haven't seen 1 with rubber hooks.
And last I checked custom plugs are not being given away free, matter of fact lots sell for stupid $


yup- money for nothing and chicks for free :). of course anyone who fishes will kill some fish, even the most skilled c@r will tell you this. the generally accepted kill rate for is 9%, compared to 100% for fish kept. most of my customers practice c&r for the most part with the occasional fish kept for the table. i believe it's possible to profit from this fishery and and promote conservation. i would think that anyone who profits from this fishery would want it to flourish for obvious reasons.

There is offshore
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So it's ok to kill some fish and profit from it if you are practicing your idea of conservation ? Would it be alright to drive the beaches if you only killed 9% of the plovers you drove over ?
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better that than the fish be gone
time will tell

push them over the brink and it may be too late

you can be a gambler, I'll stay conservative

fishing freak acknowledged it

maybe you missed Patricks' thread

A man can only be responsible for his own actions.
I attended just about every dog and pony show regarding striped bass over the last 3 years. Very few people did. I took the time off from my job, at money lost to me. I would drive in Fn traffic up to 120 miles round trip as did a handful of other people. I know it meant nothing to how things are run but it mattered to me.
From my own fishing over the last 10 years maybe I've kept 20 bass from thousands caught. Plug trebles are replaced on most of my lures with crushed barb singles. Using eels or macs I hit the fish quick to reduce the gut hooking. I use heavy enough tackle to get the fish in without being near death from the experience.
Plenty of us have a lot of time and money invested in chasing this fish. Not just Captains and plug makers.
We are all invested.
Just one man being true to himself.
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I will acknowledge it Jay. Step in the right direction. I know it
may hurt you and your dads biz a bit and glad your on board. A cut in the comm. take and a cut in the rec. take. All good and needed steps. So like you state we need to be happy measures are taking place. Some will say not enough and some will say too much but everyone will not be happy but at least the ball is rolling.
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maybe Patrick could come here and acknowledge he holds a commercial permit on his boat also
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Big jay. Thank you for your support ! I think some of us in Rhode Island have been hyper focused on only what is happening in Rhode Island.
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We are really all hypocrites unless you take all your fishing gear and lock it up for a number of years. Doesn't matter if your a rec, c&r, comm, charter, plug maker, tackle seller, interweb board member, club member.

The 9% release mortality rate does not discriminate, period.

Those of you that say you only keep a few a year for the table but c&r thousands have actually killed hundreds.....sorry, did I make you feel bad.....

Dead is dead.........it is called life and having fun.

When I think about it, I have killed allot of bass...........and so have you all.

So unless you pick up the golf clubs and sell all your fishing gear for 10 years we really talking about nothing.

Going to 1 @ 28 for a bit may be in the right direction to see where this is all headed. Unfortunatly, I don't think it will unless done ALL up and down the coast......and even this is a stretch. I put more of the blame on cyclical environmental conditions, gill nets, dragger bycatch, low inshore bait etc.

See you on the water.

No way you can make me feel bad about the C&R mortality, quite aware of it, price of business.
I agree that fishing kills no matter what you do, I just try to minimize what I can. I'd keep more bass if I liked eating them, I don't.





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Blaming charter boats for lack of shore sucess is the new kool.
Boat fish don't count
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y25...9D8DF12E67.jpg
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y25...9DA7BB40EF.jpg
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y25...9DAEE7F6B1.jpg
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y25...9DB3E51377.jpg
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Actually saw one of those bags of puss on Wollaston beach just before it froze over 2 months ago.
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I hung up my rods 2 years ago.
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BigJay - major Kudos to Mass for doing the responsible thing here.

As do people that kill what they catch - the difference is in the degrees. Do RI Charters keeping 2 fish, which slightly elevates, the total take, take less per person than those fishing recreationally? No.

Some charters may decide to keep just one or even none but it is better than two. I release 99+% of what I catch. Do you?

What tremendous amounts of money I do make on this site (trust me, it is not tremendous ;) ), some goes back in to promote responsible fishing practices.

[QUOTE=afterhours;1067165]And Ron - Charter Captains should be looking for a very healthy fishery as that benefits them as well.

A health fishery benefits EVERYONE that has an interest in stripers.

Well said !
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I didn't realize seals were a such a problem from NC to ME. I just assumed it was a lack of fish. I guess I am not seeing these seals storming the beaches here in CT; must be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
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Seals are way better fisherman than we. Any fish that had in their DNA to feed in shore has been wiped out. Cutting our numbers down will help the cause. We must do something about them! I haven't caught a dog fish, skate, fluke, flounder, sculpin, snagged a sand eel, seen a blue fish bliz from Shore , in years on the outer Cape since the seal crap happened. Just sayin

Trash fish used to be fun on a slow day for the kids on a hi-lo rig. No mas. Forget about getting a trophy on sand eels out there anymore. All those fish that used to hug the shore during the migration have been slaughtered.

And Ron - Charter Captains should be looking for a very healthy fishery as that benefits them as well.

A health fishery benefits EVERYONE that has an interest in stripers.[/QUOTE]



John,
Do you really think charter captains don't want a healthy fishery ?
This site is full of Hypocrites who say 1 thing and do another and there is lots here making $ off the fish.
This crap of guys are posting stuff like charters want 2 fish so they can sell them back door and we want to kill every fish possible is bull#^&#^&#^&#^&.

Ron - let me post this is in big and clear text.

Regardless if you make money off of them or not, whether you:

Commercially Fish for them
Sell the meat to others
Sell the Experience to others
Run a website
Sell tackle
Make tackle
Sell videos, Books, Artwork, jewelry or tattoos
Are a hardcore bass addict or you are a freickin beach bum with a passing interest in striped bass

The fishery benefits from having a better, thriving fishery with good numbers of fish distributed across all year classes.

As anglers, it behooves us to protect this fishery.

I am such a hypocrite that for 6-7 years now I have been an advocate for going back to pre-2006 Rec/Comm regulations, and then taking off another 33% of the take.

And yes, those numbers would require a closed season for recreational.

You seem to want every fish you can get your hands on - if not, then what do you want. What do YOU define as a healthy fishery?

When was the last year you entered SB in the On the Water tournament?
That speaks , with volume...
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3-4 years ago?

There was increasing concern over the condition of the fishery. People from here brought it up one year, voiced concerns, and we stayed in - one last push with an option to go in or out the following year. The next year, we opted out and did not enter a team.

You understand that it contradicts your previous position about 6 or 7 years I hope.

Glad you decided not to endorse that tournament none the less.
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Why do a couple of you keep rerunning this :bs: line? I haven't seen one post solely blaming charter boats. Let me make it simple for you. We are all the problem and 2@ for charter boats is bs.

6-7 years ago we decided to fish the Cup but made a consious effort to enter less fish in the process of participating. As things continued to degrade, we chose not to field a team. Watch, modify, adapt.