I was just trying to add some comic relief Chris.

I'm pretty sure he was insulting you...and you clearly were insulting him :devil2: :hihi:

Man this is bringing back some memories of BI.

Ever wonder what the carbon footprint for the mining, battery and motor manufacturing, electrical generation etc to get an e car rolling is ?
I don’t but would assume it not as green as we may be led to believe.
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Again... What are you smoking?

Sure, the eels that are currently in the tank will die, but if less eels are used, the tackle shop will re order less eels and less eels will die.

I use eels - always have (although not as much in recent seasons) - probably always will unless they are protected.

What I find very interesting is the "all hands on deck" approach by the recreational fishing community to protect the menhaden and that species is not even close to being declared "depleted". Of course the real reason many want to protect the menhaden is because they make catching striped bass infinitely easier.

Yet the lowly eel is screaming for protection but we only focus on the elver, with little support from that same recreational community - why? Because eels make catching striped bass easier ;)

We are a strange lot.

Maybe i'm helping the eel population and didnt know it. i usually buy a dozen and end up letting 6 go.

Keep your dead eels and use them... Over and over again until you lose them.
I have had great success using eels out of my freezer. My personal best came on a freezer burned 2-year old eel that was in and out of the freezer countless times. (You guys never saw weekend at Bernie's??)

Nothing right now, I ran out of the stuff I bought in Colorado last winter. :)

No they won't, if the tackle shops order less eels the remainder will be sold for food. No commercial eel fishermen is going to release their catch. The only way that would happen is of the price fell through the floor, unlikely given the current state of the population and the demand.

Hey! What's this?

I'm rigging more and abusing less. And I am self administering Rx Vivitrol to stifle my cravings

DZ- my thought is that tens of thousands of miniature eels are scooped up out of the population every Spring, and that's starts the domino effect of having fewer and fewer eels to get bigger..... I'm not completely opposed to restrictions on taking eels in the later stages of life, but I think the greatest damage gets done by the wanton removal of the tiniest ones

The "tiniest ones" are the least likely to make it to spawning age.

yeah- especially if you've been scooped up in a net and sold to Japan

Let me put it this way, which do you think has the bigger impact on the population; one glass eels scooped up in the spring or one silver eel killed on its spawning run by a turbine?

they're both one eel....



but glass eels are removed by the thousands before they ever get close to spawning

(Mike- we've had this debate before- I know you're never gonna see it my way, and vice versa..... :) )

Bobber-
This is like other populations. More impact when removing a breeder. Having a chance to spawn matters for genetic diversity. For population size, removing a breeder has dramatically more impact on population than removing an elver. Removing millions of elvers: bad; removing tens of thousands of adults for bait: equivalently bad.
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Minor point, most of the eels we use for bait are not adult, silver eels, they are immature yellow eels. Eels don't reach maturity until jus before they begin their spawning run.

You certainly might be right, but that is not how I understood it. I understood that maturity is basically relative to size. Males around 11" and females around 16-18" are sexually mature. The anatomical and yellow color changes occur prior to the actual spawning run. Probably talking semantics and/or my understanding is outdated.

eels
 

I have been thinking about this thread. First to say I am guilty of using eels. I try to rig them so I will get more use. I also trap eels and try to get a few (one or two) big ones for skinning and use the meat for blue crab bait. But the more I think of it we are all guilty of bad steward ship of the earth and its inhabitants. Is it ok to hook and possibly injure a fish just to let it go? I remember distinctly having a hook come around and hook a bass in the gills or slip around and hook it in the eye. Other times I continue to fish even if I know there are only schoolies around. If I care about the future of striped bass why do I continue these practices? I think humans are by our nature not good for the planet. In almost every example I can think of any interaction between people and this planet is not good for the earth and our planet. We use up the planets resources at an incredible rate. There are just too many of us. I think its getting to a point where all nations will have to fight for what's left of the resources of the world. I have come to believe that fisheries management is just a fancy way of saying how do we divide what's left of the resources. . for example how many bass do we give the commercials how many do we give the recs and how many do we give to the for hires. Same is true for eels how many to japan how many for bait. Sorry for the long winded post guess I am feeling down after a brutal bass season (I don't fish the canal).

Rather lengthy stock assessment update. The tables starting on page 46 are very interesting. Didn't realize rec possession limit for CT,RI, MA is 25 per person. Wonder how many bait shops limit customers to purchasing 25?

eels per pound
 

This year I asked a bait shop in Massachusetts (not one that I deal with on a regular basis so I know they were not bending the rules to accommodate a good customer). I asked to buy eels in bulk to get a better price and they told me I would have to purchase at least four pounds worth. Four pounds of eels that has to be a lot more than 25 eels. I am sure that regulation is not being observed by many bait shops.

not to completely change the subject, but possession limit discussion brings to mind a scenario I always wondered about...

Years ago when you could keep 2 bass per day, I was getting on the ferry at block. A guy I was talking to says " i just spent 3 nights here.. limited out every night... look!) he opens his cooler and reveals 6 bass.

So my question: isnt he technically in violation of being in possession of 6 bass on the spot, even if he caught them (lets assume) legally over 3 days?

I told the guy I think its against the law... and he should learn to fillet fish. but maybe even having that many fillets is a violation also if he doesnt have racks... gets blurry!

A POSSESION limit is just that. He was in violation. Infact if I remember correctly an SB member got ticketed this year or last for doing something similiar. X fish per day * Y days = fines.

You are absolutely correct, he was breaking the law. But it is also a law that makes little sense in a lot of contexts. if you go to the fish market and buy two striped bass, you are technically in violation.

Depending on the size of the eels 4 pounds may well be less than 25 eels. The bait shops don't have to observe the 25 eels possession requirements, they have a different set of rules. IIRC they are allowed to have a few hundred eels in posession.