Slot Limit Information
 

People have seen info on this previously. Here is some more useful
discussion on it. Shows what's actually happening now.

https://www.ecori.org/aquaculture/20...n-real-trouble

Thanks for posting.
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Game fish status, just imagine the fishing our kids or grandchildren could experience.

Bob, 12 years I have been preaching this. No one will listen.

Would game fish status put more pressure on other species? Just a thought...

maybe i am missing something,but i thought that gamefish status only stopped the sale of fish.

I am under the impression that it means no harvest.

I think that is correct. Don't think it in itself would be the solution to the problem. Game fish status with the slot would likely put us in good shape down the road, though a healthier ecosystem in the Chesapeake would really help.
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Too many poachers in high places.
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If so, not that big a gain in annual mortality me thinks.....

Overall pressure needs to be reduce, not just one segment.

But everybody gotta protect their own ricebowl

Yup, same here.

Maybe they could have like it like we did as kids.

unfortunatly nothing will ever be like it was when we older gents were kids,unless this coivd takes out a good portion of the population.

I wanted to make sure I was correct in my above statement. This comes from On The Water:
"When it refers to striped bass, “gamefish status” means a recreational-only fishery with no commercial sales of any kind. The central philosophy of this management tool is a determination that the economic value of striped bass as a sportfish so far outweighs its commercial value that allowing the non-fishing public access to this food source via commercial sales should be prohibited. If the total harvest quota remains the same, it has nothing to do with conservation and is purely an allocation issue – still a valid issue deserving a robust discussion. What if ending commercial sales improved recreational fishing opportunities from Maine to north Carolina, resulting in booming business for charter boats, tackle sales and tourism? Surely this would deserve at least a national debate. However, the debate over gamefish status often focuses on conservation, and simply taking fish away from the commercial fleet and giving it to the recreational fleet will not conserve one fish."
https://www.onthewater.com/ask-an-ex...amefish-status

The big argument I heard when this was brought up in the past was what is the point of taking the commercial harvest allotment and just giving it to the recs? It really would mostly just transfer dead fish from the stores and restaurants to the charter boats and rec freezers.

My own experience has been that the boat guys catch most of the fish. By making them gamefish, you’re moving the fish from one boat to another. Also would mean that only recreational boaters would get to eat
(very tasty) stripers. I know lots of folks here would like to catch more fish, but it’s hard to say what’s right.
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if it ever goes to gamefish status .it hAS to be catch & release for all ……….then just the poachers will be keeping fish .
that means the guy with his personal best . his sons 1st bass , or it was going to die anyway or just one.. will be as guilty as the known poacher ><>,:nailem:

If I was calling the shots, I would make the bass a gamefish with a slot. You could keep one fish between 28 to 32 inches long. Anything larger has to be released. Commercial fish could be 24”- 32” or something like that. But all breeders must be released. I’d pit a bounty on seals and cormorants and would protect the menhaden and herring in a better way than they are being protected now.
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X2


Sport fish status?

That and a slot to protect the large breeders.

the biggest problem is that there is no real limit for the number of fish that the rec sector can kill.there is no limit to the amount of the population that can fish for bass.as we have seen anytime in the last 60 years that bassfishing has been good people come out of the woodwork to fish

Have you seen the amount of menhaden around the last 2 years since changes were made by the ASMFC??? Last year, Plymouth north, including Boston, Newburyport, etc., had amounts of menhaden that were ridiculous;as of yesterday, Narragansett Bay is paved with pogie schools from Quonset to the Hurricane Barrier, both East and West Passages....Western LI Sound is the same...we don't have a problem with protecting large bait.....

Tell the herring that

...I was talking pogies…..as he mentioned "protect the menhaden" in his post.....

Go spend some time In The Chesapeake where the majority of bass spawn. Omega Protein vacuums up the ponies down there like a drunken sailor.
When you catch thin racer bass or as I call them baseball bats in the spring you can assume that they were not having much luck finding food down south.
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