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Just some random thoughts; take them for what they're worth (not much?).
I was mate on a charter boat during the mid-80's. We did not target striped bass, but we did catch a lot of blues. The charters usually had us keep all of the fish, but when we got back to the dock, they did not want all of the fillet. This makes sense, right?
Same charter boat; we spent 6 weeks primarily targeting giant bluefin, per customer request. They would sign a release before the trip that the boat would own any fish caught. Fishing for no meat, just for the opportunity to battle a bluefin. Want to know how many days we went out and did not even have a bait hit? And the customers always tipped me, fish or no fish. I guess they had a good time spending their cash and catching nothing.
Limits are for honest anglers. Look through the police reports (RISAA newsletter makes it easy) and look at all of the dishonest anglers that are unlicensed keeping a variety of undersized fish and more than their limits. Do you think that they even care that there is a regulation?
Why not explore making recreational fisherman (that are honest!) be required to have a tag to kill a bass and bring it home? You'd have to buy them at the beginning of the year, when all of us honest guys buy our fishing licenses. I'd probably buy 2 for my family of 3. If I had a desire to eat more than that, I could buy fish at the market. If I didn't keep 2 fish during the year, oh well. More money in that "earmarked" fund for the state that gets funnelled into the general budget. At least with this kind of system, we could start to get an idea of how many dead fish honest fishermen would like to bring home in a year.
Yeah, I know. There is no budget to enforce any of it. I have encountered 2 environmental officers in the past 5 years. One on an October night at a popular beach location and once on a rainy October day at a Connecticut launch ramp. I had not kept any fish on either occasion, so they didn't have much to check.
Beat me up as you wish. I have thick skin.
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