Lived an fished in California for a few years. It has a great fishery
but the size of most of the target species are what we would
consider bait. Mostly if you wanted a real bend in the rod you would
need to target the species in the shark/ray family, which I could
never get into. I stuck to targeting the California halibut.
lami steelhead rod and a vs100
You are right, we are lucky on this coast for the sake of the target
species and how unlike California, fishing in NE is more part of our
culture and is accepted. NE beach culture is biased to fishing, where
CA beach culture is biased to surfing. Anglers out there are sort of
outcasts...even more so than out here.
One day one of my buddies had some woman following him
screaming at him....."Don't Kill the Dolphins!!!!"....hahahaha.
Where california has a leg up on us...is in shore access. A california
angler or beach goer has access to nearly 100% of their shoreline.
In terms of tide pools. I would note that I have seen more life in a
Californian tide pool than in any here in the north east. I would say
its a fair request to limit trampling them, but I do not think its
enforced. Its sort of interesting as I remember the Cape as a kid
and we had more mollusks, starfish, and even remember catching
American eels in the surfline. Comparatively the same beaches today
are a wasteland. Some enforcement might seem extreme, but
consider what our culture in the northeast has done to our
resource. I see the suggestion in CA no different than
recommending to not dropkick short bass, bluefish, skates,
crabs....or any sea life if you can help it.
There are plenty of things that CA has done right with a lot of
controversy. Around 2009 they closed entire sections of water both
shoreline and inshore structure. Prime fishing areas closed.
https://www.wildlife.ca.gov/Conservation/Marine/MPAs
https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.a...=105396&inline
I sometimes wish we could pull the same thing off here in the
northeast...but know it could never happen.
I do not consider myself a conservationist, but do miss the
fishery we once had. I really feel our government has dropped the ball.