Quote:
Originally Posted by RIROCKHOUND
Right there is my BIGGEST problem with these org's.
No reduction in bag for stripers (for recs) but a complete clousre for commercials
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Why do commercials take the only hit?
If changes need to be made, do it on both sides of the ball. Bycatch and others are issues, but like flap mentioned, let's get it back to full-time commercial guys. Their catch is still remarkably lower than rec take. We need to tighten up the commercial regs (I sat in a meeting last year next to DZ and we were both amazed that a CT guys can still hold a RI commercial striper license... something aint right there.) AND drop the bag and up the size to1 fish @ 36". Unless the biology shows me otherwise (and I'm not smart enough to understand detailed fish biology) a slot limit is tougher to enforce, encourages more small fish poaching and is probably only supported by the light-tackle schoolie crowd who couldnt catch a 36" fish...
rant over
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Bryan,
You bring up the main reason that Stripers Forever doesn't advocate for a specific bag limit for stripers. You could get a dozen ardent anglers in a discussion and get no consensus among them on what the appropriate limits should be. If the fish were managed exclusively for recreational fishing the fisheries managers could stop worrying about killing every fish up to their target levels designed to reach "maximum sustainable yield", and worry about achieving a healthy population throughout the fish's age range. It would be easy to set bag limits coast-wide and recreational anglers would accept them. They may grouse and whine, but they'll accept them.
If you limited the commercial bass season in Massachusetts to "full- time commercial guys" (residents only), you could fit them all in a small room. I would assume the RI group would take an even smaller room.
Personally, I like the slot limits. The Maine reg of 1 fish between 20-26" OR one over 40" works just fine.Sure there are knuckleheads who don't adhere to the regs but that happens everywhere.
I've caught plenty of big fish. I release them because they are all female and the prime spawners in the population. Smaller fish taste better anyway. You kill those big fish why exactly?
Market gunning for ducks and geese ended seventy years ago. That was a few commercial guys squandering a public resource for personal gain. Stripers are a lot more popular as a public resource today than waterfowl were then. How about leaving a single fish species for the public?