Striper Talk Striped Bass Fishing, Surfcasting, Boating - View Single Post

Mr. Sandman · 10-20-2008, 09:24 AM

No I disagree, a decade of low numbers and your dead, you not crashing...you are dead. You have to be proactive and look at the rates of decline. The so called "average" is not the "goal" The average includes years and years of bad spawns and distorted lows. Just reaching the average is not good enough, particularly when the so called stock is "healthy". Yes we have had a couple good spikes but they are not consistent, this is what is disturbing.

All this compounded by:

Comm discard going unreported and ignored.

comm black market. (which is also unreported but quite large actually)

Comm R&R exploiting their:
a) limits (by selling under their wife's, kids and even dogs licences when the fishing is good)
b) size limit...selling many sub 34" fish are taken and not sold to dealers but passed on to unlicensed entities (restaurants and other unlic'ed buyers)

Extreme bunker usage: These bunker guys (both buyers and sellers) are raping the resource that wasn't even here a few years ago. What bothers me is how hard it is being hit day after day and there is no reporting. Tackle shops (many unlic'ed) and fishermen are buying up bait from unlic'ed guys with nets and time on their hands and reselling for a quick buck and no one is saying boo. I estimate over 4000 bunker per day (conservative) were being used buy our small comm SB fleet daily and we don't even have bunker around this island.

MA DMF regs on comm fishing for RI and out of area guys is insane. I don't get it, how come they get to pound the living hell out of my back yard yet we can't fish theirs? Kick them out.

EEZ has been exploited foe decades and this year there was a lot of moaning from charter guys who "have been doing this for 20 years" and now got stopped and hassled every time out. It is about time they obey the law. Take away their charter ticket if the law is broken ONCE!

As far as the Rec take...show me the REAL numbers. There are a lot of OLD assumptions (developed by those with commercial interests) that come up how many fish recs take. Personally I see today's fishery by recs as largely catch and release and to be honest...most guys don't catch that many and don't go fishing very often. After going to a fluke meeting and listening to their logic on that species ("well...recs can tak 6 fish a day X 4 man per boat X 7 days a week for 168 fish per week!"...I swear this is what was said) What planet are these people on. What % of the recs fishes like that ? Sure some guys take a few fish home if they get lucky but it is not a day after day event with the same guys.
I would like to see it move to 1 fish in conjunction with stopping all R&R comm fishing for SB. The SB market could easily be made up just with the discarded by-catch. This would lower the number of ya-hoos and me-toos out there, take a huge burden off of the enforcement and improve the bait situation as well. Why are fishermen allowed to discard anything edible only to die? You know you see crowds of people protesting the few sharks that were brought in to a shark tourney (which, personally, I think is one the most conservative shark events going) but you don't hear squat about all the live edible fish shoveled over the side only to go belly up

It is not hard to see the writing on the wall. I was there in the late 60's 70s and 80's and I would like to see the fishery actually improve and stop exploitation for personal gain regardless of the "historical fishery" aspects. IMO you can not ignore the damage the comm guys are doing. The comm guys are complaining all the time that they are over restrict and can't fish enough days and the fishing sucks compared to the "good old days" when there were swordfish and tuna right offshore, codfish were plentiful, and bassfishing was strong...well it is the way it is today because they pounded the hell out of it during the "good old days". Most of these fishermen are short sighted uneducated morons who frankly are in it for a quick buck and they don't care about tomorrow. Get as much as you can as fast as you can and get the hell out of my way. This is their credo.

This is just a summary of a few the problems in my view. I can tell you it is time to take action. You know they will not know there is a problem until it is too late. The YOY index is a rear-view window to the fishery and you need to be VERY CONSERVATIVE with this resource....OT and somewhat unrelated but look how well did the "experts" did predicting these bank failures. They didn't downgrade a thing until the bottom fell completely out...thanks for the headsup.

ahh, I feel better now.

10-20-2008, 09:24 AM	#24
Mr. Sandman Registered User iTrader: (0) Join Date: Sep 2001 Posts: 7,649	No I disagree, a decade of low numbers and your dead, you not crashing...you are dead. You have to be proactive and look at the rates of decline. The so called "average" is not the "goal" The average includes years and years of bad spawns and distorted lows. Just reaching the average is not good enough, particularly when the so called stock is "healthy". Yes we have had a couple good spikes but they are not consistent, this is what is disturbing. All this compounded by: Comm discard going unreported and ignored. comm black market. (which is also unreported but quite large actually) Comm R&R exploiting their: a) limits (by selling under their wife's, kids and even dogs licences when the fishing is good) b) size limit...selling many sub 34" fish are taken and not sold to dealers but passed on to unlicensed entities (restaurants and other unlic'ed buyers) Extreme bunker usage: These bunker guys (both buyers and sellers) are raping the resource that wasn't even here a few years ago. What bothers me is how hard it is being hit day after day and there is no reporting. Tackle shops (many unlic'ed) and fishermen are buying up bait from unlic'ed guys with nets and time on their hands and reselling for a quick buck and no one is saying boo. I estimate over 4000 bunker per day (conservative) were being used buy our small comm SB fleet daily and we don't even have bunker around this island. MA DMF regs on comm fishing for RI and out of area guys is insane. I don't get it, how come they get to pound the living hell out of my back yard yet we can't fish theirs? Kick them out. EEZ has been exploited foe decades and this year there was a lot of moaning from charter guys who "have been doing this for 20 years" and now got stopped and hassled every time out. It is about time they obey the law. Take away their charter ticket if the law is broken ONCE! As far as the Rec take...show me the REAL numbers. There are a lot of OLD assumptions (developed by those with commercial interests) that come up how many fish recs take. Personally I see today's fishery by recs as largely catch and release and to be honest...most guys don't catch that many and don't go fishing very often. After going to a fluke meeting and listening to their logic on that species ("well...recs can tak 6 fish a day X 4 man per boat X 7 days a week for 168 fish per week!"...I swear this is what was said) What planet are these people on. What % of the recs fishes like that ? Sure some guys take a few fish home if they get lucky but it is not a day after day event with the same guys. I would like to see it move to 1 fish in conjunction with stopping all R&R comm fishing for SB. The SB market could easily be made up just with the discarded by-catch. This would lower the number of ya-hoos and me-toos out there, take a huge burden off of the enforcement and improve the bait situation as well. Why are fishermen allowed to discard anything edible only to die? You know you see crowds of people protesting the few sharks that were brought in to a shark tourney (which, personally, I think is one the most conservative shark events going) but you don't hear squat about all the live edible fish shoveled over the side only to go belly up It is not hard to see the writing on the wall. I was there in the late 60's 70s and 80's and I would like to see the fishery actually improve and stop exploitation for personal gain regardless of the "historical fishery" aspects. IMO you can not ignore the damage the comm guys are doing. The comm guys are complaining all the time that they are over restrict and can't fish enough days and the fishing sucks compared to the "good old days" when there were swordfish and tuna right offshore, codfish were plentiful, and bassfishing was strong...well it is the way it is today because they pounded the hell out of it during the "good old days". Most of these fishermen are short sighted uneducated morons who frankly are in it for a quick buck and they don't care about tomorrow. Get as much as you can as fast as you can and get the hell out of my way. This is their credo. This is just a summary of a few the problems in my view. I can tell you it is time to take action. You know they will not know there is a problem until it is too late. The YOY index is a rear-view window to the fishery and you need to be VERY CONSERVATIVE with this resource....OT and somewhat unrelated but look how well did the "experts" did predicting these bank failures. They didn't downgrade a thing until the bottom fell completely out...thanks for the headsup. ahh, I feel better now. Last edited by Mr. Sandman; 10-20-2008 at 09:30 AM..