Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnR
I'm not hugely against commercial fishing for bass but I do think we need to take Rec & Comm back to when it was one fish for rec, 800K for commercial and THEN take a third off the top. That would put a dent in both.
We still gotta find out how legit this is and if so, does it have legs.
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Biggest problem I see with the commercial fishery is that the guys who are good are trained assassins. They can hover over a body of big fish and do some real damage. Bodies of fish are vulnerable to being wiped out if the fleet anchors up over their heads. If these guys take their 30 fish from a pod of 100, that's a third of a migrating or resident pod of fish that has likely been programmed (genetically) to run a certain route, breed a certain river. Take a third away--that's bad enough--but what about when the other 15 boats within binocular range come motoring over to drop their yo-yo's how many are left then?
I've seen some great hauls come into the commercial place near my house---seen many 50's and a 64 there. But they don't hold a candle to the thousands of 30's I've seen stiff and covered with crushed ice. It really does need to stop.
We should not support the Striper Cup either though... that list of pin winner is like Schindlers List for striped bass
A high percentage of the commercial guys DO NOT NEED TO BE FISHING TO SUSTAIN THEMSELVES ANYWAY. It's a double-paid vacation for them.
If we are to keep the commercial fishery alive, you should have to prove that commercial fishing makes up more that 50% of your yearly income.
-Dave