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I play both sides of the coin.
Sadly, I do rely heavily on the scant income I earn from commercial fishing from SHORE. Yes, I do have a "real "job, but if it wasn't for the few bucks I am able to earn out fishing, I would not be able to fish the way I do and still pay my bills. I have never made a profit. I have been doin it since I was 18 yrs old when JT first showed me the ways of comm'n the backside of the cape.
That said, I remember the days of very few bass. We fished all the time growin up, but mostly all we caught were blue fish, and that's what we ate, and that's why I don't even eat fish.
As for when they had the limit at 36 inches, I remeber how proud I was when I finally got one.
I was actually very happy when they first put the limit at 2 fish, as it made the trips to the cape worth it. everyone I know wants fish, but they don't wanna catch them and they want them filleted. So many times i would make the hour and a half ride down, get out of the car, make 3 casts, and bang a big fish. Great, I was done if it was one fish. Never throw it back cause you may not get another one all nite.
Being able to take 2 fish Made it worth it.
I commercial fished a boat hard for a few years and we killed a lot of fish. There were also plenty of days of 14 hours of nothing.
As my great mentor TC always said, the most common denominator on his slips was "0".
Now I am out there almost every nite( well, not this year), but even still, I do not personally see any danger of the the bass stocks crashing again. Fish move and change their set up areas. You need to too.
Would a one recreational fish limit help? I absoluetly believe so. At this point in life, I am all for one fish at 36 inches.
Should they increase Mass's comm take? I absolutely feel they shouldn't.
I am not a bible thumpin advocate for the fish. Game fish status would never get a vote from me.
I fish to catch big fish and kill them. The bigger they are, the more of my friends and family i can help feed out of each fish. More bang for the buck.
Hate me for how i view it, but that's the way i feel. I am passionate about striped bass fishing. I don't even fish for anything else. My life and moment to moment thoughts revolve around catching striped bass.
However as much as I hate how our government "protects" us from so much, i am glad that they do something to try and protect this resource, as screwed up of an approach as they may take, at least it is SOME step, and that there are so many people that are more passionate and devoted than I to watching out for them.
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