Quote:
Originally Posted by Ed B
You say that to compare this law to freshwater laws is simplistic. I disagree. I grew up inland, in Worcester, freshwater fishing and continue to freshwater fish. Everybody who fishes inland faces exactly the same scenarios as you describe every summer. The law says get a license. It doesn't matter if you are only going one time to catch sunfish with a bobber and worm or have a $30,000 Ranger bassboat. Whoever you take out be it on fourth of July weekend at the lakeside barbecue or whatever, if they fish they need a license.
That probably does discourage some people from fishing, but what can you do.
I am not saying we should like it or agree with it and I see the inconvienience of it, but I don't see it as complicated unless your planning not to conform to the law.
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I'm not trying to defend anyone but I think numbskull's mindset going into this SW license is similar to mine.
When I buy my freshwater license, I pay for it without any reservation. I know that money from the license is helping fund the trout/salmon stocking programs, keep boat ramps
maintained in semi-usable shape and other useful funding programs.
On the other hand, I despise having to pay the $10 for my saltwater license. Why? Because the government is making me pay $10 to put my name on a list for their own ineffective research.
Here's how I see it playing out when the registry folks call fishermen.
Call someone who wants to prevent further limits on the fisher: "Yeah. I'm having an excellent year. Fish all over the place. Seems like there's nowhere you can go and not catch fish."
Call someone who doesn't care about keeping fish and wants gamefish status: "I fish 100 days per year and I'm having the worst year fishing than I've had in a long time. Seems like every year just keeps gets worse."
"Only believe half of what you see, and none of what you hear."
Using the general public's personal accounts is nonsense. You can't expect people to give reliable information (knowingly or unknowingly) in order to produce effective scientific research. How will they include the information from these surveys? "Well, from phone surveys conducted, the general consensus is that the Striped Bass are doing great."
I'm paying $10 towards an ineffective system that has been hastily enacted and, in my opinion, will not provide any lasting benefit to the fishing community aside from politicians finally realizing how many voters fish.