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Based on the record 1996 year class, we should be seeing a flood of schoolies in the 18"-24" range right now. I'm afraid that year class has already been hammered.
I think the 40 fish per boat bag allows a concentration of fish to be hammered day after day until it's fished out. Last few years, there was a big school of 20-40 pound fish stacked up on Scorton Ledge, and boats were limiting out every day the fishery was open. The Mass commercial season is supposed to end Sept 30, but ever since they went to the present system, they season has never made it to the end of August before the quota was filled. And given the lag between the compiling of reports and their digesting by DMF, the quota is always exceeded by several thousands of pounds. There is good and bad in Mass' commercial fishery. The good is that it's hook and line only, and the size limit is high enough to allow most of the fish that are removed to have spawned once. The bad is that it allows virtually anyone to buy the license and sell their catch, and the vast majority of guys selling bass in the Commonwealth don't make their living from selling fish. It's not fair, given the small quota and short season, to the full-timers.
I'd like to see some changes coast-wide. I think a one fish daily recreational bag limit is more than fair. Size limits should be such to ensure a balance of year classes in the population. If there are 3 consecutive poor YOY indices, the limit should be raised to 36" coastwide. The collapse in the 80s resulted in part from a series of poor year classes, and they imposed the moratorium and 36" limit to protect the 1982 year class until they spawned once. By 1989, the YOY index jumped from an average of 3-4 to over 26. That one single spike in the YOY index allowed the re-opening of the commercial fishery, as it hiked the average for it and the two years preceeding it to over the target range of 8. Rather than an across the board 40 fish daily commercial bag, Mass should consider having a separate "recreational sale" fishery, where you can buy the license and keep maybe 3 a day over 36" to sell, as is the case in Rhody, under the present 4 days on, 3 days off system. Legit commercials who can document via tax returns that they derive the majority of their annual income from the sale of seafoood could still enjoy the 40 fish a day bag, and a longer seaon, without having part-timers eat into their livelihood.
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