What would you do now?

[Back Beach]

I have a personal attachment to the rod and reel commercial surf fisherman aspect of the game due to its historical significance, as well as it being what I first learned. To gain a perspective on what it really was you had to be there and participate, thus it would become part of your formative core as a surf fisherman. It’s a dead vocation now for a lot of reasons, and has been since the early 80’s, but still remains part of my core, because it’s what I first learned. I never got rich off it, but rather the $$ I did earn made it possible to spend more time on the water, which was really the goal.
With all the historical stuff being discussed lately, let’s hear your thoughts on what you would do if given yesterday’s set of circumstances to operate under today. Be honest and consider your personal implications before you answer. Use the following criteria to formulate your answer:

Given:

1. 16” size limit.
2. Adjusted for inflation and cost of living, a ten pound fish would fetch you $ 50, perhaps more.
3. A decent night of schoolie fishing could fetch you $400-$500 in today’s dollars. A good week you might earn a few thousand dollars, maybe more.
4. No possession limits, keep all you wanted.
5. No license required
6. Stock levels of fish not an issue.
7. Poor economy.

What would you do?

[nightprowler]

same thing as many before me...sell every last fish i caught.

[JFigliuolo]

I'd go commercial. But alas, times have changed...

[Flaptail]

If all the criteria were as you stated and living on the Cape where it is a bit harder to keep up with the Joneses because it

a. has to come over the bridge
b. "This is the cape and we don't pay like over the bridge in the USA"
c. My wife and I work for school districts and alas, though we have a great benefit package the down side is the salry is low.
d. And since "c" must be considered and we are part of the vanishing middle class, even more so on the Cape, who are not poor but one check away with one daughter in college and one more going next year.

I would spend every sapre moment not at work catching every "legal" bass I could and lay them on the concrete floor of Falmouth Fish market.

Now, that being said, I put myself through Community College and supplemented my income in the "black bread " years of recently married and buying a home on the Cape with catching and selling bass. I sold my last fish in the late fall of 1986. I loved those days, cannot get it out of my psyche, it's a part of me. I did it and I am not sorry. It helped pay bills when there was no other money to be had.

[striprman]

100 pounds + 1 fish payed for gas

[Slinger]

I did it for years and I would do it again. Screwed out of unemployment and still out of work. If this continues guess where I`ll be come July? Those were the best times of my life, I haven`t sold a bass in more than 20 yrs. and fish with fly only now but I`ve still got my eeling rods and remember how to use them.
Slinger

[fishonnelsons]

As long as stock levels of fish are not an issue: fish, fish, fish, sell, sell, sell.

[Mike P]

Originally Posted by Back Beach

I have a personal attachment to the rod and reel commercial surf fisherman aspect of the game due to its historical significance, as well as it being what I first learned. To gain a perspective on what it really was you had to be there and participate, thus it would become part of your formative core as a surf fisherman. It’s a dead vocation now for a lot of reasons, and has been since the early 80’s, but still remains part of my core, because it’s what I first learned. I never got rich off it, but rather the $$ I did earn made it possible to spend more time on the water, which was really the goal.
With all the historical stuff being discussed lately, let’s hear your thoughts on what you would do if given yesterday’s set of circumstances to operate under today. Be honest and consider your personal implications before you answer. Use the following criteria to formulate your answer:

Given:

1. 16” size limit.
2. Adjusted for inflation and cost of living, a ten pound fish would fetch you $ 50, perhaps more.
3. A decent night of schoolie fishing could fetch you $400-$500 in today’s dollars. A good week you might earn a few thousand dollars, maybe more.
4. No possession limits, keep all you wanted.
5. No license required
6. Stock levels of fish not an issue.
7. Poor economy.

What would you do?

To be perfectly honest, I'd sell them. My family comes before the fish and the sensibilities of C&R advocates.

[numbskull]

Would I fish for schoolies for cash, rather than hunting large fish for fun? No way. Making money is work, work is what I do to survive and feed my family. Fishing is for fun, fun is what I do for my sanity. Turning fishing into work would lessen the quality of my life. Might I keep a big fish to sell, yes.

[Slipknot]

I can deal with yesterdays circumstances

quote " what you would do if given yesterday’s set of circumstances to operate under today. "

But to operate under today, that may be a little bit competitive and might get a bit nasty given the volume of fishermen today. Number 7 says a lot to me " poor economy" well that may be enough to put me over the edge and take up full time fishing for 4-5 months if cabinet work is slow. Gotta pay the bills somehow, I am not beneath slinging eels for cash. A 40 for 200 bucks? hell ya I'd sell them.

[Pete F.]

Sold

[NIB]

Ur senario is kinda one sided..
Pretty much leaves me no option but to join in with everyone else an wipe out the fishery..
Those who do not learn from history.
Are bound to repeat it

[rivsie11]

I would sell. Can anyone really say the would not have? How many people were really concerned with conservation back then?

[Marc Z]

Interesting Post.
I'd sell everything I could and would fish even more than I do now.

[NIB]

I would become a teacher..
Those who can't....
Summer over on some plover beach.
Jam my family in some wagoneer.Rymes with F@#$%in Q*&%R..
While torturing them as we try to live off of the virtue of a fish.
As the familygets real thin..
I develope a drinking problem.
Helps to quite the talking dog..
I drink an drive while letting my imagination run wild.
So what the truck is wet...The dog is dead.
The drinking does help.I come up with a few books mostly fiction..
Get my OWN internet forum..
Claim some great notoriety squashing all naysayers with the delete button. while my lame asss ding fries are done internet minions gravel at my Salt encrusted feet.
Kiss my toes or be deleted...
Hahahahahahaha....

Na,I couldn't do that it's been done before..

[eelman]

Without hesitation I would sell its what I always did when I had a licence, I also have a fondness for the commercial rod and reel fishery, I should have never let my licence lapse...Its also the way I started after about the first year of fishing, I never got rich either but it paid my expenses and equipment. So again, I would sell , Also most of the commercial guys I have met and that I know currently are some of the nicest most helpfull people around..completley different mindset from the recs...They are like a family and take care of one another both on the water and off, you need something, there right there to help.Look no further than "SBs" Own Clammer, guy would do anything to help a friend, I know from experiance..Yup I love all aspects of the rod a reel commercial fishery.If I get enough landings on my Licence now, I have a good shot at a bass stamp in 08!!

[Backbeach Jake]

Originally Posted by NIB

I would become a teacher..
Those who can't....
Summer over on some plover beach.
Jam my family in some wagoneer.Rymes with F@#$%in Q*&%R..
While torturing them as we try to live off of the virtue of a fish.
As the familygets real thin..
I develope a drinking problem.
Helps to quite the talking dog..
I drink an drive while letting my imagination run wild.
So what the truck is wet...The dog is dead.
The drinking does help.I come up with a few books mostly fiction..
Get my OWN internet forum..
Claim some great notoriety squashing all naysayers with the delete button. while my lame asss ding fries are done internet minions gravel at my Salt encrusted feet.
Kiss my toes or be deleted...
Hahahahahahaha....

Na,I couldn't do that it's been done before..

NIB, you a funny, funny man!

[Flaptail]

Originally Posted by NIB

I would become a teacher..
Those who can't....
Summer over on some plover beach.
Jam my family in some wagoneer.Rymes with F@#$%in Q*&%R..
While torturing them as we try to live off of the virtue of a fish.
As the familygets real thin..
I develope a drinking problem.
Helps to quite the talking dog..
I drink an drive while letting my imagination run wild.
So what the truck is wet...The dog is dead.
The drinking does help.I come up with a few books mostly fiction..
Get my OWN internet forum..
Claim some great notoriety squashing all naysayers with the delete button. while my lame asss ding fries are done internet minions gravel at my Salt encrusted feet.
Kiss my toes or be deleted...
Hahahahahahaha....

Na,I couldn't do that it's been done before..

I know someone from south central Massachusetts like that.......

[Karl F]

Nib ..
yeah, but could ya shoot the nutz off a field mouse, whilst riding horseback?.. could you invent flyfishing the surf, while guzzling cheap scotch in a Souse American Bordello? but. that was back when men wore their hats with the visors facing forward.

Too funny...but ya know.. it sounds like Hearsay to me.
And the emperor's new clothes.. egads man.. he's nekkid!

A little bit back on track.. todays world.. with plentiful stocks, and not knowing we could wipe it out... fill the buggy.. get a check.. it's a no brainer...
there were no innocents then, and there would be none today, if the circumstances were the same...
ya can't fault those in the past for what they did.. they thought it would never end.

[eelman]

I dont think a rod and a reel can desimate the stocks.......

[afterhours]

i did it back in the 80's in ri and ma. my bussiness was doing marginal $$, had a boat and knew how to catch fish. i did what i had to do in my eyes at the time. funny thing is i became one of the biggest c & r advocates for the next 20 yrs, just started taking a couple of fish per year recently.

[NIB]

Originally Posted by #^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&

I dont think a rod and a reel can desimate the stocks.......

Thats a valid arguement.
We can only catch em when they want to eat..
You have to admit..
The shear numbers of anglers today make it a scary proposition..

[RIROCKHOUND]

NIB...
two posts up..
funny f'ing Sh-t

I dont know what I would do.
My father and my grandfather were commercial rod and reel on the side for years, into my youth a bit we sold... I remember scupping cause the price was good

I think that it would become a scary game w/ the number of guys now. Both surf and boat... look at how competitive and stupid people get for OTW, MS or other tournaments... hell no truck would be safe if we were selling again...

right now, as a grad student and part time captain/bartender/whatever I have to to tell you I would be selling.. I dont catch as much as most but I do OK, and I would be covering at least the cost of my fishing expenses now and some minor supplementing of income. But we're not, so I'll keep my 10 or so a year and enjoy being out there...

[Flaptail]

In my days where I would sit and watch Stan Gibbs make plugs in the cellar of his little cottage "factory" behind his house in Sagamore I can remember him telling me of the 40' and 50's when there were so many guys fishing that on the canal when tides were good for daybreak breaking fish you would have to get there at 1 in the morning to get and claim your spot. Sometime he told me that they would elect one guy from theIr group, when fishing was really hot, to camp at the spot over night and watch the rods positioned in the rocks for the other guys so that when they got there thier spot was reserved already.

Yes we have a lot of guys ( and women) today fishing but there have been times in the past that had as much if not more pressure, especially the years just after WWII.

[Back Beach]

Originally Posted by Flaptail

In my days where I would sit and watch Stan Gibbs make plugs in the cellar of his little cottage "factory" behind his house in Sagamore I can remember him telling me of the 40' and 50's when there were so many guys fishing that on the canal when tides were good for daybreak breaking fish you would have to get there at 1 in the morning to get and claim your spot. Sometime he told me that they would elect one guy from theIr group, when fishing was really hot, to camp at the spot over night and watch the rods positioned in the rocks for the other guys so that when they got there thier spot was reserved already.

Yes we have a lot of guys ( and women) today fishing but there have been times in the past that had as much if not more pressure, especially the years just after WWII.

You're right Flap. Guys only think it is more crowded/competitive today.The race used to look like the parking lot at the pats games, and there was a lot of animosity between the "posses". If anything, most of the environments we fish in today are real low key IMO. I painted the picture in the first post just to set the stage a little. Bottom line is the money thing makes you do things that ordinarily wouldn't happen otherwise. I still lie to people though, I can't shake it.