I think the bass are definitely on the decline. I have never been one to protest the comm guys but it looks to me that something needs to be done to get to gamefish status. The two most important states to address this are MA and MD, these two states account for most of the comm catch not to mention that MD is where most of the breeding takes place. I spent a week fishing on the Chesepeake with a couple "watermen" down there a few years ago. I was there in early May and it was horrifying to see the ways they killed fish. Hook and line, pound nets, seines: it was unbelieveable how many big breeding fish they could take and how easy it was for them to do it. If I could change one thing to help stripers it would be to make the MD comm guys only use hook and line if I couldn't make them a gamefish. Not to mention the 18" limit down there that makes so many fish keepers. Even though the big fish are better breeders keeping one 36" fish is still better than 8 18" fish on one boat. Also the pollution in the Chesapeake needs to be addressed but I think the comm fishing there is a bigger issue. It really looks like we haven't learned from our mistakes in the 80's and if we don't do something soon we are doomed to repeat it. Let's make the limit bigger and work towards gamefish status. Not trying to rant here just offering my opinion.
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