Ohhhh so many posts so little time - Ol PJ's, I am a RECREATIONAL angler that has never sold a bass and unless something drastically were to change with the fishery and we had ten times as many as today, I have no intention of doing so either. I have never sold a fish that I caught and I keep less than a dozen fish per year.
What I have done is participated in fisheries meetings for the past 7 or 8 years. I look at the data and try to make an unemotional response that is reasonably good for the sport AND the fish.
I also believe in being not an exclusionist. Many of the issues we have today is that one group tries to exclude another. When the Sierra Club tries to remove all offroading at say CCNS instead of a balance management plan and balanced regs, they are attempting to EXCLUDE guys like you and me and some bird watchers from getting an OSV permit and taking our vehicles on the beach. When someone like the Ocean Conservancy excludes anglers from fishing in the Cali Channel Islands (or eventually here - and it is coming folks - don't kid yourselves) that is a case of one group EXCLUDING another. When any one user group attempts to remove another user group, I have a problem with it. In my opinion it becomes self serving to try to remove one group for access to a fish when it will likely benefit another.
As for whether the bass have truly recovered? That's debatable. It can surely be considered recovered when it has filled out its year classes in addition to just biomass et all.
I fought against two fish for recs AND increasing the quota for comms in mass. I fight for reduction of netting of menhaden and herring and forage fish. I voice my opinion for effective management of a resource, not excluding one group out of it. Yes, I would like to see a decrease in the TAC for commercials and I'd also like to see a reduction for recs.
To me, I'd like to see striper bycatch go against the commercial quota and be sold, not thrown overboard. I think that is fair and equitable. Sucks, but I'm not bycatching bass. If I do catch and release a bass, I try very hard to release it safely, some will still die no matter what. Anyone that says they release every fish they catch and every single one lives is still full of crap or delusional - some will still die. Sad but true... But I digress.
So maybe you can say I have an axe to grind - yeh maybe, but its not petty enough to be at the expense of another user group. It's about balance and fairness AND the fish.
Now without being accusatory, let the debate continue
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