Quote:
Originally Posted by paradoxjim
As rec guys, do we really need a 2 fish bag limit? Seriously, 1 legal fish provides more than a couple of meals for my family (only 3 of us) and I don't need to keep too many fish over the course of a year to stock my freezer. I'd be good with a 1 fish limit; I never harvest more than 1 at a time.
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We have been saying exactly this for years. 1, 36" fish. Think of all the 28 to 34" fish that would breed once or twice or 3 times. Personally I caught well over 300 fish that are what is called "keepers" this year. So far, I have kept 3. One more for New Years eve dinner and that's it. I see people at the canal kill 2, 28" fish and walk away thinking they are heros. They didn't live thru the moratorium nor do they remember the late 80s when if you caught 3 schoolies (on the mainland) it made news everywhere.
I think we are headed down hill. Not as rapidly as in the last disaster as there are more regs in place but we are seeing a repeat of the pattern. Less little fish. More big fish.
I am working on an article that talks of making the Striper a game fish. The State of Florida did it with Snook as they were almost wiped out. Now there is an extremely healthy population of Snook that yield millions of dollars in recreational fishing. It wasn't popular when it was enacted and I'm sure that if the Striper were to be made a game fish with no netting or commercial rod and reel season there would be an uproar. Never the less, in the long term, it may be the right thing for the survival of the species.
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