Comercial rod striper season

[stripermaineiac]

Hi all , Seems like I hit some sore spots. Well 1st I don't post on SOL.Second I base my points on both passion for the fish an for the decline in the large fish we see in Maine ever since the Rod an Reel season started in Mass. We were told it would have no affect on our fishery up here. Within a year of it starting in the mid 90's the number of large fish we saw up here started to decline.My catch totals of stripers over 40 in went from almost 500 fish in a season to less than 250 the next. Most of which were released, many with ALS tags in them, one over 50lb.The tag returns that I got were landed right in the middle of the commercial season in Mass. The next season it was under 200 fish an from then till now it's gone down to just a tad over 3 dozen stripers over 40 in landed. Sad part is I'm one of the hard cores thats out there beating the water all the time. Remember the name stripermaineiac. Few people up here in Maine even see a fish over 40 in anymore. As far as the migration goes well the fish will follow the food and migrate as long as they feel like it due to water temps,food an sun angles.Remember the seasons are changing thats why we are seeing stripers up here as later as December now.
The numbers are showing as to whats landed by the number of comercial fishermen that were in the Striper cup winners. The affect is seen in the things like the MV Derby when there are few stripers over 40 inches even weighed in. Good thing they dropped their size limits to 32 inches. There wouldn't have been very many stripers weighed in if they hadn't.
The point is that thanks to electronics we have become way to efficient at killing off the fish that we love. You add this to the by-catch issues an well reality is we are on our ways backwards. I fish the coast from Conn to Maine regularly.When I hear many of the charter guides complaining that the number of large fish is way down then I start to worry. They are on the water daily and if they are having a hard time finding large breeders then we need to take a pause at what we are doing.
As far as comparing commercial fishing to sportfishing well lets really compare notes. how many weekend or evening fishermen really catch more than a few fish a yr.I do beleive they statistic people say there are several million sportfishermen out there.The season was what around 30 days with 30 fish per seller. An how many were in the selling game? 1000 maybe 2000. Thats a lot of breeder size striped bass killed for some extra cash like the new stellas an custom rods some used the money for,or the new motor on a couple center consoles. remember I know a lot of you that are doing the commercial rod n reel so don't go gettin pious on me. I' know I'm starting a big debate on this. I'm gonna do this as much as I can to see if things can be changed. I don't want to go back to the times like the moritoium.
Yes there are some serious issues like the bait an so on. These need to be taken care of also. With out food the striper population will continue to dwindle. We have all seen an destroyed sick stripers that are deseased or starving. I feel very strongly on this as I have seen the results ist hand. Yup I have had some nice fishing with the small fish but even these are starting to dwindle in numbers.
Hey listen guys we need to be smart an don't shoot ourselves in the foot for a little greed. It happened before an guess what it's starting to happen again. As far as me staying up here in Maine well I fish the Mass waters more than a lot of you that live down there. These are all of our fish not just a select few that want to add to the wallet. We need to make some changes . I'd love to see the big fish return but it won't happen if they are wipped out for a buck. As far as Stripers Forever well I'm a member of that as I've been a member of Stripers Unlimited for almost 40 yrs now and CCA along with being a member of MSBA a few times an MBBA a few times along with several other clubs. Funny though it seems that a lot of these clubs all were active in the restoration an are also active with each other for the preservation of the fish of our passion. The Striped Bass
Take the time to really stop and think about it. Tight lines Ron

[zimmy]

I thought I posted on this earlier, but I don't see it... Anyway, if you are really concerned you should recognize and address the fact that according to the 2002-2004 numbers, including adjustments for bycatch for comms and release mortality for recs, recs take roughly 70% of the catch by numbers and total weight. One can argue that comms take bigger fish, bycatch is greater than calculated etc, but there is really no denying that the rec impact is dramatically, awesomely greater. Get rid of all commercial bassing and you still have huge #'s of bass killed. I have the same general concerns about the fishery as you, but believe we (recs) are the ones who may need greater restraints and asmfc and nmfc needs its ashstesh arranged for the pathetic bunker limits and other actions. Blaming it on the comms, let alone rod and reel comms will do nothing to fix a huge ecological problem.

[riverrat55]

Wow!!!
Nothing like inviting new members to post on this site???
And you wonder why with all these members that only a few post comments?

[Squid kids Dad]

Hi Ron...Didnt see you this year on MV.....

[piemma]

Listen to what is being said. IT'S THE BAIT!!!

For the first time in 20 years plus we had large bunker in upper Narragansett Bay late in the season. If you snagged a few and knew where to go you could catch 25 to 30 pound fish till your arms fell off.
Now the bunker have migrated out of the Bay and down the Coast and everyone is saying that the Bass are in trouble.
There are tons of Bass. I caught more 30 pound fish this year than ever in my life because I found the big bunker. If we get the Ark Bait boats out of the bay there will be more and more large Bass. You can't support a large bio-mass on peanut bunker. A 40# fish needs a lot of food to sustain itself and Bunker have the highest protein and fat content of any forage available in the NE. It's just common sense.

The Bass will go to where the food is. BI is close to dead this Fall...at least from shore... because there is no large bait present. We use to have the Blueback Herring in the Fall all around the Island. Now the Russian trawlers have suck all of them up. Thus no bait...no bass.
Look at the Outer beaches. Worse season in years. WHY??? The Seals have scooped up all the bait. Common thread here. BAIT BAIT BAIT!!!! Solve the bait problem and the Striper population will take care of itself. The commercial fishing community has virtually no affect on the Bass population.

[Back Beach]

[JohnR]

Ron - read what Piemma said - Bait = Bass. In RI for a while it was dead unless you had the bunker, NJ had unbelievable fishing (I'm told) for far longer than normal because they had tons of bait. Boston had mediocre fishing because of lack of bait, Block, lack of bait, Cape lack of bait. \

THAT is the trend. These guys hit the nail with the fact that the overwhelming take is from Rec fishing. If you reduce / remove the comm fishing of large fish (Mass) you will slightly improve that stock. If you REALLY want to reduce the culling of larger bass put on a 40% reduction of take to COMs AND Recs.

If you REALLY Want to fix the fishery - FIX THE BAIT...

Hi all, see Ron a few times a year, at shows, fishing somewhere, out at The Derby. He is as passionate about bassing as any of us. So give him a little break (not too much though ). I don't think he has been through this exhaustive drag out battle before....