Stripers Forever

[tunaless greg]

Do like they do for RSA's and make all users buy their fish. You will create one market for striped bass. Whether you are rec, commercial or a charter boat, you have to buy your fish, get your tags (like many have recommended) and you decide what you keep for the year. Every kept fish has to have a tag. It works pretty well on the commercial side in ny. So the market will determine this argument. If the bass are going for $20 a fish, and a commercial guy can get $50 a fish, he will buy more tags. if the rec guys drive the price of a tag to $100, well the commercial or charter will probably buy less. The # of tags is the tac for the yr, divided by average weight of the fish. So on the mass commercial side we get a million pounds, avg sale weight, call it 20 pounds= 50,000 tags. Add that to the what the rec side gets (estimated) and call it 200,000 tags. Create some limitations so no one can corner the market, and the govt has now maximized the value of the resource. All the users will have to adapt. I know no one like this, but it is the fair, american way to do it.

[JohnnyD]

Originally Posted by tunaless greg

The # of tags is the tac for the yr, divided by average weight of the fish. So on the mass commercial side we get a million pounds, avg sale weight, call it 20 pounds= 50,000 tags. Add that to the what the rec side gets (estimated) and call it 200,000 tags. Create some limitations so no one can corner the market, and the govt has now maximized the value of the resource. All the users will have to adapt. I know no one like this, but it is the fair, american way to do it.

Cue anyone with deep enough pockets registering 100 LLC's and purchasing the maximum number of tags they can under each.

I support a tagging program for recreation fishing and *required* weekly reporting by charter boats. The commercial guys already have to report their catch. People will definitely under-report, just like people sell to the back door of a restaurant, but it will limit the recs who take their limit every chance they can and it will provide more accurate estimates on the number of bass killed.

[MakoMike]

Originally Posted by JohnnyD

I support a tagging program for recreation fishing and *required* weekly reporting by charter boats. The commercial guys already have to report their catch. People will definitely under-report, just like people sell to the back door of a restaurant, but it will limit the recs who take their limit every chance they can and it will provide more accurate estimates on the number of bass killed.

All charter boats that hold a federal license are already required to report on each trip. I'd guesstimate that close to 100% of charter boats hold a federal license.

[JohnnyD]

Originally Posted by MakoMike

All charter boats that hold a federal license are already required to report on each trip. I'd guesstimate that close to 100% of charter boats hold a federal license.

Thank you for the info. I was unaware. This validates putting them into a completely separate class even more because they are treated like completely separate entities in just about every aspect of fishing.

Since charters are required to report, does anyone have a source for the number of fish landed by charters last year?

[riff_raff]

I once agreed with Stipers Forever. Admittedly I did not really understand the fishery at the time.

The thing about the commercial fishery on Stripers, at least in MA, is it's very limited, with a hard well-regulated quota, and is completely open to the public (even out of state residents).

So for starters it's not a privileged few taking more than their fair share, it's open to anyone who's interested enough to buy permits. If you are not interested in joining the ranks, then don't, but it's completely open to the public (and I applaud MA for this).

It's also a drop in the bucket compared the recreational fishery (especially when you start considering release mortality) and is a unique opportunity for a small boat or shore fisherman to make a few bucks with rod in hand. It'd be nice if there were more of such opportunities that didn't require a big boat budget & commitment.

I'm not saying it's wrong, but the worst thing for the Striper is the serial catch-and-release fisherman. For 4 months+ out of the year a guy who's good with artificials or flys can go catch 30 fish a trip. That class of fisherman alone does far more damage than the 2 week commercial season, and there's no good way to curb their mortality.. And of course those same C&R fisherman all think they are taking the high ground, and are of the sort to support things like Stripers Forever..

Some people are really rubbed the wrong way by part time commercial fishing, I don't get it. Anyway, provided the health of the Striper remains intact, and it's done sustainably as it has, I see no issue with a well regulated commercial Striper fishery, especially when it remains small compared to the recreational fishery. If we hit a point when it needs to go back to 1 fish @ 36 inches for sustainability, then it will probably make sense to suspend the commercial season. Until then I'm all for it.

Jon

[JohnnyD]

Originally Posted by riff_raff

Some people are really rubbed the wrong way by part time commercial fishing, I don't get it. Anyway, provided the health of the Striper remains intact, and it's done sustainably as it has, I see no issue with a well regulated commercial Striper fishery, especially when it remains small compared to the recreational fishery. If we hit a point when it needs to go back to 1 fish @ 36 inches for sustainability, then it will probably make sense to suspend the commercial season. Until then I'm all for it.

Jon

You're joking right?

[numbskull]

If I'm a striper, I like my chances one helluva lot better getting caught by some dude with a fly rod than by any other method out there.

[riff_raff]

Originally Posted by JohnnyD

You're joking right?

What do you mean by that? From what I'm reading, and what I'm seeing, things are fine. The only thing I've heard (and I've yet to see it really backed up) is there may be a decline, possibly just due to normal cycles, of schoolie sized fish. The current year classes coming down south are massive, in a few years we'll be inundated with small fish again.

For sure there are plenty of large fish around, they just may not be where you are expecting them. Take a cruise through Stellwagen up in a tower during the summer. Huge schools of large striped bass just outside of state waters, some years for whatever reason it happens. When tuna fishing at times they've been practically as bad as dogfish.

My night bite sucked last season; lots of small fish 25 - 30 inches, the bruisers just didn't want to gather for our boats, and we spent a lot time running away from little fish and searching, although some guys were doing well. During the day though the bite in rips of the Merrimack was outstanding with plenty of large fish available. So, they were around, just not where we always wanted them to be. Bite in the rips was probably was similar at night, but I try and avoid fishing rips at night. Commercial season was more of an open water bite up my end. Anyway, plenty of fish, just some of the patterns changed, and it makes people think there's a problem.

Jon