holy crap

[Tagger]

makes you feel like all your C&R efforts over the years to rebuild the stocks are just so others can rape it .. legal I know ,, just a crappy feeling . wonder how many of these young guys were around when there were no fish .

[J_T_R]

Anyone who is #^&#^&#^&#^&ting on the anglers is in denial themselves. For every fisherman who has a great day like this, there is another that is waiting to take his/her place. As long as the law and quota are there, you WILL NEVER change the fact that fishermen will be catching striped bass and selling them.

And, as law abiding fishermen yourselves, I find it incredibly hypocritical to call these guys name and #^&#^&#^&#^& on them for doing nothing other than following the law.

Here is an excerpt from a 2008 Mass division of marine fisheries publication.

During 2008, the commercial fishery for striped bass in Massachusetts sold about 61,076 fish weighing
1,160,122 pounds and kept approximately 4,255 fish for personal consumption. Total losses due to commercial
harvesting (including release mortality) were 71,773 fish weighing 1,268,542 pounds. The recreational
fishery harvested about 343,347 striped bass weighing over 5.5 million pounds. Total losses due to recreational
fishing (including release mortality) were 634,648 fish weighing over 7 million pounds.

The recreational fishermen releases (wastes) more dead fish, than the entire commercial fleet kills all year.

[J_T_R]

And here is another thing to mull over.

How many people will those 30 fish feed? A lot. And I'll tell you something else - the people who are paying $15-$20 per pound are not going to put it in a freezer bag and let it get freezer burnt until they finally throw it out, like some rec guys that would.

Commercial fishing allows people who don't fish to eat striped bass. Instead of "supporting your local bait shop" and spending thousands on gear, these people are supporting their local fish market and fishermen.

Saying that a rec guy shouldn't be able to go out and make money by doing something that he loves and is legal, is like saying that Americans shouldn't be allowed to decide what they want to do to make a living. That goes against every value that our country was founded on.

My point is that you shouldn't be taking it out on the fishermen that are following the rules. Take it out on those who are making the rules and those who don't follow the rules.

And just to clarify, I definitely think that these guys should have been prepared to catch that many fish and ice them properly. They had enough eels, they should have been prepared with the proper equipment to serve the people of mass fresh fish. If they were so proud to do so, they would have been prepared.