year 2010 recreational catch statistics

[MakoMike]

Originally Posted by WoodyCT

Can anyone tell me if the new license system will include a mechanism to collect catch/kill data from all licensed anglers?

Seems to me a mandatory (make participation necessary to be eligible for the following season's license?) weekly online angler survey would go a long way toward gathering real data on effort, catch, and release.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

No the new system is simply designed to make the telephone survey more accurate.

[Sweetwater]

Those of us who cherish the striped bass fishery just need to attack this problem from every angle.

1) support the recovery of forage fish by limiting take on herring (both sea herring and alewife/blueback) and menhaden specifically
2) support catch and release (I take fewer fish now than I ever have)
3) support legislation that puts "reasonable" restrictions on commercial take
4) support clean-up of polluted spawning grounds and put penalties on those who pollute these areas
5) report poaching and other violations
6) support legislation that prevents (and penalizes) the mid-water trawler fleet and others that destroy bass as by-catch
7) encourage others to do #1 thru #6
8) encourage others to encourage others

[stripermaineiac]

The worst part of the stupidity is when 3000 comercial guys really do beleive they have the same quantity rights as 3,000,000 recreational fishermen and women. I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer but seems a little skewed to me. Don't really give a damn most of the time now about the comercial arguement that they have the right to 50 percent of the stocks out there. reallity is that their logic has been screwey since day one. It is stupid at best and sad at worst. I kept a handfull of fish Cowhunter. You have no more right to anymore fish than I do. don't really care if your comercial or not. No one fisherman has more right than the next. BUT WE ALL HAVE THE
SAME RESPONSABILITY TO CONSERVE THE SPEICIES.The rec catch is 70 percent lower than 2005 for the rec. Means a lot of people don't catch squat anymore. Seems that the problems still comes down to selfishness. Commercials seem to never want to stop no matter how bad it gets unless they're forced to. Don't see an 20,000 recreational fish kills. MMMM funny that isn't it. Don't see a whole hell of a lot of catch an release among commercials unless it's to cull MMMMMM seems we just saw commercials idea of catch an release ooooppppssss no one said the fish had to be alive to have a chance.Just throw them overboard to get them out of the way for bigger market fish.We worked hard in the past to force the morritorium we'll just have to do it again no matter how much lieing is done. Sad for it to have to be this way. 36 in won't work we've been there .1 fish won't work we've been there.0 catch seemed to help especially when the commercial fishery was totally shut down. MMMMMM even with 30,000 commercials seems that 3,000,000 recreational has enough votes to force the issue.That's a low estimate on the REC numbers too.

[CowHunter]

Originally Posted by stripermaineiac

The worst part of the stupidity is when 3000 comercial guys really do beleive they have the same quantity rights as 3,000,000 recreational fishermen and women. I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer but seems a little skewed to me. Don't really give a damn most of the time now about the comercial arguement that they have the right to 50 percent of the stocks out there. reallity is that their logic has been screwey since day one. It is stupid at best and sad at worst. I kept a handfull of fish Cowhunter. You have no more right to anymore fish than I do. don't really care if your comercial or not. No one fisherman has more right than the next. BUT WE ALL HAVE THE
SAME RESPONSABILITY TO CONSERVE THE SPEICIES.The rec catch is 70 percent lower than 2005 for the rec. Means a lot of people don't catch squat anymore. Seems that the problems still comes down to selfishness. Commercials seem to never want to stop no matter how bad it gets unless they're forced to. Don't see an 20,000 recreational fish kills. MMMM funny that isn't it. Don't see a whole hell of a lot of catch an release among commercials unless it's to cull MMMMMM seems we just saw commercials idea of catch an release ooooppppssss no one said the fish had to be alive to have a chance.Just throw them overboard to get them out of the way for bigger market fish.We worked hard in the past to force the morritorium we'll just have to do it again no matter how much lieing is done. Sad for it to have to be this way. 36 in won't work we've been there .1 fish won't work we've been there.0 catch seemed to help especially when the commercial fishery was totally shut down. MMMMMM even with 30,000 commercials seems that 3,000,000 recreational has enough votes to force the issue.That's a low estimate on the REC numbers too.

I never said anybody has the right to catch more fish..... Youre allowed your limit every day, Everybody I know keeps theres rec or com, thats their perogative. I dont see any catch and release unless the guys already caught their limits. Just how I see it for the most part... And yeah your right 3,000,000 anglers if they all kept their limit once a season thats alot of fish. You want to end commercial fishing thats fine, thats your opinion but it want solve anything its just more fish for recs to kill if their limits arent changed not gonna change any if the same regs are in place and the bait issue is the same.... And the 1 at 36" did make a huge different up and down the coast. In the end, the same guys bitchin will be bitchin and the same guys catchin will be catchin just takes some effort. Enjoy the run in Maine, maybe some fish will make it up that way agian one year! Heard the lobstermen had a record 360million harvest in 2010, not to long ago the lobster were near extinction to?

[RIROCKHOUND]

Originally Posted by CowHunter

I never said anybody has the right to catch more fish..... Youre allowed your limit every day, Everybody I know keeps theres rec or com, thats their perogative. I dont see any catch and release unless the guys already caught their limits.

I didn't have a banner season, but I could have taken one home most nights and killed 4 all season that were gut hooked bleeders.

I think you are overly generalizing what does on.

[CowHunter]

Originally Posted by RIROCKHOUND

I didn't have a banner season, but I could have taken one home most nights and killed 4 all season that were gut hooked bleeders.

I think you are overly generalizing what does on.

I know there are exceptions.... Unfortunately I dont see many of them...

[numbskull]

Originally Posted by CowHunter

Everybody I know keeps theres rec or com, thats their perogative. I dont see any catch and release unless the guys already caught their limits.

Sad

[CowHunter]

Originally Posted by numbskull

Sad

Sorry Numbskull, just how it is for the most part... I know there are those that practice C&R, Unfortunately I rarely see it...

[MikeToole]

Originally Posted by CowHunter

I never said anybody has the right to catch more fish..... Youre allowed your limit every day,

So you don't believe in commercial fishing for stripers either. Cause that is exactly what a commercial license is doing, giving you the right to catch more fish then the general public.

[CowHunter]

Originally Posted by MikeToole

So you don't believe in commercial fishing for stripers either. Cause that is exactly what a commercial license is doing, giving you the right to catch more fish then the general public.

Yes for 18-21 days or so in Mass u can keep and sell 30 a day..On the other hand I can fish stripers 12 months a year recreationally if I wanted to, and in NJ we can buy bonus tags and keep an extra fish every day till the quota is filled, 360,000lbs or so.. I can run 2 charters a day in NJ and come back to the dock with boat limits of 8-10 fish, (Even more if everyone has a tag 12-15)a trip, 7 days a week during the season... Now you guys up north dont see pressure, you should see the 100's of NY,NJ boats for miles that will make the MA com rod and reelers look like a tiny speck... Yeah we can go on.
Knock down the rec catch to one fish.. The com catch I could care less what they do, but it aint going away so Ill fish it, after all its gonna get filled with or without me anyway, (Or you can sit home like Sandman and Complain About it), at least there is a quota and the season is closed when its hit. Recreationally its on 7 days a week, 12 months a year from ME to NC with a few closed areas during seasons....
All there is is Finger Pointing and Blaming Others instead of fixing the problem. Sounds like Democrats and Republicans!

[MikeToole]

Originally Posted by CowHunter

Yes for 18-21 days or so in Mass u can keep and sell 30 a day..On the other hand I can fish stripers 12 months a year recreationally if I wanted to, and in NJ we can buy bonus tags and keep an extra fish every day till the quota is filled, 360,000lbs or so.. I can run 2 charters a day in NJ and come back to the dock with boat limits of 8-10 fish, (Even more if everyone has a tag 12-15)a trip, 7 days a week during the season... Now you guys up north dont see pressure, you should see the 100's of NY,NJ boats for miles that will make the MA com rod and reelers look like a tiny speck... Yeah we can go on.
Knock down the rec catch to one fish.. The com catch I could care less what they do, but it aint going away so Ill fish it, after all its gonna get filled with or without me anyway, (Or you can sit home like Sandman and Complain About it), at least there is a quota and the season is closed when its hit. Recreationally its on 7 days a week, 12 months a year from ME to NC with a few closed areas during seasons....
All there is is Finger Pointing and Blaming Others instead of fixing the problem. Sounds like Democrats and Republicans!

I agree that as long as there is a commercial harvest you might just as well take advantage of it. Being from NJ and fishing the Highlands area every year I am well aware of the number of charters and the party boats also targeting stripers. I'm aware of the numbers of fish recs kill compared to commercial. I went to both the Mass and NH hearing on the commercial harvest increase to lobby against them and wrote letters and attended the recent herring hearings. I do not blame anyone other than ASMFC for what is happening. Their job is to manage the fishery in the best interest of the public and I think they are failing to do it. The big money from stripers and the greatest human factor comes from recreational fishing. If the stock numbers can only support a two fish limit for the public that would indicate to me that there are not enough fish to support a commercial fishery. If the public needs to be limited to one fish that is fine with me but is even more proof that there should be no commercial season. I'm not looking to turn the commercial harvest over to the recs like New Jersey did. I'm looking to reduce the catch by that amount. I also believe that stopping commercial fishing will stop most of what has recently happened in NC and Maryland. If you can not sell them it will greatly reduce these activities.

Maybe because NH people experience the stock drops earlier then others we are more sensitive to it. Most all of the people I know practice catch and release. Maybe keep one or two a season usually due to deep hooks. The NH members on the ASMFC striper board are also strong supports of reducing the catch.

I do also write letters and support other aspects of commercial fishing. I can not understand why there is no rec limit on haddock and some of the other ground fish. Why they don't set it at 10 like cod is beyond me. In this case I'm more than happy to give the extra fish to the commercial guys. For most fish, except maybe something like scup, once you go above 5 thats enough.

[stripermaineiac]

So in a nutshell it's time to stop talking and push for a moratorium since we can't seem to get those that still want it all to do whats needed.Catch an release period. Till things are fixed. Then no commercial fishing period for them and if needed a limit of 2 fish per charter for charter boats to cut down the rediculous waste off Jearsy and Virginia.Since as a group we can't seem to get beyond the greed and selfishness maybe there are enough of us that can push the issue so we have a tomorrow. Before it's too late.There are some damn good fishermen on this site and several others. None of us would be worth a damn at it without the fish. Ron

[CowHunter]

Originally Posted by stripermaineiac

So in a nutshell it's time to stop talking and push for a moratorium since we can't seem to get those that still want it all to do whats needed.Catch an release period. Till things are fixed. Then no commercial fishing period for them and if needed a limit of 2 fish per charter for charter boats to cut down the rediculous waste off Jearsy and Virginia.Since as a group we can't seem to get beyond the greed and selfishness maybe there are enough of us that can push the issue so we have a tomorrow. Before it's too late.There are some damn good fishermen on this site and several others. None of us would be worth a damn at it without the fish. Ron

I wish you all the best of Luck, Probably may want to Look into Stripersforever or something along with your state and federal governments. I personally think it will be a little tough for you to get a moratorium based on your research from books and statistics at this stage especially with Easily filled Com Quotas and Rec Catches in the several hundreds of thousands, (I think recently the netters down in NC dumped around 20,000, (You gave that figure) dead bass into the ocean because they were over their limits a bit). You also have to prove that all these scientists dont know what they are doing and they are wrong. Remember, just this year they wanted to increase commercial quotas by 10 percent...
While you are at it You may also want to consider doing something about the Bait problem in New England, those fish will need a sustainable food supply and there really isnt much around inshore. Down here in NJ and LI the Bunker boats were kicked offshore, not allowed in the Bays. Its one of the reasons we have enjoyed such Fantastic runs of fish the last few years! Its nice to have miles of bunker along the beaches and bays....

[MakoMike]

If there is a problem at all, its a problem with recruitment, the YOY survey has been low for several years now. No one knows exactly what is causing the problem with recruitment but it certainly has nothing to do with fishing mortality. We have enough spawning stock biomass. Problems are most likely due to environmental conditions in the Chessie and weather.

[MAKAI]

More eggs in the water can't be a bad thing , can it ?

Till our molasses slow goverment agencies can get their collective acts together to work out the real issues and data.

[JackK]

I've read a number of theories on this, many of them allude to the mycobacteriosis problem in the bay.

Opinions vary... some say that the females are more greatly affected, as they contract the disease while in the bay, and the stress of migration does them in.

Another interesting one was that the males are the most heavily affected... Theory states that females need X number of males in close proximity to them in order for spawning to be triggered... If the males aren't there (dead, not moving/lethargic due to infection) then the females simply won't spawn. You can have plenty of big girls, but no eggs are getting spewed.

Unfortunately I don't have the links bookmarked, if I find them I'll put them up.

Any way you look at it, recruitment is probably the most pressing concern at this time.

[l.i.fish.in.vt]

Mako and Jack,finally two people that see what the real problem is.you can have all the bass in the world if they don't have sucessful spawn there is no future,no matter how few we kill.

[Mr. Sandman]

Some of the comments here make me want to puke.
I am ashamed to be even loosely associated with you thru SB or simply by being called a fishermen.

Everyone (including you) have a responsibility to conserve this great fish for future generations...just because you can take the fish doesn't mean you should.

You hang out with the wrong crowd if you don't know anyone who is fishing solely to catch his "legal limit"

One of the proudest moment as a farther figure/sportsmen for me was when my 12 yo son said (as we were hammering big bass one night drifting eels in Quicks)..Dad, these fish are really big...we only need one fish, lets let the others go. He got the idea at 12... why can't you? Maybe it is in the genes...I don't know. I am just an old man who has lost his mind I guess.

[stripermaineiac]

Well with the lack of small fish the 80's aren't far away. The charter pressure and bycatch pressure are huge now so the down spiral will start soon. Without little guys to replace whats caught of the cows the number of fish landed is going to drop in a lot more places besides just along the surf.So the glut isn't going to last long on the migration routes. Wonder what the excuses will be this time. Oh I remember the tournaments killed them all LOL what a joke some of what is posted is. Only thing different now than in the 70's is the names of those who don't want to do anything. Many of those calling for action now were around in the 60's to now and have seen this before and are worried as this time there are way more things in the way of restoration.Lack of money,way more seals along migration routes,worse bycatchmore sharks inshore and way more anglers. Ron