Free Give away of book Caught! non proffit.

[jeff65]

Just Pm me address. first ten get book. I make no money off this, simply a public service. Good info on black market on bass and what's going on, or rather what's NOT going on regarding enforcement - feel free to bash book, good for discussion, good for fish.

This is the second time I am writing this, tried to comment on someone's post, and it did not go through. Probably my fault. Anyway, one guy on here makes a good point, that the book came out too late. He is dead on correct; kind of like shutting the doors after all the animals had escaped already. If I wrote it five years ago perhaps it would have helped. (with that said, he is very wrong about anyone profiting from a book about striped bass, or any book really, publishing on the whole is in a lot of trouble. (FYI: I spent 4 grand, made 1 grand.) While I made no money I made plenty of real enemies, and my life has been pretty miserable since. Which is fine.

Fact is, my original intended pub date was April 15, 2013. At that time a fair amount of press came out (which was good because the headlines "Crime in local waters" helped the fish directly, by slowing down the demand for illegally bought striped bass over the summer on LI. Some restaurants did not even have it on their menus, after Newsday, and NPR released reviews about back door deals. My goal was to try to create a grass roots movement like the one depicted in #^&#^&#^&#^& Russell's Striper Wars ( The one book I feel that is required reading for anyone who professes to have an affiliation with this particular fish, because it's author took the time to meticulous document (court notes etc.) the grass route phenomena, that took place in the early eights and saved the fish from the brink. Lead by a few, including a mail man, Jim White and a state senator (Claudia Sherman?) and a congress men, Simply put: without this movement, this good website probably would not exist, and none of us, com, or rec would have enjoyed over a decade and a half of great bass fishing (95-2012 ).

My book "Caught" before it was derailed in for various reasons, would have come out before the commercial massacre off Chatham mass , before the 5 week pummeling of the fish off the south shore of LI last fall, perhaps it would have made people think twice regarding this dwindling recourse, of this important fish, but most likely not. The book came out seven month after all this.

What saved the bass in the eighties (besides the pcb, mercury alert in Hudson) was guys like Jim White who got into fist fight in parking lots at meetings, and cut com gill nets, and had his life and family's lives threatened in a very real ways.

That's why we all had great bass years. Let us not forget. I know that sounds corny, but it is true.
Perhaps the only way we can help the fish now is for someone to light themselves on fire in front of a bait shop, to finally get some desperately needed national media on the subject. Where was the national attention on the draggers off North Carolina three years ago? Or the 10 tons found in one illegally submerged gill nets? Where was fox news, CNN, PBS etc. Nowhere!!! If it was the bald Eagle in peril they would be all over it.

For what it's worth, I was "caught" working on a boat that had three fish over its limit back in 03'. Since that day I was watched like a hawk, and never kept over my limit--yes I did sell to restaurants to pay for the ever increasing marina bills. Like many of us, I was addicted to trophy fishing. But then when I realized that they were paying some times as little as a dollar a pound for this beautiful fish, less than the price of freezer burned chicken, I saw that they were devaluing the fish, and promptly wrote the book, knowing that I might die. If you don't think I put my life in danger you never met a Portuguese cook! This is not my first time putting my neck on the line. In 2000 I walked off as dragger I was a deck hand on in Shinocock inlet, went to public library in Westhampton and wrote a letter to the editor of The Fisherman Magazine about the grouse by-catch waist I witnessed as a deck hand why we targeted weakfish off Fire Island. It was published in the inside cover the next week. I did it because I felt it was a good thing to do. Granted my motives for "Caught" were admittedly less wholesome, as was seeking notoriety as a writer, and saw a story. Good news I was wrong .