Mass. weighs tougher protections for striped bass

[Mike P]

Originally Posted by Rockfish9

Maryland had the right idea ( in theory) years ago allowing only the small fish to be harvested, thus saving the breeders... it makes perfect sense... I like the slot limit Idea witht the trophy clause.. thus you make a decision... do I want to eat it or catch a wall hanger...

Maryland saves the breeders that make it into their waters to spawn. Virgina allows them to be slaughtered every winter/spring as they school up and stage to go up the Chessie. These are strictly rec boaters doing this.

NY closes the Hudson for the pre-spawn staging and the start of the spawn. I wish Virginia would do the same.

[Back Beach]

^

Instituting a slot limit as prescribed will in effect create a trophy fishery if other states follow suit, which is exactly what we all want, no? We're essentially instituting a 40" minimum size limit. Cutting the limit to one a day and lowering the bar on size equates to lower fishing pressure as well as lower discard mortality. People will give up sooner with a fish in the box as opposed to culling through shorts in order to get a keeper.

At worst, we're creating a neutral harvest/mortality picture for small fish by cutting the daily bag to one small fish a day and allowing our breeding stock repeated attempts to reproduce. Right now we're slaughtering the breeders as soon as they reach minimal breeding size.

Other states will eventually have to follow suit once pressure from the newly organized "recreational fisherman's" lobby is created through the federal registry and ensuing saltwater license. Its just a matter of time as the recs greatly outnumber the commercials. Recs aren't organized yet, but its coming and is as close to a done deal as one could ask for.

If all this stuff falls into place(and its likely it will) we'll be walking on the backs of large fish in 5-10 years.

[Raven]

i agree....

the larger the breeder...the more eggs get laid and hopefully fertilized

which makes more fingerlings to go on maturing......

but the odds are stacked WAY against them all the way
to a Monster sized bass.

[MAKAI]

I remember well my last day of being a com guy.
27 beautiful fish all over the deck. For what ? A few hundred bucks.
So for the greater good I swore I would never willfully kill another one.
Just my feelings, not preaching to anyone.

[JohnR]

I'm not hugely against commercial fishing for bass but I do think we need to take Rec & Comm back to when it was one fish for rec, 800K for commercial and THEN take a third off the top. That would put a dent in both.

We still gotta find out how legit this is and if so, does it have legs.

[Jackbass]

Originally Posted by JohnR

I'm not hugely against commercial fishing for bass but I do think we need to take Rec & Comm back to when it was one fish for rec, 800K for commercial and THEN take a third off the top. That would put a dent in both.

We still gotta find out how legit this is and if so, does it have legs.

This is extremely legit. The bill has been sponsored for over a year and you are hearing about it now because it made it to committee. Once the committee decides it is worthy of a vote in the house it will be in fact a bill.

I have personally sent over 100 handwritten letters in support of this to the MA legislature and countless e-mails.

The commercial striped bass industry in Massachusetts is second in take only to Maryland. Eliminating the commercial market in MA and reducing the Rec take to one fish a day goes a long way in conserving the striped Bass. I am surprised this is news to everyone.

Stripers Forever is hardly an Elitist group. It is a group that is run by volunteers has and spends every dime it receives to conserve and protect the Striped Bass. To think the members of Stripers Forever are a bunch of Orvis Casting Land Rover Driving elitists is simply ignorant.

[JohnnyD]

Originally Posted by Jackbass

The commercial striped bass industry in Massachusetts is second in take only to Maryland. Eliminating the commercial market in MA and reducing the Rec take to one fish a day goes a long way in conserving the striped Bass. I am surprised this is news to everyone.

Stripers Forever is hardly an Elitist group. It is a group that is run by volunteers has and spends every dime it receives to conserve and protect the Striped Bass. To think the members of Stripers Forever are a bunch of Orvis Casting Land Rover Driving elitists is simply ignorant.

My understanding is that eliminating the Commercial Season in MA will only allow for that tonnage of fish to be distributed to other states. Where exactly is the net gain for the Striped Bass?

Selfishly, it will be nice not to have Comms cherry-picking the biggest fish around and being without the ones you sometimes encounter that act like they own the ocean (this is the minority though).

[Crafty Angler]

Originally Posted by Jackbass

... To think the members of Stripers Forever are a bunch of Orvis Casting Land Rover Driving elitists is simply ignorant.

.........

Great way win friends and educate the Woefully Uninformed, there, Skippy...particularly on your 5th post...

[Canalman]

Originally Posted by JohnR

I'm not hugely against commercial fishing for bass but I do think we need to take Rec & Comm back to when it was one fish for rec, 800K for commercial and THEN take a third off the top. That would put a dent in both.

We still gotta find out how legit this is and if so, does it have legs.

Biggest problem I see with the commercial fishery is that the guys who are good are trained assassins. They can hover over a body of big fish and do some real damage. Bodies of fish are vulnerable to being wiped out if the fleet anchors up over their heads. If these guys take their 30 fish from a pod of 100, that's a third of a migrating or resident pod of fish that has likely been programmed (genetically) to run a certain route, breed a certain river. Take a third away--that's bad enough--but what about when the other 15 boats within binocular range come motoring over to drop their yo-yo's how many are left then?

I've seen some great hauls come into the commercial place near my house---seen many 50's and a 64 there. But they don't hold a candle to the thousands of 30's I've seen stiff and covered with crushed ice. It really does need to stop.

We should not support the Striper Cup either though... that list of pin winner is like Schindlers List for striped bass

A high percentage of the commercial guys DO NOT NEED TO BE FISHING TO SUSTAIN THEMSELVES ANYWAY. It's a double-paid vacation for them.

If we are to keep the commercial fishery alive, you should have to prove that commercial fishing makes up more that 50% of your yearly income.

-Dave

[Brian L]

Originally Posted by Canalman

A high percentage of the commercial guys DO NOT NEED TO BE FISHING TO SUSTAIN THEMSELVES ANYWAY. It's a double-paid vacation for them.

If we are to keep the commercial fishery alive, you should have to prove that commercial fishing makes up more that 50% of your yearly income.

I couldn't disagree more.

I fish comm in RI and pull an average 3-6K(since 2000) a year between bass, fluke, seabass, scup, blues, etc.. Provides pocket money for me all year that doesn't come out of my paycheck(which pays mortgage, bills, etc..) Probably couldn't afford to fish or do many other things with my family without the extra money I make fishing.

Every comm guy I know makes money some other way than fishing as well. If we're going to start banning people who don't make 50% of their living from one trade, why wouldn't we also bar comm fishermen from participating in any other trade in order to supplement income? There's very few guys making a living on fishing only. So to be fair, no carpentry, plumbing, landscaping, etc.. unless it's 50% or more of their income. That's a tremendously slippery slope to go down. People should be able to diversify their income sources as long as they have adequate skills to do so.

Double paid vacation? So what? What's wrong with making money doing something you love?