It is really easy to get behind the striper for gamefish movement. After all, I spent thousands of dollars and countless nights chasing after the damned fish. It borders on obsession for many of us. If there was a Church of Bass, we would be there every Sunday morning and probably few times during the week…
So what is the problem?
Gamefish for striped bass would be a wonderful thing. There would be no more commercial fishing for stripers, no wild striper in the seafood markets. No more stripers masquerading as a other fish under the heavy sauce in many restaurants. Only recreation anglers would be able to keep a striped bass and only according to the limits of their respective state.
So what is the problem?
Well, what the gamefish accomplishes is that it takes the commercial share and gives it to the recreational sector. The same sector , recreational anglers, who according to some studies kill 80% of all stripers already. So why not give them the whole stock to bludgeon to death?
I know, I am painting a grim picture of our sector but let me explain. If you took commercial share and gave it to recreational, don’t you think there wouldn’t be voices amongst us right away asking for MORE keepers? The Party boats and charters would be first, give us THREE fish a day ! After all, we just took all the allocation from commercial sector. Some states would say the same. Raise the limits. Kill more bass! Plenty of fish in the ocean now !
How is this going to help striped bass stocks recover?
Of course you might be of opinion that striped bass stocks are as healthy as they have ever been. I can’t agree with you but you are certainly entitled to your opinion. After all, no one can count all the fish in the sea.
There is one thing that cannot be disputed. More boats are fishing for stripers today, more charter boats, more party boats, more private boats. More surfcasters than ever before are also chasing after the same fish. I don’t think anyone can dispute that. You can argue that striped bass can take this increased pressure. Again, I will disagree but I don’t have science behind me. All I can tell you that I never caught less fish, that my friends on Long Island never caught less fish then last year. That many of my friends along Northeast never caught less fish than this year. Is it possible for stripers to be migrating offshore? Absolutely. Is it possible that we suck at fishing? I guess..
What is the solution? I am not sure. I would personably like to see increased size limits and no special limits for charter and party boats. I mean, how the hell we can justify have two brothers, one on a party boat, one in the surf, fishing same water, have different limits? And how just is for a guy in NY to release the fish because its an inch short of a keeper and then have a guy in some other state keep it because his state limit is lower? This happens with fluke all the time. This is insane. The species should be managed as whole, with same limits for everyone from Florida to Canada.
My point is gamefish movement is a great thing to get behind it, I am all in favor. But making striped bass a gamefish does not do a darn thing for conservation unless we are willing to look at ourselves as ones that already take most of these fish. I mean, boat, surf, kayak, whatever…. and no, there is no denying that if we take commercial allocation and “put in on a shelf” and not give it to recreational sector, it would help the striper stocks. But so would more stringent regulations, same size and limits for all states..putting those who feed restaurants under the table by illegal pin hooking in the slammer would help greatly too. You know what else? If we would educate current anglers on proper release techniques..because I see all kinds of things out there.
ok, rant over..have a nice day…time to get my ass to the construction site
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