Opinions needed! If you had a wish list for F&G

[EJS]

....What would be on that list? Would it be cleaner streams, more holdover fish, less dams on the rivers, better fishing access, restoration projects, stocking in smaller streams, lower the creel limits, lifetime license, a 25 year plan to improve the overall fishery, longer closed seasons, more catch and release areas, etc???

Yeah it's a serious question and I need some honest opinions!

[Wilson]

More enforcement of the laws that are already on the books and stiffer penalties for those apprehended,
Lower creel limits and catch and release areas might be doable.
Anything that will help curb the bucket brigadier's.

[Paul N Skill]

Lower creel limits and float stocking

[EJS]

Wilson, its funny how different counties have varying amounts of enforcement. Take Hunterdon & Somerset for example. Hunterdon has 10x the enforcement and has less population. Hunterdon's Park Rangers are armed law enforcement officers, while Somerset has glorified tour guides.

Paul N Skill, float stocking was traditionally done by F&G, now Trout Unlimited chapters seem to be the only ones float stocking.

[justin1982]

More catch and release only and more COs

[Chrisper4694]

Slots for game fish so that people could only keep smaller keeper sized fish or truly trophy sized fish but never 'big'. But that would be mute without better enforcement officers so I guess I'll second wilsons suggestion!

Also more free car top boat access to places like Hopatcong and rivers such as Passaic and raritan...I know there are a bunch but more wouldn't hurt! I just can't stand private property blocking access to public water!!

[antgogz]

Stock more largemouth bass in our local lakes and ponds. Make more fisheries catch and release. Too many people abuse the fish keeping limits.

[bigboy5522]

More catch and release stretches like the KLG and barbless hooks there

[bassnblues]

More handicapped access points. Especially on the Delaware river.

[Esox Luciano]

I strongly second bassnblues on this one. That's a great suggestion!!
Also, I'd go with the cleaner streams option. But streams, tribs, & rivers. Possibly fence or even better would be wall certain stretches that are grand entrances for pollution to the waterways. That would be great!

[buzzbaiter]

Rules & regs test before getting license. Story from yesterday:

I arrive at a pond and see 2 bucket guys. I give them plenty of space and fish a good 500 feet away. My first cast I get a 16" largemouth, take a photo and let it go. I actually hear one of them say "why'd he let that bass go?" Other says "I guess he didn't want it". Over the next hour, I C&R 8 more bass(bunch of pickerel too) and the fellas are stunned I keep letting them go.

Ummm...fellas...ever hear of bass season? No bass may be kept or killed between April 15th and June 15th. How do people not know this? Makes me wonder how many bass they've killed over the years. Its part ignorance and part stupidity.

[Suntzu]

No stocking of urban ponds with trout
More of a spread to stocking urban streams
Take down all dams
Stock pike in Rahway River
Put tiger Muskie in some urban ponds to deal with sunfish overpopulation
More CO's enforcing salt water shoreline where buckets of short blackfish and bass are illegally taken
Make speargun fishing illegal

[AndyS]

X2 on stockong those urban scum ponds with trout, throw some pike and and stuff in there, then I might start fishing them.
No treble hooks in TCA's
More involvement with dam removal, river and stream clean ups, and river restoration projects.
Stock smallmouth in rivers, no just lakes, BUT Round Valley could use a healthy dose of smallmouth, they will eat all the lake trout fingerlings.

[Eskimo]

.


More enforcement of the laws that are already on the books and stiffer penalties for those apprehended,
Lower creel limits and catch and release areas might be doable.
Anything that will help curb the bucket brigadier's.

Yes - This!
If Largemouth Bass are as valuable of an asset as Fish & Game calculates they are - then act like it.

The reality of the situation is the population density of New Jersey is reaching critical mass. If we are going to maintain sustainable quality bass fishing then changes are going to have to be made to the laws and how they are enforced.

The first issue is the overly generous creel limit. I don't know why it is five fish with a twelve inch minimum. My guess is it's a relic from the time when anglers didn't consider a day on the water as successful unless brought home a full stringer of fish. This simply is not sustainable and does not reflect the conservation-ethics of most bass anglers fishing today.



.

[Jigman13]

More COs for sure. I know it's not in the budget but we def need like twice the number of what we currently have. I'd pay more for my license and trout stamp, which I'm sure many others would... Unfortunately the increase would likely not end up where it needs to go... It'd line bureaucratic pockets elsewhere...

[EJS]

Thanks everyone, that's a pretty healthy list filled with great ideas, many I hadn't given thought to!

What about funding? We all know the cost of a license and trout stamp. We all cringe at the price, but would anyone be willing to pay $1 more if it went to pay for more CO's, better quality fish, dam removal & stream restoration projects, or to build a trophy catch and release fishery, basically the items on your NJ fishing wish list? It's simply food for thought, I am in no way saying any of this is on the table or has ever been contemplated by F&G! This discussion is an experiment, a private survey of sorts.

I think we are all well aware of the current water conditions in our rivers, streams, lakes and such. The temps are rising fast, conditions are dangerous for many species. How important do we see dam removal in lowering water temps, returning flows, boating hazards, etc? Does anyone see benefit to keeping the dams in place and feel that removing them jeopardizes quality fishing?

Should supplying water to neighboring states take a back seat to NJ fishery needs?

I am simply picking your brains! Thanks again for the honest answers, and know your answers won't go to waste! ;)

[Dave B.]

I'd like to see many of the same things others have stated here. More CO's for sure, more dam removals and stream restoration projects, add to the list more public access to many of our bigger and better streams.

Personally I'd have no problem at all with a license increase as Jigman13 mentioned. For the sake of clarity let me share a bit of info in that regard. Every dollar we as sportsmen/women spend for our licenses, stamps and permits goes into a dedicated fund called the 'Hunters and Anglers Fund' which the politicians cannot touch. This is protected by the state constitution. The monies in this fund are to used solely for the purposes of maintaining, improving and enhancing the hunting and fishing resources we have. This includes the law enforcement aspect as well as the freshwater, marine and wildlife biologists in the Div.
NJF&W also recieves funds from the USF&WS as reimbursements of federal excise taxes we all pay on hunting, fishing and boating gear. This money also goes directly into the 'Hunters and Anglers Fund'. Under the federal laws establishing and controlling these disbursements this money MUST go into a dedicated fund that cannot be used in any manner or by any other agency than a given state's fish and wildlife agency.

I share all this so that folks will know that should a license increase ever be proposed the money will definitely go into the Div and by law CANNOT be touched by the pols for anyone's pet project. Should this fund ever be raided by any politician we would instantly lose our federal reimbursement monies as well.
Gov. McGreevy tried once to divert several million from the 'Hunters and Anglers Fund' into the state parks & forests budget in his annual fiscal budget. Within a few days there were several lawsuits filed against him by NJ sportmens orgs including the NJ Fed. of Sportsmen, and the USF&WS was demanding an immediate refund of the 4.1 million our NJF&W had just recieved as our annual distribution. Needless to say McGreesy backed down and revamped his proposed state budget.

Sorry for hijacking the thread, back to the 'Bucket List'.

[Wilson]

Thanks everyone, that's a pretty healthy list filled with great ideas, many I hadn't given thought to!

What about funding? We all know the cost of a license and trout stamp. We all cringe at the price, but would anyone be willing to pay $1 more if it went to pay for more CO's, better quality fish, dam removal & stream restoration projects, or to build a trophy catch and release fishery, basically the items on your NJ fishing wish list? It's simply food for thought, I am in no way saying any of this is on the table or has ever been contemplated by F&G! This discussion is an experiment, a private survey of sorts.

;)

$100 plus reels and rods, side scanning GPS sonar with coffeemaker, auto pilot trolling motors, Orvis stuff, $15.00 lures, fancy boats, bait, lunches, beer. The license is the cheapest part of fishing by far. If a license costs $120.00 per year that equates to $10.00 per month. Netflix costs more;)

I would pay more but I want to see a big difference in enforcement and restoration projects. The problem is the state government B.S.

[Andrushkin33]

I'll have to agree with many here.

I dot think many will have an issue of paying more for the license but as Wilson pointed out it would be nice to see some results of it.

We all know changes will not be made on a spot so some general plans on how it will be distributed would be nice to see.

More COs is a must. If state can afford to hire more at least be able deputize local citizens which are part of the fish or game clubs.

Another thing I would love to see is more State Sponsored Events on both fresh and salt water. Us as fishermen we have our own contest and it would be nice to join the state ones as well. Note only it would be another way for state to raise some $, it would be also a good education experience for all of us. Another way to find out more about our local lands as well as meet men and women in charge of protecting them.

Stiffer penalties for the laws we have in place. Some of them are a complete joke. Beside a penalty + mandatory community service such as cleaning up or something of that sort.

Just my two cents on all.

Andre

[jimcnj]

$100 plus reels and rods, side scanning GPS sonar with coffeemaker, auto pilot trolling motors, Orvis stuff, $15.00 lures, fancy boats, bait, lunches, beer. The license is the cheapest part of fishing by far. If a license costs $120.00 per year that equates to $10.00 per month. Netflix costs more;)

I would pay more but I want to see a big difference in enforcement and restoration projects. The problem is the state government B.S.

In a nutshell.

[bassnblues]

As with anything, you need to take care with raising prices. Those of us that are avid fisherman will pay but if the price gets too high, the person who goes once or twice a year may decide it's too pricey causing sales to decline and revenue to decrease.

[baetis]

Wish list - stock brookies and browns in 2016.

Minimum size limit of 15" and 2 fish for LMB and SMB.

Stream restoration projects.

[Jigman13]

Stock walleye in the raritan river!

[buzzbaiter]

Catch & Release bass waters. Currently we have NONE. Bass are typically released anyways but as we all know, some do take them home. Sure there is the threat of overpopulated bass lake or pond but to me you can never have enough bass - small or not. Generally speaking, most of the popular waters generate low catch rates. Now some is due to high pressure/often fished-over bass but in many cases there are simply not enough bass. I don't see anything bad happening from making some lakes & reservoirs C&R for all bass. Any public lake would qualify, private lake would not.

Expand/eliminate pike stockings. Some places stocked for years produce little if any pike. No more stocking them. Instead find new places to stock or add more to the places where they are doing alright.

No boats allowed places. Facts are facts and one thing I know is this: places I fish where either boats are not allowed or require one hell of a long walk thereby keeping boating to a bare minimum, fishing is much better. Pa has a few "no boats", "no ice fishing", 'no wading" places and they are tremendous fisheries. A alternative would be limited boats allowed type rule the number of boats allowed on a lake at any given time is limited. Even you boat guys have to admit some places have waaay too many and your "space" is often violated. Not hard to control if you have one or two launch areas. Lakes with private homes - like Lk Hopatcong - obviously would be hard to control so they wouldn't qualify..

[EJS]

$100 plus reels and rods, side scanning GPS sonar with coffeemaker, auto pilot trolling motors, Orvis stuff, $15.00 lures, fancy boats, bait, lunches, beer. The license is the cheapest part of fishing by far. If a license costs $120.00 per year that equates to $10.00 per month. Netflix costs more;)

I would pay more but I want to see a big difference in enforcement and restoration projects. The problem is the state government B.S.

After reading your post, it does put things into perspective! I have fly rod setups well over $1000. Funny how easy it is to drop the $$$$ on the equipment, but we never consider how little $ for the license.

So many great ideas throughout this thread! Maybe a 10 to 20 cent tax on a dozen worms, shiners, crawfish, etc. with the sole specific purpose of funding habitat restoration or dam removal. That would add up fast!

It's good to see like minded fisherman with great ideas, who are as fed up with the status quo!

[EJS]

Catch & Release bass waters. Currently we have NONE. Bass are typically released anyways but as we all know, some do take them home. Sure there is the threat of overpopulated bass lake or pond but to me you can never have enough bass - small or not. Generally speaking, most of the popular waters generate low catch rates. Now some is due to high pressure/often fished-over bass but in many cases there are simply not enough bass. I don't see anything bad happening from making some lakes & reservoirs C&R for all bass. Any public lake would qualify, private lake would not.

Expand/eliminate pike stockings. Some places stocked for years produce little if any pike. No more stocking them. Instead find new places to stock or add more to the places where they are doing alright.

No boats allowed places. Facts are facts and one thing I know is this: places I fish where either boats are not allowed or require one hell of a long walk thereby keeping boating to a bare minimum, fishing is much better. Pa has a few "no boats", "no ice fishing", 'no wading" places and they are tremendous fisheries.

I am a cold water fishery guy, so reading the posts by the warm water guys is interesting, as I never realized the problems you guys face as well. I fish for bass, I will never admit it to my fishing friends, and I hide the all pics of me holding a bass! ;)

[jimmythegreek]

If you do some research on small pond management and stocking, its actually GOOD to take the small cookie cutter bass out of the water and leave room for more bait and bigger fish. Many dont realize that there has to be food for all the gamefish and many ponds have no natural baitfish, only young of the year and sunfish and baby bass/perch/crappie are the bait. No matter how many you stock they wont make much difference.

The creel on the exotic fish is ridiculous, there shouldnt be 3 walleye bag limits in NJ anywhere, there isnt enough fish to sustain this harvest. Walleye are on the decline the last few years as more and more people learn to catch them. 1 fish limit with a 18"-22" slot or 29" and over

Striped bass hybrids are sterile and you can still keep 2 fish, which I think should be only 1 and a slot size, problem is they are eating machines and they need a huge herring population to sustain them, or good sunfish population, they have small mouths and were created for pond management purposes

[NJSquatch]

Slot limits on all game fish would promote larger fish in general. Definitely a 1 fish limit on the exotics as Jimmy stated and make muskies strictly catch and release. How does one eat a musky anyway.

Wonder if putting the size and creel limits right on the back of the license would educate people more? I know that I can't remember them all.

[Rickhem]

I'd like to see the trout stamp eliminated. Just up the price of the license to include that and make it one fee across the board. The F&G people can decide if 33% of the license fees goes to trout stamp supported activities, but since everyone would now pay it, there would be more $$$.

I'd like to see increased access established, or at least changed from the current decreased access. Lots of lakes that I grew up fishing in the evenings and at night are now closed at sunset. Most of it resulted from 9-11 stuff and homeland security issues. This is complete bullshit. Lets get back to being able to go out on Wawayanda and Shepard's and places like these after the sun goes down.

[MattK]

I'd like to see the trout stamp eliminated. Just up the price of the license to include that and make it one fee across the board. The F&G people can decide if 33% of the license fees goes to trout stamp supported activities, but since everyone would now pay it, there would be more $$$.

I'd like to see increased access established, or at least changed from the current decreased access. Lots of lakes that I grew up fishing in the evenings and at night are now closed at sunset. Most of it resulted from 9-11 stuff and homeland security issues. This is complete bullshit. Lets get back to being able to go out on Wawayanda and Shepard's and places like these after the sun goes down.

Agreed id like to be able to fish after sunset a little especially after work on weekdays but im not going to drop $25 to launch at lees for an hour or 2 of fishing.

One other thing id like to see is lake musconetcong get some attention from the state. Dredge it maybe deepen it a little and it wont turn into a mosquito infested swap eveey summer.

[RWole]

As we all know budgets are tight so why is fish and game wasting money
on urban pond trout stocking. These waters are not patrolled and limits are
exceeded. The money wasted on these ponds could be used for bass management.

[EJS]

As we all know budgets are tight so why is fish and game wasting money
on urban pond trout stocking. These waters are not patrolled and limits are
exceeded. The money wasted on these ponds could be used for bass management.

The thought is, it sells licenses lol! I absolutely agree, it's a waste of trout and man power! We all know this is simply another free ride being provided! Hard part is to convince F&G of what you have actually witnessed with you own eyes!

[Doug Vitale]

I'll just link to my suggestions which I posted in a similar thread (http://www.njfishing.com/forums/showthread.php?t=76952):

http://www.njfishing.com/forums/showpost.php?p=389386&postcount=16

[Suntzu]

Salt water fishing license in NJ
Many will hate me for saying it but it does two things: raises much needed revenue which should sll go into enforcement and; it gives a count on just how many people/ how important recreational fishing is in NJ/to NJ which will help politically with getting equity and sanity in regulation
Can offer a 7 day tourist license and have head boat/charter boats pay a boat license fee
Againl also pike in Rahway River

[Wilson]

The thought is, it sells licenses lol! I absolutely agree, it's a waste of trout and man power! We all know this is simply another free ride being provided! Hard part is to convince F&G of what you have actually witnessed with you own eyes!
I think YOU should get a job with the fish and game, they desperately need some young go getter blood. F&G is a bunch of old, fuddy duddies holding on for their pensions.. Of course you'll have to tangle with the politicians who are also old fuddy duddies;)

[EJS]

I think YOU should get a job with the fish and game, they desperately need some young go getter blood. F&G is a bunch of old, fuddy duddies holding on for their pensions.. Of course you'll have to tangle with the politicians who are also old fuddy duddies;)

Thanks Wilson! I am the person that Status Quo people hate! Fish and Game needs to re-evaluate many of its long standing practices, start broad planning for the future of NJ's fishery!

This Put & Take Fishery mentality has to go! That is a relic of early 1900's thought process, and is unsustainable! Based on the responses, its also exact opposite of what NJ fisherman want and expect!