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2024 and 2025 Fluke Options Poll
Sorry everyone but I screwed up AGAIN. Some of the dates on my initial poll were not correct and it could have changed the way you voted so we're going to start over and ask you to vote again....
These are the correct options the state will be submitting to the ASMFC that are expected to be approved. If they are approved, the state will be looking for public comments on them. One very important thing this year that is different from past years, these regulations will be in place for 2 years. Please take the poll and if you'd like, feel free to comment about the option you chose, why and please, lets try and keep politics out of it. Further, if you really want your voice to be heard don't stop here, be sure to submit your comments during the formal comment period. I'll be sure to let you know when that is and how to go about it here. I would also strongly suggest making your voice heard in the official meeting on 3/7 when the final regulations will be decided. Please feel free to share this post by copying this link https://www.njfishing.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=122433 and pasting it on to social sites or emailing it to other groups or organizations you belong to. |
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JCAA voted unanimously to support the option with 3 fluke at 18". That gives us the longest season on both ends. It also closes the gap in the fall between when fluke season ends and sea bass season begins.
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Agree Paul. And September was phenomenal fluking in 2023.
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I like the long season with 3 over 18” also .
But wouldn’t mind losing the 16 days (14 which are too early Oceanside anyhow) to allow the 17” fish caught from the surf state wide . I think that allows non boaters to get in on the fun also . And take something home for dinner |
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Here's the irony of a brutal process. In 2021, regs were 3 fish at 18" and a 121 day season. That didn't work, so we switched to the regs of the last 2 years with two paper thin slots between 17" and 18" and one fish over 18" with a season length of 149 days. Still a 3 fish bag limit. That didn't work leading to a supposed 28% reduction in quota. So now the solution is to revert back to the regulations that didn't work in 2021 of three fish at 18 but instead of 149 days we're dropping it by a whopping four days to 145 and believe essentially the same regulations that didn't work in 2021 will now miraculously work in 2024 and 2025 and lead to an almost 30% reduction in quota.
Everyone wants longer season which many have said on this site will be used against the sector in future regulations because it increases fishing effort and mortality. Others have said they don't want short seasons because once you give in to a short season you'll never get those days back. That's the dilemma of regulations and why we live through these discussions every year and nothing changes because not one thing about any of this focuses on issues impacting the stock. In 2018, we said enough is enough and doing the same thing over and over again with the same or worse results is the definition of insanity. That's exactly what we're doing again by reverting back to 2021 regulations which didn't work then and now we're expected to believe will work over the next two years. Why? Continue killing breeders and sexually mature fish, get penalized in landings and mortality rates associated with longer seasons while commercial fisheries continue to mop up the ocean targeting the breeding population and killing tens of millions of juvenile fish in the process. All management is doing is reshuffling the deck and there'll be a day when this philosophy catches up with them, us and the fishery. We're almost there now. No one likes doom and gloom predictions but continuing to use the same regulations that failed the fishery in past years makes sense why? When the green hulled boat was having historic trips working a concentrated school in the fall last year until it got too far offshore, how many of the fish in those schools are going to get whipped out when the commercials find them before they have an opportunity to drop their eggs. Target breeders both recreationally and commercially, kill tens of millions of juveniles in the process and commercially pound the stock during the spawn, truthfully who cares what the regulations end up being. Our government and the regulatory bodies in charge of managing this stock have turned their back on the recreational angler and this fishery so choosing which bread crumbs option we want doesn't seem a priority when the stock is being mismanaged into the ground. |
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Yet the NC boats having quotas 5 to 10 times larger than any of them are also fishing just outside the 3 mile line are crushing every state north of them too . IMO those boats being told to go anywhere they want are doing way more damage than we are . . Unless changes are made to that fishery , nothing we do will change anything . .. We had plenty of fish smaller than 18” on the fillet table the last 2 seasons . We may have had 3 that weren’t females . . Knowing people who actually worked on the sexting studies , males and females were not normally together . . |
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New Jersey made advancements with the introduction of a slot fish (although to tight of a slot). These efforts should the refined and strengthen. Not abandoned only to return to failed regulations of the past. It reminds me of Einstein's definition of insanity also. |
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They are allowing NC boats much of the year 30000 pounds a week per boat . Those boats destroyed the NC fishery , and now target their quota as far away as Massachusetts. That doesn’t account for all the NJ boats targeting their weekly catch . Including when fish really stack up heading to spawn . The only way recreational fisherman can make a change is in fisheries were we are the only ones fishing for the species . The slot fish in NJ did not do anything but increase our poundage by adding increases mortality . Guys need to look at the entire picture , not just a piece of it . Start watching fish get filleted EVERY trip . See how many of the fish under 18” are still female fish , who just also did not get to spawn . If they claim the biggest biomass of fish is under 18” Letting them breed an extra year should also be beneficial. While larger fluke will have more eggs , it’s claimed older fish carry eggs that are not as fertile . It’s time for NMFS to start getting better info and work on what’s really the problem . . |
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NC commercial boats have pounded these fluke so hard the last month it’s dropped their live weight catch down to 60 cents a pound .
And sea bass down to 1.50 a pound . Last summer they were getting over 4.50 a pound . That should really shed some light on what’s really happening to the fisheries . . |
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Correct me if I'm wrong but I think fluke generally start spawning at 16"? If so 18" gives them a couple of cycles. |
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99% of the fish I see filleted have a roe sack .and that’s everything from 17” to 30” See very few male fish |
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How about this. Let’s just close the fishery down for a year or two commercial and recreational. We will all live without eating a flounder. That will give the idiots two years to figure their shit out and use their college degrees and maybe their brains to actually come up with a plan that works. The fishery is in the toilet as far as I’m concerned. If recreational guys cared about the fishery like they act like they do on here all they have to do is catch and release the fish and enjoy just fishing. But instead most that go saltwater fishing have to take their limit home. Just shut it down for a year or two commercial and recreational and the fishing will be great. Hopefully by then they figure out that they can’t keep taking these breeders. It’s all stupidity. I’ll sell my boat when it really hits the toilet and it’s getting there.
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This is not the answer and why is it that some boats find the fluke consitently day after day if as you say they dont exist, They just dont exist where you are fishing! |
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go to any fluke tournament all summer long . All the boats are crushing fish . .Fish are here just need to fish for them . The amount of fluke caught daily in the rivers even in rental boats is very good . Togfather just sounds like he is in the 90%. .. |
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Good dialogue. The below graph is based on data right from the stock assessment, best available science, the horses mouth and peer reviewed. Summer flounder attain sexual maturity between ages 2 and 3. Based on the Mean Length by Sex and Age charts, a 3 year old female summer flounder's mean length is 17.65 inches, a males is 15.42 inches. So waiting until a female reaches 18" might give that fish one to maybe two years of spawning. Almost all male age groups through age 7 have a mean length less than 18". Age 6 in the graph for males makes no sense, must be flawed data of some kind used in their models. Point is males are significantly smaller in this stock and as such are more susceptible to being victims of natural mortality and extensive collateral damage from commercial netting.
Key point to keep in mind. Right or wrong, science assigns a 25% natural mortality rate to every age class from sickness, predation (stripers, seals etc.). Meaning if an age class started with 1,000 new recruits, it loses 250 in the first year. In the second year, that age class presumably has shrunk to 750 and loses another 187 (25% of 750) or round it up to 200 in year two and has now lost almost 50% of it's class just to natural mortality. Now add discard mortality, especially commercial related which is an enormous number carrying an 80% mortality rate and add recreational mortality plus fishing mortality from commercials who can retain these sizes or throw them back dead while recreational anglers can't. If these percentages are close to reality, we're losing 60% - potentially 80% of every age class within two years before they spawn once or can be harvested legally by the recreational sector. And since males are smaller in size, we're proportionately losing a higher percentage of males from each class which to Hammer's point is why I believe almost all fish harvested recreationally are females. Most males die early in their life cycle, victims of natural mortality or collateral damage from commercial fishing operations. Very few males make it over 18". And if these younger age classes end up in commercial nets, they're going back dead because the prime size commercials harvest are in the 16" - 18" range for the restaurant market. The true reason recreational regulations start at over 18" giving the commercial sector exclusive harvest rights to those size fish. This fishery flourished in the 90's and early 2000 because we were harvesting the exact opposite age classes we're harvesting today. Harvesting them before they were succumbing to natural mortality and discard mortality, and protecting the spawning stock which made it through. Today's regulations allow these fish to succumb to 25% natural mortality yearly for the first two years, losing ~50% of each classes population, we kill millions of the younger age groups pursuing the harvest of the older age groups and science wonders why the spawning stock declined substantially and why recruitment statistics are approaching historic lows. How many marine biologists should it take to figure that out? Makes no sense if the powers to be are managing the fishery as opposed to what's best for the commercial sector which personally I believe is the prevailing problem regulatory decisions are being based on. The attached graph shows males are substantially smaller than females, because they grow slower and live shorter lives. |
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They want fish 4 pounds and up because in a good market they make 1 dollar more per pound . So here in NJ when they are allowed say the 3000 pound weekly , they earn an extra 3k. . |
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A restaurant serves a portion , not a 1/4 fish in many places . Otherwise patrons getting a white side fillet would complain about those others getting a brown side etc . The THEORY that commercial guys target 16-18” fish is one started by recreational fisherman . . When better fish are around their paychecks are substantially larger . When the market is overrun with fish when the 7 day boats are boating 30-35k a week of fish , small guys don’t even want to fish because it brings the price down to low to make a profit on the smaller state landings . IMO if you follow NC landings for most of the year they are enormous, in a state that only has a 2 week recreational season . Those boats are way overfishing all the states north of them to fill those quotas . It’s not the local commercial boats fishing here with much more conservative bag limits . |
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I agree with the most popular choice: 145 days, 3 fish @ 18. The party boats need the long season. We ae down to 3 in AHMH, unless a new boat moves into 1 of the 5 vacant slips. Any young captains out there that want to get into this business?
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These poll numbers are totally different from yesterdays' poll numbers...TOTALLY DIFFERENT....more fake polls and votes
Our country and culture is totally corrupt....needs to be completely overhauled # 2 was in the lead and the numbers have all been subtracted from #2 don't believe anything you see anymore |
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Sushi restaurants want the bigger fish and I imagine a lot if not the majority are shipped to Japan.
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17 voted with almost 800 views .
Shows how few guys actually get involved , yet will bitch when we get screwed with regs we may not want . . |
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My theory, as you refer to it about restaurant size 16" to 18" being the primary size fish targeted, isn't from recreational anglers, it's from one of the top commercial guys in the industry. |
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The people saying larger fish while having more eggs are less fertile than younger age classes are the same guys harvesting those older breeders to rationalize their catch. The juvenile female fluke when they first attain sexual maturity are said to produce approximately 400,000 eggs a year. Large breeders can produce up to 4 million a year. There might be some truth to the fact that larger breeders on a relative basis are less fertile but there's no science that suggests that differential in fertility comes close to mitigating the incremental eggs a larger breeder is capable of producing. |
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This was the original 5/24-9/4, 3 @ 17.5 inches or more for 124 days This is the revised 5/24-9/4, 3 @ 17.5 inches or more for 104 days As you can see, the original as I posted it had 20 more days of fishing which was incorrect and the reason it was more attractive to many on here.. And let me take a wild guess that you preferred and still do prefer 17.5 inch fish/option 2 and since what you want is not polling as well, the survey is obviously rigged :rolleyes: |
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They have no idea what the break down per age year class is available in the fishery . Nor do they have a breakdown of females vs males . Your a graph and numbers guy, but you also have no idea whether info your using is actually accurate or not . Bad info in is bad info out . Only way we will ever have accurate information is when info is based on real life conditions , and not guesses from the hip . |
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Instead of fishing with the minimum size net , they bump up the net size to target larger fish . Bigger 7 day boats are making long steams to get to areas holding the biggest fish . It makes them an extra 30 grand a week to do so . . |
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Their information, if you're referring to NMFS still, are their numbers and the accuracy of their data has been in questions for as long as their existence. No different than the accuracy of information you receive from your commercials cronies who will say anything that gives them the ability to further exploit the resource and increase catch values. You think they're concerned about long term conservation, maybe a few are but the vast majority could care less and are only concerned with how much money goes in their pockets every trip and they'll exploit, kill and discard as much of the resource as necessary to harvest the most valuable fish they can sell back at the docks. Don't be an alter boy. Yeah I'm an analytical guy and much more, something you'll never be able to comprehend. What's your point? NMFS's information is sketchy but it's the information regulatory decisions are based on and I've used it to prove decisions made by NMFS are wrong based on that very data. Proof they ignore. And you believe your data from commercial guys you know who have a vested interest to provide only information which will serve their best interests is clean. Please, use the the common sense God gave you. Please provide one fishery you're aware of which has flourished where the breeding population is pounded year round, younger juvenile fish are killed in the process by the millions and larger breeders of both genders are the mandated target of the recreational regulations and where large female breeders, based on your spot on intelligence, are the prime target of commercial netters. And add to that, the stock is actively mugged by commercial concerns during their spawn. |
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I have said the same in reference to commercials hammering this stock at times they shouldn’t be . But imo it’s the NC fleet doing the damage to these stocks . The smaller guys aren’t allowed those huge landings . Problem is currently there are no regulations to where the netters can go in federal waters . Example would be NJ boats allowed to harvest 3000 pounds a week , and just make quota . But a NC boat takes 30000 from the same area . Our fishery suffers while they drive that load south . . Why or how can NJ landing limits help the fishery when all the rest of this is going on . . And as far as me not understanding your analytics , you can cherry pick anything you want . But you also can’t back it up with actual science because there really isnt any accurate information available to make an ACCURATE finding . You only want to believe numbers that fit your narrative . All these findings used for all the graph and chart are based on anecdotal info . If I was to believe the fishery was just on my actual observations, I would think 20” fish are in abundance . Reading other guys findings it’s 16” fish. Which possibly is accurate where they are fishing . |
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Second, I completely agree with your points about NC and always have. They destroyed the southern stock and will do the same without blinking to the remaining northern stock and should be removed from our waters. Plus the favorable weight assignments they receive are about 30 years outdated and a huge problem to every other state and major benefit to NC. That completely flies under everyone's radar screen and never receives any mention. Their allowable landings, which already represents a third of the commercial quota, is doubled because their weight assignments for fish are substantially lower than all other commercial states and the recreational sector. Third, I'm not cherry picking a thing, my analysis is as comprehensive and objective as any done on NMFS data. Again it's their data, like it or not, decisions based on MSA are supposed to be based on and it's flawed in more ways than you can imagine. Just as much as I'm sure the data you receive from commercials is not verified by anyone but the commercial operators providing it who have a vested interest to have it support their best interests and their narrative. If anyone's data is cherry picked, it's theirs. Ask any of your buddies exactly what their average discard mortality rates to landings or catch are and compare it to the below chart which is data provided by independent federal observers. Compare the black lines, observer percentages of discards to the blue lines, %'s reported by operators on Vessel Trip Reports. Then compare to the red lines, actual landings. Objective and verifiable. The disparities are enormous. I believe commercial mesh sizes were increased in the late 90's / early 2000, look at the spike in discard percentages. These statistics were from the 57th Stock Assessment and I'm sure infuriated the commercial sector and embarrassed NMFS so they simply removed the chart from subsequent assessments. Don't address the problem, just make the data disappear and sweep ,the problem under the rug. And if it was that bad back then, think about what it is today based on your own comments and the pursuit of fish over 4 lbs. It's a huge problem in this fishery which NMFS has turned a blind eye on. My conclusions are based on 20 years of historical data, relationships and trends, something well beyond your paygrade. If you can't grasp it, that's understandable, but don't insult me by saying it's my narrative. Or we can use your extensive on water experience and believe what your commercial buddies are telling you which you apparently accept face value as empirical data while the fishery continues it's declines. LMFAO. |
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Your conclusions are based on portions of their data
Which anyone spending 5 minutes on the water knows isn’t accurate They do trawl studies where the operator tells them they will never find the results they are looking for Then act as though it’s accurate They have no idea the actual mortality of our releases No actual data except when observers are in the commercial boats ( and I’m told most time never even leave the cabin ) to actual discards They estimate everything Even actual landings are allowed to be off 10% Then throw in all the bicatch while commercial are fishing for other species etc So IMO there really isn’t accurate info As far as who to believe Commercial guys are actually on the water 300 plus days a year . Seeing what’s coming up in the nets Your charts are based off bean counters who probably couldn’t tell you how to get to the ocean , That’s why they have failed at every fishery there is . Insanity is you now thinking their way of managing the resources from their charts will get any better |
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Bill if your data was extremely accurate .
Why is it that most party boats , and charter boats have no problems catching limits day after day ? Why is it that guys fishing tournaments are mostly limited out by 8 am and have to leave spots open while fishing for a tourney fish ? Most all why is Nj having such a tough time with 18” fish when states Just south of us , and every state north of us isn’t having a problem catching 18” fish ? |
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I never said managing the resource from the charts will get any better, I've actually said the opposite which is managing the resource in the manner NMFS has over the last two decades will insure one thing, the ultimate failure of this fishery. That's it, nothing more, nothing less. You can have the last word, I've said my piece and I'm done with this discussion. Just keep this exchange in mind when NJ's regulation are 2 fish daily at 22" with a 60 day season. |
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