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Originally Posted by Sparky4711
This to me is a no brainer, I'm a six pack guy when the last time u and yours fishing buddy's caught 8 fish each. 30 fluke is a great day!!!!!
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Sparky,
Not tooting my own horn here but we had quite a few days where we had 30+ keepers last summer. Yeah it takes long days but we did it to them when everything was right.
In regards to the question posed here, I'm really torn as to what I want and what I want for my customers. Lowering the minimum size a half inch will probably get us even more keepers, but as always we'd be tossing back loads of 17.499999" fish that are a hair short as we do when we are throwing back the 17.99999" fish that we've tossed back the last few years.
Losing three fish to the bag limit while gaining back a half inch sorta seems like a bit of a stalemate as you are gaining a little in regards to WHAT you can keep, but are losing out on how many fish you can take home. If we give up those 3 fish, it's a sacrifice we're making and we are literally giving up those three fish we may never get back.
To me the debate over the LENGTH of the season is also a tough one. In the last 10 years, with the exception of a season or two, we've had fluke to be caught in September (when it was opened through the month). Usually a late summer Noreaster or as was the case last year, a hurricane will chase the fluke out of our area and for all intents and purposes end the season well before October 1.
BUT, with draconian measures being put on seabass and tog we will have little to fish for in "early fall" and having fluke available, at least as a target, can get some bodies on the boats and keep people excited about fishing until bass get back in town and tog/seabass reopens.
So with that said, I think option #4 is probably the best bet for me and my business (the only 17.5" option that I LIKE is #7), but I can see the 17.5" option working well for boats that fish in the bays (both D-Bay and R-Bay) and for the party boats who can probably get a few more fares with a lowered size limit.
Just my $.02
