[Capt. Debbie]

Funny. The blame game... government's fault. Tackle shops are long hours and very seasonal.

But REALLY....... Aside from a smaller winter flounder population, who here has cut back staples fisheries like: fluke, blues or stripers because of keeper numbers or sizes changing. Who here stopped fishing totally because weakfish and whiting are extinct here in north NJ? I would say VERY few if any fisherman. We are ignoring the obvious for reasons of nastalgia, while we kill it ourselves.

Aside from bait..... HOW MANY PEOPLE HERE HAVE BOUGHT TACKLE OR ELECTRONCS ONLINE BECAUSE ITS A LOT CHEAPER & OFTEN FASTER? I know I have and likely 100% of this site. Well maybe 98%... perhaps some old codger doesn't trust computers may stiill be around.

Tackle shops are no different. Is Bass Pro Shops and Cabelas kicking their asses with very low prices? Yes! Just like Amazon.com does it in general retail. Fisherman magazine vs. NJFishing.com - who wins for fishing reports? The internet has given us a cheaper and better means to get everything but fresh bait.

On line store have almost no overheads. With the shorter fishing season we have here in NJ owners must pay for boats, docking ,rents, etc. thru the dead of winter. So July and August hey days must pay for January and February doldrums. Online does not have that.

So of course brick and mortar shops will close whether we can keep six x 18" fluke or 18 x six inch fluke.

Thats the way things are today in the internet age. It may be sad, but that's what we are doing. Can't blame the government much on this stuff.

It's a demise of our own making with tackle shops.