Lets legalize freedom!

[hammer4reel]

Originally Posted by Detour66

I have to disagree sir... not even close to what the draggers are bringing in! How can we be close .. they are feeding the masses of the world! Supplying seafood for the restaurants, fish markets, animal food and mass produced frozen fish products. Yeah years back guys would catch and keep more than they should but to say this will compete with a boat with spotter planes and a mother ship, no way! I say freedom .... but not a slaughterer!

I didnt say we are beating them in total catch , your post said rod and reel fisherman can never hurt a fishery. I showed you real numbers for what could be caught by the AMOUNT of recreational fisherman just here in NJ .

boats feeding the World are not just catching the fish off the NJ coast.

When you add up how Little a catch needs to be caught when your talking about over a 1/4 million anglers it adds up fast

[broken bobber]

Originally Posted by Detour66

I have to disagree sir... not even close to what the draggers are bringing in! How can we be close .. they are feeding the masses of the world! Supplying seafood for the restaurants, fish markets, animal food and mass produced frozen fish products. Yeah years back guys would catch and keep more than they should but to say this will compete with a boat with spotter planes and a mother ship, no way! I say freedom .... but not a slaughterer!

i dissagree with you sir.... I blame the bunker situation on the guys throwing cast nets everyday for bunker, sometimes 2-3 x a day, netting 100 plus bunker, then leaving a dead trail of bunker back to dock.. or even blowing threw the bait and going for more on the same trip.....

[Falcon]

Toggy, exactly right. Every year a few more fish police with new pick up trucks

After what I have been ready lately "looks like they are doing there job" and that's great.....Hope they keep it up...

[Capt. Lou]

Cast netting bunker is only a fraction of the fish a well placed commercial net will recover. Bait netters may add to the overall catch but tonnage wise I'm positive the bunker boats account for a lot more.
I do agree on wasteful tactics exibitied by some of the sport boats, even then I believe they pale in comparsion to a commercial operation & I am aware that their are commercial bait cast netters operating as well.
If Tuna were a hook & line commercial fish only do you think they would be near extinction in some regions.
My opinion commercial bunker fishing has to be regulated further & then you will see a bunker come back & the cast netters will not even come close to hurting the population now or then.

[Detour66]

Originally Posted by Capt. Lou

If Tuna were a hook & line commercial fish only do you think they would be near extinction in some regions.
My opinion commercial bunker fishing has to be regulated further & then you will see a bunker come back & the cast netters will not even come close to hurting the population now or then.

I totally agree... and you don't need a spotter plane to fiqure that one out!

[team heat]

Was out on my boat the summer before last.Fishing was pretty slow and we saw a skiff type boat chasing a big school of bunker.THe next thing we see is 2 more bigger boats coming and the skiff starts circling the school of bunker.Now they deploy a net that surrounds the bunker school and the bigger boat starts drawing the net in.After they get the net real close to the side another big boat comes alongside and puts a big vacum inside the net to suck all the bunker into the tanks.Could not believe the amount of bunker they caught with just 1 drop of the net.If they are doing this every day all day its a miracle that there are any bunker left.If you see any of them out there take the time to observe them for awhile.

[piston529]

That's what I'm talking about
Thanks
Joe
Panacure@aol.com