Stripers-Are you in or out?

[Capt. Jerry P]

I dont think it will change the amount of trips( speaking of my business) ...The trohphy live line fisherie is just that and people really do enjoy catching them one giant is more than enough meat. Even if u couldn't catch a smaller one Or vice versa

Now even tho it doesn't effect me( bc I don't do it) I still thinks it hurts the for hire party n charter boat sector that clams bass. Not having a second small fish will hurt them. N there is no excitement in throwing back 28 in clam fish..

Another big point most always miss is : If we get cut seabass again (which again a monkey can see is a healthy fisherie) u will b adding more pressure to stripers... same goes with cod in northern states.

If the seabass goes any smaller of a bag or we lose any more of the spring or fall season. Most Boats ( prob all the for hire boats ) will now b targeting stripers after they catch a smaller bag limit in a blink of an eye.

If seabass is closed locally or cod is closed up north. Even that many more boats will b targeting stripers even if they can only catch one of the two fish or it is one fish in another state.

That will drastically cut into the # of the reduction and break everyone thinks the stripers will b getting.

Domino effect

So even of stripers were the only fish u cared about u should pay attention to all species especially ones with healthy stock n overlapping season.

[Capt Sal]

Originally Posted by Capt. Jerry P

I dont think it will change the amount of trips( speaking of my business) ...The trohphy live line fisherie is just that and people really do enjoy catching them one giant is more than enough meat. Even if u couldn't catch a smaller one Or vice versa

Now even tho it doesn't effect me( bc I don't do it) I still thinks it hurts the for hire party n charter boat sector that clams bass. Not having a second small fish will hurt them. N there is no excitement in throwing back 28 in clam fish..

Another big point most always miss is : If we get cut seabass again (which again a monkey can see is a healthy fisherie) u will b adding more pressure to stripers... same goes with cod in northern states.

If the seabass goes any smaller of a bag or we lose any more of the spring or fall season. Most Boats ( prob all the for hire boats ) will now b targeting stripers after they catch a smaller bag limit in a blink of an eye.

If seabass is closed locally or cod is closed up north. Even that many more boats will b targeting stripers even if they can only catch one of the two fish or it is one fish in another state.

That will drastically cut into the # of the reduction and break everyone thinks the stripers will b getting.

Domino effect

So even of stripers were the only fish u cared about u should pay attention to all species especially ones with healthy stock n overlapping season.

With the bag limit of two winter flounder and crazy limits on blackfish and sea bass it does put more pressure on striped bass. Not everyone can afford to go on a charter every week. Party boats will still produce bass and I can see no reason for less patronage. Bonus tags will still be available in NJ .What size fish can the bonus tag be used on will be determined soon. I put in a call and when I get the info on the bonus tag I will post it.

[Capt Sal]

The bonus program striped bass quota has been reduced from 321,000 lbs. to 241,000 lbs. The meeting will be held on Feb. 26. At that meeting the size limit will be determined in regards to the bonus fish.

[Captain Ahab]

Chase is better then the dinner!


Same goes for striper fishing

[Capt. Lou]

I only C-R Stripers , so it won't effect me per se, however like Jerry Pointed out PB's can get hurt. Especially if other species R cut !
If u plan to fish cod in the GOM like I do , UR in trouble up there , closed areas & limit cuts will cripple the fleet for sure !
There is very little good news on the horizon anymore when it comes to R fisheries, no matter what the R&R guys do it's never enough! We didn't create these issues but we R surely paying the price !

[tunajoe]

Unfortunately, I think there will be a impact on the industry. Most of us here on the boards are respectful of the resource. However, for the average fisherman who is not that serious about it, they might be reluctant to go and opt for fishing for another species when they are around. Just look at what happened when the regs changed for bluefins. One per boat made it very difficult for many to even want to go on a trip. In the past, I just could not get enough guys together for a bluefin trip when the limit was 1 fish. All in all, there will be an impact on the stripers. They need to target those commercial fuc#ers.

[Capt. Jerry P]

Originally Posted by Capt. Lou

I only C-R Stripers , so it won't effect me per se, however like Jerry Pointed out PB's can get hurt. Especially if other species R cut !
If u plan to fish cod in the GOM like I do , UR in trouble up there , closed areas & limit cuts will cripple the fleet for sure !
There is very little good news on the horizon anymore when it comes to R fisheries, no matter what the R&R guys do it's never enough! We didn't create these issues but we R surely paying the price !

Yup not enough winter flounder bag limit to target them in the spring even 5 fish for a month and party boats would fish fish em..... lose more n more n seabass bag n season... cod closing in areas up north... and it like winning the lotto that fluke didn't change this year ( even tho we shouldn't b at the size we are out now) So next year im sure we will pay. Pretty clear pattern...

This leads to more boats clamming bass in raritan... more boats jigging instead of cod fishing. And more boats livelining rather then putting in a day of bottomfishing.

I cant blame anyone for fishing for em... gotta fish for something...but one good weekend for the for hire fleet is alot of fish. Take 3 big party boats charter boats n the few private boats that would normally b bottom fishing. now take the guys who cod season is closed n lets say they jig a limit. That's a whole bunch of small boat guys season combined in a blink of an eye. Even if it's one fish. That seems an awful stupid way to say ur reducing mortality on anything.

Once stripers is all u can fish for bc the other regs are so screwed up u won't b saving anything or atleast it will def b cutting into the so called reduction. If u increase the amount of anglers who keep 1 or have less anglers who keep two it's a problem.

Cracks me up bc rather than most seeing that all the regulations effect the next ones. People would rather b mad n outraged over a party boat with 50 people and legal picture of their catch waiting to b filleted. When if u took a step n look at reductions in other species is just making a bunch more boats go do the samething

[Joey Dah Fish]

It's a terrible shame the with all the money given to the government agencies they still get this stuff wrong!!! The only so called success story they have is the return of the striper. Now they are treating that. The commercial ban in our area on stripers certainly has increased the population until this past year fishing had been great. Perhaps commercial bans on other species and increased habitat would do the job. In fact I'm sure of it. I don't want to put the commercial guys out f business but you know you have to call a spade a spade. They are certainly killing a lot more fish other than their targeted species and destroying habitat the holds fish when they bang the hell out of the bottom. If something isn't done properly , both the rec anglers and the commercial guys will have no fish to catch. I don't have any answers except for doing my part and C&R when it's possible. Good luck to all and practice conservation when possible. I just love to fish. I spent a few years over seas on the Island of Crete when I was in the USAF and I have seen the effect of over fishing first hand. The beautiful waters of the med were pretty much void of fish

[Capt. Jerry P]

Originally Posted by Joey Dah Fish

It's a terrible shame the with all the money given to the government agencies they still get this stuff wrong!!! The only so called success story they have is the return of the striper. Now they are treating that. The commercial ban in our area on stripers certainly has increased the population until this past year fishing had been great. Perhaps commercial bans on other species and increased habitat would do the job. In fact I'm sure of it. I don't want to put the commercial guys out f business but you know you have to call a spade a spade. They are certainly killing a lot more fish other than their targeted species and destroying habitat the holds fish when they bang the hell out of the bottom. If something isn't done properly , both the rec anglers and the commercial guys will have no fish to catch. I don't have any answers except for doing my part and C&R when it's possible. Good luck to all and practice conservation when possible. I just love to fish. I spent a few years over seas on the Island of Crete when I was in the USAF and I have seen the effect of over fishing first hand. The beautiful waters of the med were pretty much void of fish

I dont have answers either but we should b able to see what works...Besides Stripers... Seabass n fluke are perfect examples of success. These are now nowhere near close to over fishing or anytype of collaspe. Both very healthy stocks up and down the coast. Why??? Bc we went along with strick regs to ensure it would b that way for the future. And the end of the day we are penalized for it. The result is where we are now bc they don't know what to do with a healthy stock.

Remember when every tiny pin seabass was a keeper.... remember when every person could fill a blue barrel of legal small blackfish from the canal. Remember when u stopped keeping fluke when u had a full cooler.

Bc these pratices are not common any more those fisheris have improved And it pretty clear for most to see.

I am the first to want to see the big bass around for for the future... If u force the for hire and recreational sector to fish for only stripers bc nothing else is available that will b one of the big down falls even if it was one fish.

At some point it works backwards...Now that we have loads of seabass around we will get cut. After years of cuts to get it where it is today

After all the years of cuts with fluke...Now the average guy just throw back gut hooked shorts all day long watching a dinner get feed to the crabs. And we put all the pressure on the bigger fish.

More winter flounder in the ocean every year - two fish - bc there wasn't as many where they were 20 years ago

Do we need to do something to protect stripers off course we do...bit If we didn't get the bunker we wouldnt get those big bass parked off central jersey for a month + u would get a quick shot jigging... they would trickle... or they would stay offshore/ Or go wherever there is bunker. The first thing everyone would say is its collapsed even if they were caught in record #s somewhere else. Happens every fall... sand eels inshore the bass park there n eat em. No sand eels they stay off shore ( loads seen there ) eat butter fish and everyone will say fall bass run was no good bc it collapsed overfishing. Bc u say fishing was great up until this year...although u make think it means nothing if guys from Barnegat or ny say it was the best season ever

Sad but true that the last paragraph above gets many people to belive things that r simply not true a form of ignorance bc it's supposed to a certain way in their mind.

It's the biggure picture that all regulations and season effect one another and fisheries are always changing.

Everyone is quick to blame a commercial guy and what's there size limits quotas etc...ex with fluke. Everyone complains about commercial size limit for fluke...They should have no size limit... bc they get there quota either way. I would much rather see them keep the first 400 lbs of fluke they net rather then discard 800 lbs to get there 400 of one size. What they catch is documented very well unlike the bs Disney land make believe #s we catch rod n reel.

[Gerry Zagorski]

From the outside looking in, it appears that the commercial lobster fishery in Maine is very well managed.... They practically manage it themselves with very little government oversight. http://www.lobsterfrommaine.com/main...anagement.aspx Seems to me that model is worth looking into.

Once the governemnt gets involved things get mis managed.....