Immediate Action Needed By 7/30 For Seabass

[AndyS]

Originally Posted by frugalfisherman

Who wants to go seabass fishing in January and February? Not me!

I do !! Who wants to jerk around with 13 inch fish when you can get (on average) 5 pound fish. Not to mention the dinner plate sized porgies, purple hake, cod and pollock you get with an offshore trip. I can't find the photo but won the pool on the Doris Mae with a 7 pound sea bass. I know it will never happen again but January and February were lights out when it came to offshore sea bass fishing.

[Broad Bill]

Originally Posted by AndyS

I do !! Who wants to jerk around with 13 inch fish when you can get (on average) 5 pound fish. Not to mention the dinner plate sized porgies, purple hake, cod and pollock you get with an offshore trip. I can't find the photo but won the pool on the Doris Mae with a 7 pound sea bass. I know it will never happen again but January and February were lights out when it came to offshore sea bass fishing.

I agree Andy. Don't know if you remember but in 2013 I was on a Doris Mae trip with you with my son Ryan. Weather was insane for January, short sleeves and we absolutely destroyed the sea bass with clams and jigs. One of the best offshore trips I've ever been on. I remember going up in the wheelhouse and the captain Charles Eble, who is no longer with us, showed me the fish finder. It was lit up with sea bass 75 feet over the wreck. All monster sea bass especially on the jigs.

We're at a point where recs get the crumbs left over after commercial quotas have been decided. If we don't use our voice to our advantage, our kids will never experience trips like that and we should do what we can to make sure that doesn't become a reality.

[Gerry Zagorski]

Originally Posted by AndyS

I do !! Who wants to jerk around with 13 inch fish when you can get (on average) 5 pound fish. Not to mention the dinner plate sized porgies, purple hake, cod and pollock you get with an offshore trip. I can't find the photo but won the pool on the Doris Mae with a 7 pound sea bass. I know it will never happen again but January and February were lights out when it came to offshore sea bass fishing.

It wouldn't surprise me if we get some of the winter season back without having to shift our current regs around to get it. We have a long way to go and lots of things need to line up but it is possible.

Fact is that fisheries management has screwed us with Seabass for several years now by pumping the breaks and reducing the harvest while the biomass continues to surge.

Time for us to get some reward for the sacrifices we made in the past. The regs worked for the fish, now it's time they work for the fisherman too!

[Lido-Gambler]

I commeneted a few days ago as one who works aboard a party boat. I also shared this to my lists and socials and to my dismay the response was very minimal. I will be working when the call takes place and sincerely hope others can get on the call and share how these regulations are striving to put us out of business. Why would they plan a call for mid week/mid day like that?? Its a tremendous fishery right now and we need it to ensure repeat business.

Capt. Chris Lido
FV Gambler
Point Pleasant Beach.

[hammer4reel]

Seems to be some misinformation here .
Talked to the person who heads this fishery here in Nj .
He said we are getting an increase in bag limit , not a reduction .

He said the reduction talked about was the daily going from ten to eight fish .
To keep an 8 fish bag limit open when sea bass are in season during all its phases .
Instead of a 1 fish bag limit now in this segment .
If it’s 8 fish when ever open that allows a better harvest right now when they are still abundant .

Curios to see what actually shakes out .

.

[Gerry Zagorski]

Originally Posted by hammer4reel

Seems to be some misinformation here .
Talked to the person who heads this fishery here in Nj .
He said we are getting an increase in bag limit , not a reduction .

He said the reduction talked about was the daily going from ten to eight fish .
To keep an 8 fish bag limit open when sea bass are in season during all its phases .
Instead of a 1 fish bag limit now in this segment .
If it’s 8 fish when ever open that allows a better harvest right now when they are still abundant .

Curios to see what actually shakes out .

.

Not miss information but a timing issue here Dan...

When we starting getting prepared for taking action, there was a study from the Science Center floating around, which if taken into account was predicting unfavorable recruitment because of the precited unfavorable spawning conditions in the future and a decline in the SSB. Projections from the science center in the past were consistently under projecting future SSB so that report was recently revised to be more favorable.

We need to see what actually happens at this next meeting as far as getting an increase in harvest and there are indications are that it will happen. We also need to remember that, an increase in harvest does not directly translate to less restrictive rec measures.

The other wild card here is the next wave of reporting for the 3rd quarter will need to be taken into consideration as well so we won't have a definitive on them and how they might influence measures until November. As we all know reporting is all over the place and very unpredictable and unreliable, you might as well be spinning a prize wheel. There's the possibility of increased landings because with an over abundance fish, you likely catch more fish and if you catch more fish and there are more discards as well, this can work against you.

Bottom line is although things are looking favorable right now, this is far from over and still lots of moving parts until the state people get to the point of deciding our state regulations.

Lets keep fighting and make comments on the meeting on Wednesday 8/13 and the details of that meeting are here

Thanks All!

[Broad Bill]

Gerry to Dan's point and a question I wanted to ask from the beginning of this thread, isn't MAFMC proposing and expecting a 28% increase in quota to BSB for the 2026 and 2027 seasons? I think that might be the point Dan is making or question he's asking. If there is an increase in quota, there's still the issue of how that increase manifests itself with changes to the regulations. Size, season length, closed vs open seasons, bag limit etc. but it does appear a quota increase is on the table. Is that correct or no?

[Gerry Zagorski]

Originally Posted by Broad Bill

Gerry to Dan's point and a question I wanted to ask from the beginning of this thread, isn't MAFMC proposing and expecting a 28% increase in quota to BSB for the 2026 and 2027 seasons? I think that might be the point Dan is making or question he's asking. If there is an increase in quota, there's still the issue of how that increase manifests itself with changes to the regulations. Size, season length, closed vs open seasons, bag limit etc. but it does appear a quota increase is on the table. Is that correct or no?

Yes Tom they are proposing a 28% increase as of right now but prior to this, the science center report was floating around and that could have brought that down considerably.

As far as regulations are concerned, the increase in quota is certainly great news however as you mentioned, that does not necessarily translate to more favorable regulations and the 3Q data reports due in November will no doubt have to be factored in as well..

Yes things are looking more promising but you know how these things go and it's still way too early to celebrate.