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Originally Posted by Capt Sal Cathy Sea Charters
i agree that stripers are a game fish.1 bass per day works for some people.i eat mine fresh so one fish is enough.now here is the problem.if the bass are 28 to30inches and i have a charter what do i do.how many charters can i book with a bag limit of 1?how about all of the party boats that make a living with school size stripers.the agenda of stripers forever in no way reflects the needs or the reality of the for hire industry.we do not need to harvest millions of bass but we need a reasonable bag limit to stay in bussines.
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I hear your concerns, Capt. I'm not in the business, so I will defer to your opinion on this question... "Would telling a 6 pack charter that they can only keep 6 bass significantly cut down on your bookings?".
Ultimately, the question is as a recreational captain, could you make more money if this fish is treated as a trophy or as a meat fish. For a 6 pack charter operation, with tighter limits, I think you'd have a better chance of getting fares into 35-36" fish day in and day out, rather than the current drill of relatively small fish.
Personally, I think you'd get more charters if bigger fish were a more realistic possibility. People drop $400-500 for the experience, the feel and sound of a big fish pulling drag, the trophy photo, etc... not for 4 fillets of a marginal tasting fish.
A friend of mine runs charters in Montauk. Doesn't keep a fish all Fall and is booked every day.
Party boats are a thornier issue. They can't be as flexible as a 6 pack in where and how they fish for bass. They have been forced to treat bass like meat fish due to getting regularly hosed on flounder, fluke, seabass, porgies, etc. The bass season gets longer and longer because the fluke season gets shorter and shorter. I don't want to put them out of business with regulations... I also don't want to see them put out of business because the bottom falls out of the fishery.
