[FishingSinceIWasThree]

I was a mate on the party boats and charter boats for many years and I lived great bluefishing for many, many years. I also remember years with very few bluefish in the sixties. I read incessantly about fish and fishing and I read that bluefish are cyclical as many other fish like weakfish. The great bluefishing occurred with no regulations at all. I also remember when no one even knew what a weakfish was because they were so rare. That was also the sixties. They came back amazingly with no regulations at all.

I do agree that there should be some regulations but there are many other factors affecting fish populations. Winter flounder have been basically closed fir twenty years and the populations have not been recovered in most areas. I believe that all the private boats clean up with bleach which kills the flounder eggs and fry which are I the back bays.

What I have noticed is that the fishing business has been decimated by regulations as are so many other businesses. This is the biggest problem in the country right now. Regulations that don’t take into consideration of businesses at all.

Weakfishing is amazing on Long Island right now and you can only keep one. Who can spend $500 on a fishing trip and not even bring back dinner.

We need people who care about taxpayers creating the regulations. Fishing used to be for the poor and middle class. Now it is for the rich. I would not have been able to fish as a child with these mega expensive regulations. As a matter of fact, I can only afford to fish maybe 20% if what I used to. Let’s regulate elections and stealing of trillions of dollars of tax money. That’s where the real troubles lie. These criminals are destroying not only fishing but everything else as well.