Meeting with Tony Bogan

[CaptTB]

Standing down at the boat this morning and then driving home after the boat just left I was thinking about this thread, the meeting we just had, the comments made and the responses I gave.

If my previous comments seem a bit harsh that's because I have personally reached a point where I no longer see the advantage to treating these topics with kid gloves. Sure, reasonable well thought out responses are important, but my emotion needs to start coming through just a bit more than it has in the past (those that know me and have heard me speak may find that hard to believe!)

Too long have I witnessed the apathy of fishermen and business owners (the party/charterboat sector has been it's own worst enemy for decades as has the tackle industry) and listened to the numerous reasons people have given to not get involved. Some legitimate, some just excuses.

To those who ask "what have "they" done for me?" My response is simple: Why are you asking me on a message board? Call them up and ask them yourself! Then, you can make your decision to support or not based on the information straight from the horse's mouth, not what you read on a message board on the internet. Find out what has been done and what is being done, then decide from there if this group or that group is worthy of your hard earned dollar.

Let me say this:

It is your dollar, you should spend it where you see fit and no one else can tell you where to spend it. We can tell you where we THINK you should spend it, but in the end it is, afterall, your dollar.

I have watched the same groups (several I mentioned previously like RFA and JCAA and UB) fight these fights for years. Sometimes we won, sometimes we lost, sometimes we simply fought a delaying action because that's what we could do. Sometimes the "victories" were losing less than we could have instead of "winning" something concrete.

These things were accomplished (or not accomplished in some cases) with but a fraction of a fraction of the anglers out there donating money and even fewer donating time. From my vantage point, one that has given me a front row view of the activities since the end of the 80's when the first bluefish meetings took place in Philadelphia where the 10 fish limit was set, I cannot help but think about what could have been accomplished if we had even 1% of the anglers in this country joining up and donating money.

That's right, less than 1% are actually involved. If a NJ group had even 10% of the anglers just in the state of NJ as members they'd have triple or quadruple the number of members they currently have FROM THE ENTIRE COUNTRY!

To me those numbers speak VOLUMES as to what has been accomplished with so little support.

That is where my comments come from. From my first hand experience of the devotion of some, and the apathy of MILLIONS.

So, please take my comments for what they are worth, nothing more than my personal experience and opinion being expressed the only way I know how.

Truthfully.