2017 Fluke quota reductions....

[JBird]

I sure wish we had a slot fish for fluke. A reduction in bag limit and/or a shorter season would be easier to swallow if we could keep one or two fish between 16 and 18 inches. I just hate throwing back those "jumbo shorts" especially the gut hooked ones.

[Detour66]

With out a doubt this was coming. With all the talk of "best season in 20 years" and pics all over social media of big fish and limits it made it look like everyone was coming back to port with limits of big fish which was not the case. And talk of offshore lumps being cleaned out, well I doubt it was the rod and reel guy doing that. There are plenty of fluke out there so there is no reason for a reduction next year. We will see what happens next year. For now...enjoy what's left of the season!

[SNAPS]

Originally Posted by bulletbob

Rutgers and Cornell??? They searched only to find the 2 most radical leftist tree hugging schools in the country, and hired THEM to save the rec fishery.. Rutgers and cornell you say?? Working together to help sport fishermen??.. Great.....

I hear ya, Thats why SSFF had to hire their own guy so that they can get some truthfull, meaningfull non voodoo science to refute the Feds Voodoo findings, and convince the feds to consider SSFF findings in their decision process.

[SNAPS]

Originally Posted by Detour66

With out a doubt this was coming. With all the talk of "best season in 20 years" and pics all over social media of big fish and limits it made it look like everyone was coming back to port with limits of big fish which was not the case. And talk of offshore lumps being cleaned out, well I doubt it was the rod and reel guy doing that. There are plenty of fluke out there so there is no reason for a reduction next year. We will see what happens next year. For now...enjoy what's left of the season!

I agree , A while back I remember someone here saying stop posting all this social media etc etc etc, just say we had a nice day or a good day, makes it sound like rod n reel guys are mopping up.

[SNAPS]

Originally Posted by JBird

I sure wish we had a slot fish for fluke. A reduction in bag limit and/or a shorter season would be easier to swallow if we could keep one or two fish between 16 and 18 inches. I just hate throwing back those "jumbo shorts" especially the gut hooked ones.

I wonder the same ???, does that do any thing for the quota etc ?? yea at least come home with something, instead of throwing a bag of ice away or leaving it for the boat. How do they know we overfished ??

I remember talking to an accountant one time i asked him " how do the numbers look ??? He replied , "how do you want them to look ??

[Capt Sal]

Originally Posted by SNAPS

I hear ya, Thats why SSFF had to hire their own guy so that they can get some truthfull, meaningfull non voodoo science to refute the Feds Voodoo findings, and convince the feds to consider SSFF findings in their decision process.

Exactly and some are from Rutgers. Rutgers is the state university and SSFF is using the funds for a good reason.

[hammer4reel]

Originally Posted by Detour66

With out a doubt this was coming. With all the talk of "best season in 20 years" and pics all over social media of big fish and limits it made it look like everyone was coming back to port with limits of big fish which was not the case. And talk of offshore lumps being cleaned out, well I doubt it was the rod and reel guy doing that. There are plenty of fluke out there so there is no reason for a reduction next year. We will see what happens next year. For now...enjoy what's left of the season!

I think they listen more to all the guys whining there is nothing but short fluke around.
That supports their agenda.

While in truth I feel as many others who spend time as well as gas to find fish, that this season has been one of the best since cutbacks started.
And there is no reason to not keep limits as they currently are.

.

[Gerry Zagorski]

One thing to keep in mind here.... The surveys done to assess the stocks are done by doing trawl sets, not by the surveys done by Rutgers people on the for hire boats that are recording age and sex as mentioned above...

The proposed reduction is not influenced at all by the current good fishing northern NJ ‎is experiencing. The issue here is the NMFS trawl surveys indicate that there are a lack of younger fish. This may or may not be the actual case since they could be trawling in areas where the fluke no longer are.

We know Fluke are going through a northward population shift as their range is going further north each year. We also know that the trawls are done around the same time each year. This year we had an exceptionally warm winter and spring and high summer water temps and the fish may have moved so this is not an exact science.

The science being funded by the SSFFF is to introduce Fluke size and sex into the model that does a better job to predict future populations. This in part can be reflected in the regulations that are set. As a example as part of this research the scientists may suggest a slot fish to the NMFS boards who set regulations. I don't know that to be a fact but it was something thrown our as a possibility by one of the scientists.

It's also important to note that the SSFFF is taking the high road here.... It's not about rigging the numbers so we get more favorable regulations... It's about doing a better job in the science that goes behind setting regulations and predicting future Fluke stocks so we get the right regulations.

That in my opinion is the right thing to do and the SSFFF deserves all the support we can muster.

If you haven't already contributed here is a link where you can.
http://www.ssfff.net/ssfffdonate.html

[Down Deep Sportfishing]

Then we have weekly random surveys from a research firm for NOAA called Quantech that only asks "how many paying passengers aboard" and only wants to what you target, no catch numbers, in addition to VTR's. It's all bullshit

[NoLimit]

Will someone tell the Cornell and Rutgers rocket scientists that 18" means that we are killing all the breeders while the 17" males die of old age since they seldom see 18"?

Let us keep 16" males and the females will breed the billions of fry the rockets scientists are not seeing.