Sea Bass Closure

[AndyS]

In response to shresearchdude, and not to make a thread gone wild but..

"3) In the big picture doesn't everyone want more fish in the ocean?"

Yes, we all do, and the rod and reel guys get shut down time and time again.

Write a list of all fish in the ocean that we have limits on..................

From In Pursuit today 9/30

On a side note, there was a gill netter up there, it made me sick to see the amount of short dead bass that were floating around up there. WTF?

[oceansuey]

my postings have been about what the sea bass fishery in federal waters. from 3 miles and beyond. most of the bottom fishing boats that r catching sea bass now are mostly in state waters not federal waters i believe. it comes down to the data the noaa is using its been proven it is flawed. until they compile new data they will use the numbers from the flawed data. i pretty sure most of the sea bass caught are in the federal waters. that is why i talked about number of boats. num of passengers and how many times they go. if u do the math u will get an idea on whats caught in federal waters for sea bass landings. then looik, up 2 see what the quota is and bang u get an answer. yes noaa and nmfs are messed up govt organizations. i always thought that when i fished for giant bluefins for a living. many friends have since stopped fishing for them do to the bs of the fishery and i must say the people i know caught a majority of the bluefin quota. this just another slap in the face to all fisherman no matter if ur commercial or recreationalc ause the effect will be felt by everyone that fishes i said fishery.i might even be harder for some commercial guys cause of leguslature of removing pots from reefs. which i totally support but there r 2 sides 2 every story

[nightspeaks]

http://www.app.com/article/20090930/...a+bass+fishing

[Blackfish Doug]

[QUOTE=oceansuey]shresearch i know most on here will reply negatively. im just pointing out that the if u look at the hard numbers its pretty much self explanatary on how much fish are caught by the recreational side. say 10 party boats from sandy hook to cape may fish for sea bass in fed waters 3 times a week with say 30 paying customers catch an avg 20 fish per man at an avg size of 4lbs per fish. do the math and u can have an idea on whats caaught by the 10 boats 3 times a week.

I DO THE MATH 20 Sea Bass AVG. Your math is just as flawed as the regulators. I fish more for Sea Bass than most. I know the numbers and have pictures & data to back it up. Yes some fisherman do average numbers more than others but 20 Keepers I'm going to post you a picture from this Tuesday trip on the Ocean Explorer this is a picture of the racks for the day& this was an above average day. Me & my brother got 23 keepers. Do you know how many people on board that day swore that we limited we were not even half way there between the both of us. I know of 2 people on board that day that walked off the boat without getting their fish filleted. they had 8 keepers between them. There was 31 on board that day do the math how many fish would you say was in that can. Does it look anywhere near 612. Now this is the true hard number what do you think it is?. I have seen so many so called limit days when actually the person had no more that maybe 15 in the box. I know on charters limits can be had but Party Boats Your Offshore Theory of 3 to 4lb average is so way off do you have any Idea how big a 3 to 4lb Sea Bass is? I have looked at many so called 3 to 4 lb fish. The Sea Bass that's pictured here is 19" do you know how much it weighed. How many would say yeah that's a 3 to 4 lb. fish. Wrong it was 2. 75 lbs. I weighed it. I myself thought it was at least a 3 lb. fish & I was even wrong. I know a lot of exaggeration does go on but my numbers are true. Do you honestly think the average fish offshore is 3 to 4 lbs? I'm willing to bet that that number is far from the the truth as well & I could prove it. I averaged about 4 to 6 offshore trips a year for the last 20 years the numbers each year numbers get more & more exaggerated. I know it's good advertisement but that's what killing us the hype. I agree with some of the theories here but most are way overblown & now we are all suffering from it.

[oceansuey]

blackfish doug yes u do fish alot and i respect that, but what im saying is the offshore sea bass trips boats do in the winter 18hr trips. thats what i was talking about thats a complete different fishery than what most bottom fishing boats do day in and day out. and my numbers are just an estimate on what is caught on 18 hr sea bass trips never said it was correct data just an opinion on my part. it comes down to it noaa the asmfc and nmfs need 2 get their heads out of their respected asses and actually listen 2 REAL data from fishermen that catch said species. they screw us with regulations and closures based on bs data im sure u agree on that. they want real data so why dont they send observers on head boats 2 collect the data. they observe commercial vessels that way so why cant they do it with the party boats. im sure most party boats wouldnt mind having an observer on board unless they are breaking the law

[SNAPS]

DOUG-ABSOLUTELY CORRECT-GOOD POST
I rarely limit out on C bass, I may have caught 20 keepers in 3-4 trips but never limited out on 1 trip neither did I limit out for fluke except 1 trip and some trips I had zero.
I love it when people pull numbers out of thin air.

[sportfishingusa]

dont wanna step backwards here because i feel strongly they are mistaken as usual..

but years ago seabass fishing offshore i would fill a huge cooler or tote myself in a day..


25 limit? HA! we used to pee on that in an hour or two.. we used to catch numbers between 2 of us in the 3 digits and it was amazing..

when it went to a 25 limit i did several offshore trips for exampe and we started fishing one day at 5am and i had my limit and was in my bunk with TRUE 3-6lb bass and a cod and 2 pollock by 7am!!!! thats no JOKE!!

s o i ask.. where have these days gone? what caused it? id ont know but i dont think this closure is ever going to bring those days back! just like the tuna.. all these BIG fishys are there just not "stupid" as they used to be! hah


IMHO OF COURSE!!

[fsl1]

It's ironic that while everyone is debating if limits are ever caught, Fishmonger Jerry just posted a limit seabass report, which is pretty regular for him and several other knowlegeable bottomfish guides.
Who knows where these fish came from, but even if the limit were 20 fish per person, that's still a decent catch for one day and would reduce stress by 1/3 if in fact there is any stress on them. I just don't get the knee jerk reaction of going from 30 fish/person to a closure!

[MartyS]

Originally Posted by sportfishingusa

dont wanna step backwards here because i feel strongly they are mistaken as usual..

but years ago seabass fishing offshore i would fill a huge cooler or tote myself in a day..


25 limit? HA! we used to pee on that in an hour or two.. we used to catch numbers between 2 of us in the 3 digits and it was amazing..

when it went to a 25 limit i did several offshore trips for exampe and we started fishing one day at 5am and i had my limit and was in my bunk with TRUE 3-6lb bass and a cod and 2 pollock by 7am!!!! thats no JOKE!!

s o i ask.. where have these days gone? what caused it? id ont know but i dont think this closure is ever going to bring those days back! just like the tuna.. all these BIG fishys are there just not "stupid" as they used to be! hah


IMHO OF COURSE!!

What caused it? Bumping the minimum size up to 12.5". There is no shortage of sea bass.

Same as fluke. If the minimum size for fluke was back to 12" or 13", how many keepers would you have in a few hours of fishing this year?

They are just throttling us back with the regs.

[laketrout]

I heard this somewhere... and believe it's an analogy of today's time.

You can place a frog into a pot of boiling water and it will immediately jump out.

Or,

You can place a frog in a pot of luke warm water, turn up the heat, and it will slowly boil to death.

We are the frogs in luke warm water, it must stop.

Yes, I am a contributing member of the RFA but it doesn't seem to help.

Regretfully, sorry to see the ocean prospects going directly to the big pockets, and yes, it is about the commercial interest. Just ask the commercial "hand line" cod fisherman in the north atlantic (Canada). You talk of revolution. Those boys commender-ed the official office after laws were passed against them (for a week or more i believe) and there was a great documentary movie which details all of it. Eventually, it all fell against them, even after the hand line fisherman were able to declare victory based on promises which weren't kept by officials.

Troubled times are upon us (fluke regs./ mako shark closure/ sea bass) and I want to buy a bigger boat. WTF for...