Sea Bass tournament?

[Harpoon]

Originally Posted by Capt Sal

Ridiculous response! It is still a free country.

Hey Sal. Always good to hear from you!!!!

[bulletbob]

Originally Posted by Angler Paul

Most people keep the sea bass to eat and there are tons of them out there. I don't see how a tournament would hurt. Unfortunately, the quota is far too low for the entire east coast. The population of sea bass continues to grow and as it does so their range increases as well. Now all the states to our north catch a lot of them that causes us to go over the quota and again it results in tighter restrictions for us. JCAA believes it is time to rebel against the ASMFC for setting these ridiculously low quotas.

Paul Haertel

Indeed there are a lot of them out there.. for now...
However, there were once a lot of Whiting, Flounder, Mackerel,Weakfish, etc.. Hell, even eels are under pressure, and from what I have seen past few years, Ling are even starting to become scarcer. Fishing pressure is fishing pressure, regardless of the form it takes.

Tournaments are short lived, but for the time they are active, they put intense pressure on localized fish populations.. You may disagree, but in my area I am surrounded by tournaments, and I have seen the damage first hand.. As I said, personally I am not a fan.. I know my opinion is the minority one, and I accept that.
Actually I agree that some restrictions on Sea Bass should be lifted.. I think the size should be 12 inches actually, which on any given trip would give a fisherman plenty to take home. However tournaments just cause too much concentrated fishing pressure in small areas.. This wasn't a problem years ago, but today there are too many great fishermen with too much great equipment that can take an awful lot of fish out of a small area in a short time... bob

[Capt Sal]

Originally Posted by Harpoon

Hey Sal. Always good to hear from you!!!!

Nice to see you still don't get it??:confu sed:

[shrimpman steve]

Bob
The problem with a 12 inch biscut is there is not enough meat to eat.

Personally I won't keep a SEABASS unless it is a few inches above the current limit. That is just me. In fact I never target SB but will keep them as bicatch if big enough.

[duranautic al]

nobody likes a sea bass snob...eat em whole, plenty of meat on them barely legals...for some of us

[bulletbob]

Originally Posted by shrimpman steve

Bob
The problem with a 12 inch biscut is there is not enough meat to eat.

Personally I won't keep a SEABASS unless it is a few inches above the current limit. That is just me. In fact I never target SB but will keep them as bicatch if big enough.

Agreed, .. Problem is we see them going back by the hundreds with thier innards hanging out their mouths... It kills me to know they aren't going to make it, and last few times i didn't see any mates needling them to aid in survivability. I guess that isn't done on inshore trips but I dunno, maybe it should be. I would rather see smaller sea bass get taken home and eaten than going back in to a certain death... Many bottom fishermen even take very small ling simply because they are not going to survive anyway.. Thats one of the problems with any kind of bottom fishing in deep water.. Too many small ones that will die anyway. bob

[shrimpman steve]

Originally Posted by duranautic al

nobody likes a sea bass snob...eat em whole, plenty of meat on them barely legals...for some of us

Snob? If you knew me you would know that could not be further from the truth! if you want to keep a 13.5 inch fish to eat more power to YA. It's leagal and I have no problem with it but it's not for me so I CHOOSE not to keep them. Never criticized anyone else for keeping them.

Bob, once again I agree. Throwing those small fish back without venting is a death sentence. One of the reasons I don't target them.

Once again, this is just one humble mans opinion. As stated previously, I will keep the knuckleheads as bicatch as they are tasty bastids

[Harpoon]

Originally Posted by Capt Sal

Nice to see you still don't get it??:confu sed:

No confusion here Sal. It's "free country" as you put it and someone was asking for thoughts on a tournament. Since sea bassing is one of my favorite fisheries I provided my take on it. Funny, I don't remember seeing a response from you on this subject topic. Perhaps you are in this thread for malintent, which is not why this board is here.

[bbfisherman]

Sounds good and should be fun, worthy cause. ( You know the old saying about opinions including me).

[bunker dunker]

lets do it!!!! nobody saved me any buffalo