Summer Flounder, Seabass and Scup Update and Action Items

[Angler Paul]

Personally, I would love to have 3 fish at 18" and a long season particularly extending it into the fall until sea bass season opens. I don't like the slot limit proposal at all. To me and the guys I know, that would be more of a restriction than a liberalization. It would kill ocean fluking if we could only keep 1 or 2 fish over 18". With the price of gas now it would not even be worth running out there. My friends and I catch far more fluke over 18" than in that narrow slot range of 17-18". I understand that some people struggle to catch their limit so I think going to 3 fish at 17 1/2" might be an acceptable compromise. I also asked our state to see if one over 17" and 2 over 18" might work. That way the less experienced fishermen might be able to keep a small one while still allowing the rest of us to keep 3 decent sized fish.
For sea bass I prefer going to 13" so that we can have have a relatively long season although we would still lose 9 days. We would lose a lot more days with any of the other options. Paul haertel

[frugalfisherman]

Originally Posted by Angler Paul

Personally, I would love to have 3 fish at 18" and a long season particularly extending it into the fall until sea bass season opens. I don't like the slot limit proposal at all. To me and the guys I know, that would be more of a restriction than a liberalization. It would kill ocean fluking if we could only keep 1 or 2 fish over 18". With the price of gas now it would not even be worth running out there. My friends and I catch far more fluke over 18" than in that narrow slot range of 17-18". I understand that some people struggle to catch their limit so I think going to 3 fish at 17 1/2" might be an acceptable compromise. I also asked our state to see if one over 17" and 2 over 18" might work. That way the less experienced fishermen might be able to keep a small one while still allowing the rest of us to keep 3 decent sized fish.
For sea bass I prefer going to 13" so that we can have have a relatively long season although we would still lose 9 days. We would lose a lot more days with any of the other options. Paul haertel

That makes perfect sense except for the part of loosing 28 days so you can keep 17 1/2 inch fluke. The longer the seasons the better.

[hammer4reel]

Originally Posted by Angler Paul

Personally, I would love to have 3 fish at 18" and a long season particularly extending it into the fall until sea bass season opens. I don't like the slot limit proposal at all. To me and the guys I know, that would be more of a restriction than a liberalization. It would kill ocean fluking if we could only keep 1 or 2 fish over 18". With the price of gas now it would not even be worth running out there. My friends and I catch far more fluke over 18" than in that narrow slot range of 17-18". I understand that some people struggle to catch their limit so I think going to 3 fish at 17 1/2" might be an acceptable compromise. I also asked our state to see if one over 17" and 2 over 18" might work. That way the less experienced fishermen might be able to keep a small one while still allowing the rest of us to keep 3 decent sized fish.
For sea bass I prefer going to 13" so that we can have have a relatively long season although we would still lose 9 days. We would lose a lot more days with any of the other options. Paul haertel

So all the crying for years to stop ruining the fishery by killing just female fish was for nothing .
Hundreds of thousands of dollars spent to prove that point .

I was told on the weekend that it was agreed a less than 1” slot would double mortality and the proposed slot would be a few inches instead (we will see what actually shows )
Slot fish should be 17-20 imo , so those of us fishing in the ocean that normally have no problem catching larger fish do still have fish to be able to keep .

A longer season than the end of SEPTEMBER does not do much .
95% of the fluke are gone by the 10th of September every since Sandy .
Most boats won’t go for a boat ride to catch those few remaining fish .
.
Having a smaller size limit will benifit shore anglers , and anyone fishing the bays .
And should drastically lower mortality discards .

.

[Gumada]

If we don’t get the commercials off them when they are breeding any other changes mean NOTHING !