Nobody wants to pay $50 for a half day fluke fishing, where all you bring up are skates, sea robins, and short fluke...so no boats sailing for fluke. Yet, the fishery continues to collapse.
Catching shorts, skates, and some blackfish. Yes, as to the party boats which seem to have gotten fewer here at the shore.
Same here at the Jersey shore. Boats would run full on weekends and 1/2 to 3/4 full during the week. It used to be hard not to catch fluke, now the opposite is true. Blues were pretty scarce the last few summers here as well. Not sure about 2020 as I did not go out due to Covid, but in years past you could get a ton of action on blues but not so much in the last few years prior to covid.
Maybe you are doing it wrong? I see plenty of fluke being caught in the Manasquan River. A friend and his dad caught 3 keepers this weekend.
We had a company fishing trip on June 11th and fished there. 25 people and only 4 keepers all day. Lots of shorts.Maybe you are doing it wrong? I see plenty of fluke being caught in the Manasquan River. A friend and his dad caught 3 keepers this weekend.
Here's something for the fluke fishing crowd:
There's a reason they're used for bouillabaisse, right? The bones and ginormous head make a wonderful broth, but if you're filleting the damn thing, you're tossing three quarters of it back overboard. You'd need 3 sea robins to make a meal for one.
Yeah I fish LI mostly for fluke and haven’t heard many great reports this year. Surprising to say the least because you can catch 19” fish in NY.
People taking immature fish was what got us to this problem.
Incorrect.
Don't overlook that the higher size limits also takes out mature females. At one point a few years back NY was keepers at 21" and up. Most keepers in that range and above are females.
As a striper fisherman, we never keep anything over 20lbs as they are almost all females over 20lbs. Government management of our fisheries always favor the commercial guys. I have been saying for years there needs to be a recreational lobbying group that can get the government to protect recreational fisherman's interests. From what I understand decades ago, the recreational catch was 80/20 in favor of the recreational fisherman. Now, I've been told it is 80/20 commercial catch to recreational catch for many species.
The scientists never get their way. The decisions are dominated by money and politics (short term commercial interests).
Everyone thinks they are an expert. And nobody trusts the government. So when a government agency tries to do something unpopular, based on complicated technical sciencey information, they get beat up by whoever is being told they can't do what they want to do. Spineless politicians cave. It true for climate change, toxic pollution, use of antibiotics, and on and on. We are doomed.
I agree with a lot of what you said but it is possible to turn this around, at least as far as the fluke fishery is concerned. States like Alaska and countries like Iceland have done a very good job with fishery management.
Stop! One commercial boat does more damage than a 1000 people.
Agree but people within govt seem to be becoming more and more partisan which drives their decision making. Examples being the IRS targeting certain groups and the leaking of private information to the media. But the whole over fishing issue should have broad consensus, even in these times. I guess that the huge demand for fish is making some people very very rich.
The government has become more politicized and less driven by the independent experts and scientists. Our politics is poisonous. So anyone that sees the other side as the enemy, as opposed to good people that they have some disagreements with, is the real problem.
There is a broad consensus in the fishing community: we all want more fish. But what that means to anglers is different from what that means to commercial fishermen. And ultimately, more fish available translates into more fish taken, so the resource becomes less abundant over time. People aren't happy with what they have, even when times are good, and want more. Personally, I rarely keep fish I catch even when in-season and of legal size. I'm not going to sweat a 4 vs 5 bag limit for fluke because I'd never keep 4 fluke in a single day, ever. I'd be thrilled to catch a dozen 17 inch fluke in an afternoon again, and throw them all back in hopes of doing it again the next week. For a commercial guy though, the extra quota is more money in his pocket. For a charter captain, that makes for happier customers. So there are competing interests, but we all need to understand each other somehow.
I almost fell over when I saw killies have a bag limit now. And bunker too. How scummy do you have to be to overharvest bait?
Weird, just weird. What really is concerning though is what is happening with bluefish? Why are their numbers down when I would say more anglers catch them for sport, not food. Our government needs to crack down on commercial fishing and figure out how to have a sustainable fishery. And I am disgusted by how many whales are killed either through commercial fishing lines or being hit by boat props. And of course the disgusting countries that still hunt them.
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