RJ: I'd say that so far its about what I expected. Not many small fish at all. Although, a few more than last season. All the fish I'm seeing and have been seeing are stuck between 28 and 35-inches long. One or two year classes. Not all that much above that and not all that much below it either. It's great catching fish like that but sooner or later we will run out of them, especially with almost everyone talking their "FAIR SHARE" of two fish a day home. I've watched these three guys who fish almost everyday take six fish a day for most of the season so far. Between them, that's 42 fish per week. What does someone do with 42 bass a week?? That's enough fillets for three meals a day, everyday of the week. The new recreational angler or fisherman has become the commercial fisherman of yesterday!. There are thousands of them, totally un-regulated for the most part. Do you know how many fish would be killed if every recreational striped bass angler took just two fish per year?? It amounts into the millions from Maine to the Carolinas. How long does anyone think that can go on. Unlike the rod and reel anlger of today, whose limited to a 13-day season in the spring and maybe a one week or ten day season in the fall. The Rec guys can take and kill fish every day, twice a day if they want to. We've gone from a totally unregulated commercial fishery of 35-years ago, to an almost free-for-all in the Rec catagory. Just look at all the striped bass tournaments up and down the coast now. No one looks at the overall BIG PICTURE any longer. Each see's his or hers own little world and a few of this friends. However, that is muliplied 1000-times over coast wide. With not all that many fish coming into the fishery, its just a matter of time before we run out of what is there now. There are only so many fish in the sea. IT is not limitless as many, once again, believe that it is. The two outer ends of the fishery are in terrible shape. The Carolinas and Maine. Guys from Carolina are fishing in Maryland waters as well as Virginia. Maine guys are coming down to Mass. The farthest ends or range of any fishery is the first to show signs of depletion. We are seeing that now and have been for a couple of years. The banner years of the Susquhanna Flats in Maryland are over and have been over for about six or seven years now. There are hardly any more big fish on them in the spring time. The offshore winter time fishing in the Carolinas has become a waste of time for the most part. I know guys down there and most have switched over to drum or other species. As I told many before, as well as the Clammer has himself, we've lived this once already. And the similarities are drastically similar. Just look at all the big fish that are being caught. No little ones to get in the way, that's why. At Block Island guys trolling umbrella rigs are catching FOUR OR FIVE 18 to 30-fish on ONE rig. They can hardly get them to the boat. How long do you think that can go on???? Maybe all the experts on the other site have the answers to this. At least they seem to pretend that they do most times. History will repeat itself if you don't learn from its past mistakes.
HI Jim in all RESPECT I'm a SCUP rec FISHERMAN I got 2 keeper stripers this year and they they tasted GREAT also I target black sea bass so tasty I'd be happy to toss all my Bass back to me I like reeling them in but Blue fish fight alot better I'm a trucker trapped in a fishermans body. Clammer would like to be trapped in my wifes body Oh yea the OTW show was cool Bill and yourself were tottaly laid back and didn't get sucked in to the MEDIA HYPE the guys on OTW must have been hopeing for a more Flashy show ?? LINK
The guys from OTW got EXACTLY who we are. Laid back, no hype, no glory, just a couple of guys catching fish and doing what we do best. We let our fishing speak for itself. Anyone who's braggin all the time about what they catch and how big it is, is in all likely hood lying or bullshitting or both. NO ONE catches big fish all the time and no one catches fish ALL THE TIME. That's the truth. Everyone has more bad days than they'd like to admit. Everyone can also learn something about fishing. No one knows it all nor will they ever know it all. There is just too much to learn. Hell, I've learned shit fishing with my 8-year old grandson. Once you stop the leaning process, you become stagnent, useless, and un-effective. It cracks me up to hear all the bragging and know-it-alls spouting how much they know, have all the answers and more. I got an e-mail from a guy once who told me he'd been striper fishing for a total of six years. He actually stated that he thought he had it all figured out pretty good. He asked me some stupid question, I forgot exactly what it was, I told him he didn't need my advice since he'd already figured it out on his own. Funny thing, I've been fishing since the age of four or five years old, and I haven't figured out much of anything yet. I do pretty good for myself, but I'm a long way from figuring it all out. I'll never figure it all out. No one lives long enough to do that in reality. Billy and I got a lot and I mean a lot of e-mails about that show. In the thousands. Everyone said the exact same thing that you did. They liked that fact that we didn't get caught up in the HYPE of the show. Seemed pretty simple to me and Billy. I think most people appreciated the honesty on our behalf. Doing TV is not cracked up to what most people believe it to be. Its really a pain in the ass. BTW-- I might re-open the Fish Talk section to discussion again and see how it goes. A lot of people have been asking me to do it again. We'll see. thank's for your comments. Captain Jim White F/V White Ghost-2
