Does Anyone Care Any More?

Years ago the Blachfish 'Pro's" used ranges then switched to loran to work the pieces off the beach .......
Now even kayaks have a GPS with all the pieces mapped out .....
These pieces used to hold many 'secrets' , now they get 'shined' up all season long , nothing gets a 'rest' due to these inexpensive GPS'
 
Scupper said:
Years ago the Blachfish 'Pro's" used ranges then switched to loran to work the pieces off the beach .......
Now even kayaks have a GPS with all the pieces mapped out .....
These pieces used to hold many 'secrets' , now they get 'shined' up all season long , nothing gets a 'rest' due to these inexpensive GPS'
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True, but there weren’t 10’s of thousands of pots targeting them year round either? Which do you think is worse a kayak fisherman that’s allowed to fish a 45- day season on a 3 fish 16-inch minimum, many of which can’t even get out that time of year, or a targeted year round mostly unregulated pot fishery? For example you know as well as I that area in the Western sound has seen plenty of rec boats anchored up around pea Island for decades until the pot proliferation. That place was a haven for decades when only targeted by hook and line.

It’s like everything else in our gold-rush fisheries mentality. As the price per pound raises, the fishery declines. You will find that in every fishery throughout history.
 
I never implied that Kayaks are a reason for lower Blackfish populations ............Pot fishery down to the west is dominated by two operations , not much effort in the Central Sound Cold Spring East ... Hard to be legit with current regs and be able to make a living ....... All for live fish tags , have been for many, many years ..... Way back when" they" told me that tags might crate infections , I guess they have changed their way of thinking ...
Yes the affordability of GPS with all the mapping has changed the game to the population of Blackfish ...

I still clearly remember those late spring quiet early mornings watching Big Blackfish 'chasing' each other towards the surface .........
 
Those
Scupper said:
I never implied that Kayaks are a reason for lower Blackfish populations ............Pot fishery down to the west is dominated by two operations , not much effort in the Central Sound Cold Spring East ... Hard to be legit with current regs and be able to make a living ....... All for live fish tags , have been for many, many years ..... Way back when" they" told me that tags might crate infections , I guess they have changed their way of thinking ...
Yes the affordability of GPS with all the mapping has changed the game to the population of Blackfish ...

I still clearly remember those late spring quiet early mornings watching Big Blackfish 'chasing' each other towards the surface .........
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i didn’t think you were implying that, and I do believe that recs need to account for their take, but deep down I still believe this fishery would be in fine shape if not for the pots.

I too remember those days of watching spawners in the spring. It’s sad, but I don’t think we will ever get back to those days.
 
Final point for now , Do not underestimate the Damage the "Bird " has done ...... At any given time Dozens of Cormorants sit on Jetties and costal rocks picking away all day on young Blackfish and Bergalls ......
No commercial fishery for Bergalls in the Sound yet Bergalls have nearly disapeered from all the hard pieces in the Sound / West , why ? The Bird ....
Sundials were once found all over the Sound , no Commercial Fishery for the either , yet during my annual dozen or so Fluke trips I am lucky to see ONE for the entire season ... Where did they go ? The "Bird" .........
Flounders have been researched up the ying / yang and have been found to remain 'local' , where did they go ? The "Bird "
Easy to blame others even though the biggest change in our eco system in the last 30 - 40 years has been the 'Bird"
Seems a total waste to me that NYDEC still stocks trout in our local 'lakes' , seems like 24 hours after they are dumped the "Bird " shows up and depletes the stocking effort quickly .................
 
Let's not forget about the explosion of seals we have seen in ny. Not much we can do about natural predation.
 
MakoMike said:
I would hardly classify the NY seal population as an "explosion." especially compared to what's happened in MA and RI.
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We went from an estimated 500 seals about 10 years ago to a 6,000 count this year. I don’t care what you call it but to me that’s an explosion.
 
O.K., you're entitled. But RI is about twice those numbers ad MA is about ten times those numbers, and I won't even mention the Great Whites in MA. :cool:
 
Well, our lobsters, if you're talking about RI, mostly went north with your lobsters, maybe they eloped! :ROFLMAO: The guys in MA really hate the seals, they have so many they are really a PITA. RI isn't anywhere near as bad as the Cape of Buzzard's Bay.
 
MakoMike said:
Well, our lobsters, if you're talking about RI, mostly went north with your lobsters, maybe they eloped! :ROFLMAO: The guys in MA really hate the seals, they have so many they are really a PITA. RI isn't anywhere near as bad as the Cape of Buzzard's Bay.
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Hopefully those great whites will fix that ?
 
MakoMike said:
Well, our lobsters, if you're talking about RI, mostly went north with your lobsters, maybe they eloped! :ROFLMAO: The guys in MA really hate the seals, they have so many they are really a PITA. RI isn't anywhere near as bad as the Cape of Buzzard's Bay.
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Lobstahs honeymooning in Maine, and the seal population is going crazy here too, not quite MA numbers, but there probably isn't a single rock ledge at low tide along the cost that doesn't have a few sunning themselves. We're starting to see a sizable resurgence in bunker up here and one Sunday afternoon I spent almost an hour watching 2 seals gorging on bunker all around my dock.
 
Roccus7 said:
Lobstahs honeymooning in Maine, and the seal population is going crazy here too, not quite MA numbers, but there probably isn't a single rock ledge at low tide along the cost that doesn't have a few sunning themselves. We're starting to see a sizable resurgence in bunker up here and one Sunday afternoon I spent almost an hour watching 2 seals gorging on bunker all around my dock.
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Yep the stats bear out everything you said. Expect to see more bunker as the ASMF's Chesapeake bay cap get tighter and tighter.
 
A few years ago , folks blamed the lower Bass / Bluefish numbers on a lack of Bunker ..... "If only the bait were left alone the Blues / Bass would be plentiful they said " Blues seem to be lower than ever and guys here seem to think the Bass are headed downward as well .... Many things in Nature are beyond our control ..................
Bunkers and Porgies now seem to dominate Western Sound most of the season ...............
 
MakoMike said:
Yep the stats bear out everything you said. Expect to see more bunker as the ASMF's Chesapeake bay cap get tighter and tighter.
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They need to pass the bill that we did in NY on bunker. That's the reason they're here. Omega hasn't raped these waters in years.
 
george said:
They need to pass the bill that we did in NY on bunker. That's the reason they're here. Omega hasn't raped these waters in years.
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VA is never going to ban reduction fishing, too many jobs in an impoverished area of VA depend on Omega Protein for their livelihoods.
 
MakoMike said:
VA is never going to ban reduction fishing, too many jobs in an impoverished area of VA depend on Omega Protein for their livelihoods.
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I agree, but the truth is I was told we would never get anywhere when we started working on a bill. Fact is NY passed a ban of reduction boats back in the 70's based on the fact that residents didn't want to see them in their waters. That bill was then overturned in the courts. We got lucky as an influential politician was anchored in the sound having a nice day with their family when they were told to pull anchor as a reduction boat was about to set around them. Best thing that ever could have happened! Our bill quickly came out of the Rules Committee and passed a Republican Senate unopposed and a Democratic Assembly, unopposed and then signed by Governor George Pataki.

The rest is history :)
 
george said:
I agree, but the truth is I was told we would never get anywhere when we started working on a bill. Fact is NY passed a ban of reduction boats back in the 70's based on the fact that residents didn't want to see them in their waters. That bill was then overturned in the courts. We got lucky as an influential politician was anchored in the sound having a nice day with their family when they were told to pull anchor as a reduction boat was about to set around them. Best thing that ever could have happened! Our bill quickly came out of the Rules Committee and passed a Republican Senate unopposed and a Democratic Assembly, unopposed and then signed by Governor George Pataki.

The rest is history :)
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But probably not as effective as you would like. The reduction boats were working off the coast on NY and NJ (which has a similar law) for more than a little while last summer and fall.
 
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