Running Ape

Some seriously good shad fishing last night, I only took one photo then my hands were too slimy.

Fricking amazing.

I was in New Brunswick a few months ago, and talked to a fly shop owner. They (Canada) have two distinctive, non mixing populations. One spawns in the Miramachi river and lives in the Gulf of St Lawrence. They have greatly increased in numbers in the past 25 years to the point 50 plus fish schoolie days are not uncommon during May and June. There is another population in the bay of Fundy that spawns in rivers that feed both sides (though very limited on the New Brunswick side) of the bay. There are also many migrant bass from the south in those areas.

I’m all for Pacific salmon type tags along with rigorous enforcement. 5 fish 24-30 for a year. Each fish must be released or tagged for harvest immediately. 1000$ fine per poached fish no excuses. Charge $150 for the license and the funds go to enforcement and access. Also, if you don’t have tags on you, no barbs allowed. Lots of countries now have conservation licenses that only allow limited harvest. I’d love to see a conservation license for saltwater with say two bass tags instead of five for 60$. There are way fewer small fish this year in places where there were plenty not long ago. I’ve not bothered much as the freshwater fish has been so good.

Truth is, lots of people of all different backgrounds have zero respect for the resource. The limited and random enforcement of the last twenty years or so contributes greatly to the problem. In the 80s we used to get checked for licenses all the time. Also, judges have to be convinced poaching is a serious crime. Many don’t take it seriously.

I’d guess it was a combination of warm temperatures, which drive down dissolved oxygen which is less soluble in warm water, some sort of nitrogen overload which would have caused more bacteria and algae growth, driving up oxygen demand. Low oxygen with high demand on dropping tide could do that. The amount of algae in those bays the last few years is shocking.

Haddock swim to preferred water temperatures. My guess is that they have shifted so that the southern population thins out greatly near Jeffery’s ledge instead of in Cape Cod bay now. In other words, after the very mild winter, they are not as far south as in the past. Nova Scotia has seen an increase in haddock the last three years. My January haddock trip with Walsh’s was very slow fishing.

Sandflee, I have fished only a few upstate streams that are not Ontario tributaries. For so many hours I have driven past them, wishing my family would be willing to stop to let me fish, but it’s a very long ride from there to the cape. Its a bucket list thing for me to hit the streams that flow over limestone south and west of the Adirondacks.

Hey anyone do better fighting fish with short rods? I get fish in quick with a 7 foot rig.

I am also confused as to how arguing for literally the most traditional form of law and order for the past 6000-7000 years is not conservative.

I’m outta here after this. I think you miss the point, that all nation state examples from the early United States to any other nation you know know of that is not a failed state (Somalia) is ten to one hundred times less violent than any place on Earth when there were no nation-states. You seem to be advocating for a radical experiment in returning to a past that predates the founding of the United States. In the early years of the United States gun ownership was common, but it doesn’t seem to have fetishized. Also, both the colonial governments and the early American government maintained a monopoly on legal violence.

They are around me here but being difficult when it’s cold. I went trout fishing today and should have waited to go bass fishing about now.

I’d agree 90% of the time

I am probably going to get beat up pretty good, but I agree with Flatwing. I’m middle aged, boring, basically conservative in a traditional sense (explained below). Society and government exist for a reason, primarily one reason, violence prevention. Almost all of them from the USA to Britain, China, India, etc have been enormously successful at limiting violence within their boarders (if not entirely with their neighboring countries). Prestate (what used to be called primitive) societies often had enormous amounts of violence. The murder rate in societies with weak or nonexistent government are often something like 30% of male deaths. Check this out for example: https://truefilms.com/dead-birds/ This was filmed in the 20th century. I’m cool with not living like that. Close to a third of Yanomami men die violently, even now, usually by surprise attack from behind over an old insult. Again, I’m fine not having to worry about that. Every society since then has worked to have a monopoly on weapons and who could harm others. Any societies that break away from this become very, very dangerous quickly. For example: northern Mexico where cartels and the government somewhat overlap but also neither is in total control. Right now, our government has given away the monopoly on violence for a number of reasons, under pressure from both sides of the political isle. But the part that scares me the most (I have kids, I’m old enough I don’t care much about myself) is the idea of total abdication of gun laws. There is a reason guns should be hard to get. F$&)(ing idiots and losers who want to hurt others are far, far more common than most of us would like to think about. In every place, young men with no social status and nothing to do are dangerous. Giving them access to powerful weapons is idiocy. Freedom has two sides. Freedom to do and freedom from. We have totally forgotten about the freedom from side of this, which is that freedom to carry weapons at all times by almost anyone is not freedom for most people, who are not armed most of the time. Unfettered access to high powered, high capacity weapons isn’t a practical freedom, it’s an arms race. Society exists to reduce violence, and as far as I’m concerned both major political parties are complicit. One for allowing gun rights to overtake the publics right to be safe, the other for vagueness and a lack of focus on enforcing laws. But one side has pushed for unlimited access and that is dangerous, not conservative. Some sort of reduction in access particularly for young males who got nothing to do, and strong storage requirements are needed soon.

At this point, neither party has any interest in any sort of economic fairness beyond the superficial. I have literally spent years studying this at the highest amateur level:) The broad categories below are slightly simplified so we don’t have to deal with the randomness of regional exceptions to both of these groups. The Republican Party represents certain interests (extractive industries, some types of banks, and certain groups of small businesses), that require low taxes and are often tight in terms of profit margins and often require access to physical resources and labor in huge amounts. The Democratic Party represents the interests of major corporations of the Fortune 500 sort and require highly skilled and specialized labor. They used to represent labor unions but do not any more (see the breaking of the train workers strike, enforced contract by Congress, no card check unions, no paid maternity leave), though they still give lip service to them. Neither party, particularly high ranking members, give a f$&k about how quality of life for anyone other than themselves. They also are both so in hock to lobbyists it is hard to even describe. Nothing moves past Congress’s committees without widespread support from lobbyists. Even in the most pro labor states, business lobbying outspends labor by 10 to 1. Most of the rest of the stuff argued online and in the news is merely details and deliberate distractions. The deliberate distractions are simply meant to keep people making less than 400k a year fighting about scrapes and details while those above take all the money. Any and all other explanations for the above I remain skeptical of. On a personal note, I’d vote for either Gaetz or AOC if I thought they could be trusted to end sitting members of Congress from trading stocks. Again, I remain very skeptical.