8 & Bait

With Fred Golofaro sadly passed so has the relationship with the fisherman magazine and a lot of these small local shops. Unfortunately, the magazine has sold out to bigger name vendors and interests.

No one should trust NYS with any of the money from this proposal going to the rightful place.

This is J&H tackle in a nutshell. All of the stuff they push is re-branded from that exact site.

Not a chance. They didn't before and they certainly won't now.

Inline circles and they still swallow every one. Amazing how people find it acceptable to be "hooking 75% of the hits they get".

Sounds like these were the same guys responsible for publishing COVID case numbers in March 2020. This is a total joke. Start killing the fish no one can argue with the number zero. If it has eyes, it dies. Every idiot involved in this process from NOAA to ASMFC is corrupt. There is no "Shake up" coming from anywhere.

Par for the course from this corrupt useless group of managers.

The fact that there is a "worst" of the droolers means there are others, no? This is exactly the damn problem. The ASMFC is a rag tag corrupt organization. If people actually looked at the research directly instead of blindly agreeing with everything posted to fishing websites and publications something good might actually happen.

You don't need grounds to believe anything...That is what's happening right now. If the mangers at the highest levels were serious about rebuilding the fishery they would be honest with the public and shut the fishery down completely until the data suggests that the stock is on the uptick. The people that are part of the ASMFC refuse to admit that they are dragging out the decline to allow commercial interests (whether it be for hire or real commercial) to allow profits to be made. Convincing them to rebuild stocks now is a joke. The public comment periods and speaking at meetings do nothing. The ASMFC has its own agenda which it has concocted behind closed doors. I, along with many others have sent letters and spoken openly at the meetings to look back at a group of ASFMC members sitting at a desk with drool hanging down the corner of their lip half asleep. No eye contact, withdrawn body language. Its clear they could care less.

The goal, in reality should be to kill more fish so we can get to the point where people in fisheries management have to actually do their job. Instead of reallocating the resource and shuffling regulations so that commercial interests can continue to get a smaller and smaller fraction of what's left.

Glad someone is talking about this. The striped bass may be screwed but these guys are the real criminals.

Of course you don't see money flying around at the meetings it's done under the radar at brunch. The funds NYS got for saltwater licenses (back when there was a charge) were supposed to be used directly back into the fishery. Instead, they were dumped into a "general fund" which was not used for any fisheries changes or advocacy. NYS and these fisheries boards can put on a big show with fundraising and promises of change...But don't ask me to be stupid.

To say the commercials don't have money is short sighted. The individuals themselves might not have funds to fight and this may be true, but the associations they belong to and the towns they are represented by have pockets filled to the brim with cash to spend. I've been to the real meetings and seen the people at them. The commercial guys show up in force but say nothing. Instead, the head of the "baymen" association makes a long winded speech as representation for for the group and in the same breath, the town in which these people work. I don't care how old and washed up the guys are or how the younger guys want to sell off their tags. Their opinions are voiced by an organization and town with plenty of money from organization dues and tax money in the case of the latter. There is a reason these men are part of the organization, much like a union if the association didn't use the funds for their best interest they would stop paying to be a part of it. Its interesting that you mention most of them are retired firefighters police or teachers trying to supplement income. These are the exact people I would expect to organize, as NY is a union heavy state. These people have past experience with unionization and know exactly the power in organizing into a larger collective. To address the last idea that recreationals have the real money but prefer not to spend it. Look at the track record of the northeast states (NY, NJ, CT, RI) in the misuse of funds which were supposed to be allocated to the fishery (and any other public entity).

There will never be a moratorium. As much as the ASMFC wants you to believe they have your interests in mind their pockets are filled at brunch by commercial interests. Their play book involves dividing the "pie" of striped bass population into smaller and smaller slivers to extend the money making capacity of the species until there is nothing left. This is exactly what we saw with the slot limit of 28"-35" (a chunk to make everyone happy) and now a further reduction to the 28"-31" and so on. The "managers look at a Fibonacci Sequence in reverse and that is their new "slice of the pie". Then they will throw up their hands at a public meeting for the whole internet to see and proclaim that they are shutting things down due to chemicals and an ecological problem. Until that time I suggest letting every fish you hook on an eel with a circle hook swallow the hook and bleed out. Get us to a real solution faster.

I'm going to fish heavier gear with plugs that have 3 treble hooks to help the inevitable cause.