[Bill M.]

Theres so much wrong with the current situation involving recreational vs commercial fishing regulations that I dont even now where to begin.

Lets start with North Carolina but keep in mind that this situation is the same in every state, with some being worse than others.

Ive read several articles in the past regarding how much money a typical fishermen spends on a normal fishing trip, with the majority of that going to the local economies. It varies tremendously depending on the situation but collectively its substantial.

Apparently NC recreational fishermen are restricted to a 1 month flounder season, with a limit of 1 per day. While commercial fishermen are limited to 100lbs per trip. Even more disturbing they can have even more flounder on their boat than the legal limits "if they were caught" in a neighboring states waters.

Ive been told that one can buy frozen flounder fillets at Walmart now for $5.00 per lb. Ive also seen flounder served at some all you can eat $29.99 buffets. So theyve taken the average Americans access away to our own resources and allotted them to the commercial fishing companies, most of which are probably foreign owned at that.

So our resources are sold off for a fraction of what they'd be worth locally both from direct sales & incidental benefits to local American towns and communities. Every commercial fishing operation takes money directly from the mouths of local gas stations, hotels, marinas, convenience stores, restaurants, and others who used to benefit from recreational fishing.

I might be kind of jumping around here, but just wanted to mention pound nets before I forget. These are like mazes made from nets. Theyre installed at the mouths of bays, and rivers in the primest of positions to intercept a large percentage of everything that swims in and out of these areas. You can even find online pound net maps for each state to see where these nets are currently located for yourselves. Up until this past year I don't think commercial flounder fishermen even had a trip limit, it was a free for all, first come first serve, with 70% of the entire state allotment given to the commercial fishermen (its still 70/30% as of the date of this post, 10-08-22). So although the recreational season is over, and the commercial mobile device season is over, commercial pound nets are still being used right now to haul in as much as 1000 lbs a day in just one management sector alone. And during the exact time that big egg laden, egg laying females are amassing and easily targeted in large numbers by commercial nets.....so much for "reducing limits to restore a sustainable population".

The commercial fisherman are organized and well funded. We do not have the political clout that they do. In my state of South Carolina, they impose bag limits on recreational fisherman without doing studies. A few years ago, they adopted a law that groups spots, whiting, and croakers into a single bag limit. Through my research, I couldn't find any scientific studies that supported this legislation. It appears, the bill was sponsored by the Carolina Conservation Commission. I contacted them and asked for the scientific basis for their proposal. They could not produce any documentation. Based on the numbers I see, the bag limit has had no effect.
In the Chesapeake Bay, their are commercial nets that gather many species of fish and process them into cat food. Can't we feed cats with something else?

 

[retired]

Talked to a lot of people last several days. I think the poor recreational fishing has hit home. I guess when it starts shutting down the shops that sell equipment things may change. No one is happy.

 

[River]

It seems poor fishings not a problem, the way the beaches are packed people don't care ... Of course
Tackle shop reports are like always claiming fish are biting good ..... and then we have a Blue Blitz on Ocracoke running thousands of nice spot on the beach .... strange times !

 

[poppop1]

It seems poor fishings not a problem, the way the beaches are packed people don't care ... Of course
Tackle shop reports are like always claiming fish are biting good ..... and then we have a Blue Blitz on Ocracoke running thousands of nice spot on the beach .... strange times !

Agree. My oldest son had just left Ocracoke the 13th, too bad he missed seeing all that. He did catch some nice fat blues and too many big rays, but still beautiful!

 

[Garboman]

Surf fishing is the first hour of sunlight and the last hour of sunlight in my humble experience with the exception of larger critters that like to come in during the night time at all hours.

I see a lot of folks that roll up to their spot after 8:30AM and then do not catch anything until 5:00 PM and then leave the beach because they are tired and hungry. During Drum season you pass all these folks headed off the beach, when you are just rolling out for the nights fishing.

Even back in the 1960's the morning bite in the surf of Spot, Flounder, Trout and Blues was over at 9:00 AM. The best bite was usually when the sun had just come over the horizon but the beach was still in shadows. I got up early and walked out with my galvanized bucket at Dawn, at the age of 10. When it got to be breakfast time and the rest of my Family had gotten moving, the bite was over and it was time for me to bring in my catch. (My Dad though not a fisherman, usually cleaned my fish. He knew a 10 year old Child and a sharp knife was not a good pairing.

Later in my Fishing career, same on the piers, even back in the day, you had to get up and set up pre dawn so you could fill your bucket with Bluefish or Spot before the bite shut down around 8:00AM.

Especially when the water is clear fish know if they are in the shallows they can get picked off by the birds when the sun gets high overhead.

I guess Pompano is a little different, but on the Northern OBX where I started, Pompano were few and far between for me, likely because I did not use sand fleas. There were millions of Coquina though, and the Coquina are no more, victims I believe of a never ending supply of effluents from septic fields draining straight into the Atlantic.

 

[retired]

Got around and talked to several today. Pretty much same story. Saw a few caught. Caught few themselves. Did get a decent tip on a place I will try. I’ve witnessed the sun come up for 3 days and go down the same 3 days. I watched the point one evening rather closely. I never saw a fish pulled out of the water. Social media makes it appear the fish are in abundance. One blitz at one location one day doesn’t cover many of those fishing. I’ll enjoy my time with lower expectations.

 

[Garboman]

If you have seen three Dawns and Three Sunsets and no fish.................its time to hit Pop's with a designated driver, or perhaps the ABC Store with your car keys in someone else's pocket.

If I were in your shoes or waders I would bring my boat down and talk to Lee and the Midgett's about parking your boat across from Lee's Place on dry land. Then when you are down you launch at Pre Dawn before the Charter fellas who park their boats right behind Lee's Shop go out. Or a slip likely is only three hundred+ or so for a trailer size boat a month. Three hundred might be the gas/diesel bill for dragging that boat back and forth a few times. In the fall a boat on land across RT 12 is easier on the mind than one in the water that needs to get pulled out.

At Lee's Place You lurk just to the North of the channel out of Lee's Place and then follow the Charter Men who depend on putting their clients on a few Trout and Drum. Stay a good ways back so the Captains do not think you are tailing them and then discretely fish where they fish. There are only a few inshore Charter Men at Lee's Place so they are easy to recognize and likely will not notice your tail if you are a half mile or more behind them.

For the past twenty years or so I have been only Drum fishermen. My days when I am down on the OBX are taken up cast netting or going to a few Secret Spots for Secret Bait. Cast netting can be just as full filling as rod and reel, especially when your net opens up over a big school of Mullet and before the net even hits the water you know you are on them. I just fish during Spring and Fall Drum season, so I do not have the pain that a lot of folks have for the decimated inshore fishing for other species besides Big Drum.

Anyway everyone is entitled to blame whatever group for the poor fishing. Commercials blame the recs sometimes to for restrictions and for their way of life going into the sunset.

I just spent an hour shelling and de veining a pile of fresh frozen at the packing house shrimp and My Mom and I will enjoy them this evening, steamed with Old Bay.

 

[Garboman]

It has been decades since I have seen the OBX High Tide line littered with Razor Clam shells......I guess they all bit the dust, same as the Coquina.

Time for the Shrimp to start their boil...

 

[Von]

I just spent an hour shelling and de veining a pile of fresh frozen at the packing house shrimp and My Mom and I will enjoy them this evening, steamed with Old Bay.
[/QUOTE]

That sounds tasty so enjoy the meal with your Mom! My Mom has some real serious health issues and she lives with my Wife and I. We enjoy every moment with her but there’s no fishing for me this Fall. There are things that are just more important in life and time is ticking away for all of us. Don’t take time for granted and enjoy every moment especially the simple things.

Von

 

[River]

Garbo .... Those Inshore boys outta Teaches definitely don't like to be followed. I know em all cause I worked there with Lee .... A couple of em will stop when being followed and give you a nice little chat .... kinda like "Find you own hole" in a semi nice way ... They make a living puttin people on fish .... A "Hole Stealer" in a boat is just as bad as a "Hole Stealer" on the surf. If you can't find your own fish then learn how ... I get followed occasionally, I'll lead em to a very special place for sure ..

 

[Garboman]

I depend on the Secret Drum Hotline at times to get the right Secret Spots. Before cell phones, I just went out the end of the T.

I now follow Savfish and Nick all the time no that I had those GPS transmitters installed under their Trucks. Can do it from my office desk. Heck I even installed one on a certain Oregon Inlet Charter Boat so I can check on where they are going, but mostly they just go out the Point.

What I cannot figure out why Savfish keeps pinging me back from down in Florida, the transmitter must be acting up.

The argument that I make a living putting my crew on fish, pertains to commercials also.

 

[BeachLife]

The commercial "draggers" and the process has to be the most destructive method of "fishing" that ive ever read about. its mind boggling that this is actually permitted anywhere on the planet.

"A 10 ton steel bar is attached to the front of the net that holds it open and flattens out the ground (kiIIing everything in its way on the process) and indiscriminately scoops up everything in his path, including baby fish. Everything in the net dies from the pressure and what they dont want they just toss back in the water dead,

This link is about the situation in Canada but it describes the process, and this method is used all along our own coasts including in the estuaries (the fish nurseries) in the Carolinas.

Draggers in Canada Ravaging the Fisheries (d-p-h.info)