1st rock over 18"I think there should be no size limit. First rock you catch you keep, or like above, moratorium
LOL, they’re gonna kill you! But making catching a bit more challenging ( I.e artificials) and reducing mortality leads me there too. Can’t have 10s of thousands of fish live lined off the same northern school month after month…Ban live lining.
"This is not the early 80s..." Very true.I may be an outlier in not thinking a moratorium is necessary. This is not the early 80s yet. At that time, catch restrictions were much more loose and even those were routinely flaunted, and the pool of breeding fish had dwindled to almost nothing. As evidenced by this March, we still have a significant (albeit depleted) pool of breeding fish. Also, the Hudson and other areas up north are significantly less polluted than back then, so offer a robust, alternative breeding ground.
I do agree that the timeout period should be longer. I haven't written in a fishing log in a few years, but my old logs show water temps typically peak shortly after July 4 and don't drop off much until after mid-August. I'd close from July 10-August 15.
Regarding the slot, yes there will be mortality, but with continued education, current regs for bait fishing, a closed season during the hottest weeks and considering that 99% of released fish will be unders (smaller fish tend to have a higher survival rate for c&r), I don't see this as a huge issue. With the current regs, rock will experience far less fishing mortality of all kinds than in the recent past, and way less than before the moratorium.
That'll be the day...LOL, they’re gonna kill you! But making catching a bit more challenging ( I.e artificials) and reducing mortality leads me there too. Can’t have 10s of thousands of fish live lined off the same northern school month after month…
Sh.Doesn't matter what you do if you do not improve spawning habitat and water quality. Fishing is not the problem it is yoy survival. That is the Chesapeake Issue. No survival of yoy for several fish except catfish and snakeheads. Notice we are not overfishing them. Hudson strain most fishing pressure on the planet but high yoy survival and it's like fishing for bluegill out there.
And they could take every bit of commercial quota and give it to us and it wouldn't make any difference.I think this is all good. But until they address all of the factors involved, it will not do any good. When you have netters sitting off Ocean City, bringing in overflowing 55 gallon drums of rockfish, it won’t make a difference. When are they going to step up and address the real problems Here in Maryland we take very little fish compared to the rest of the states and most of our rockfish are small males. It’s not rocket science. They need to wake up.
