Way Long Day Tomorrow

[Deep C]

The day will start early with a run to the happy hunting swamp for the next installment to "Blamathon '06 has started" in the hunting section. I don't know why I bothered this year. Have killed a deer and pig and posted in detailed color even with pics over the past couple days but nobody is reading it...

Next will be my civic duty to go and vote. This ought to be good watching the people at the polls when I walk in clad in mossy oak with a spattering of blamathon blood on me.

Next I need to see if Mini will be going to her friends funeral and stand by to take her.

Then its off to Fort Lauderdale where I will do my sit down with Hogarth and Kelly from NMFS. Again anyone wishing to send any comments on any NMFS related topic their way are encouranged to post up. I'll print the posts and hand deliver them. You can post right here or in the thread I started about circle hooks...

After that I have been invited to attend a congressmans victory party (if he wins) also in Lauderdale... and a second one back in West Palm . I live right on the border for two disticts and am active in both campaigns...

Wednesday I have been invited back to Lauderdale to IGFA hq for a meeting of all the registered tourney directors about NMFS impacts. Again any comments you want me to take to the directors of your favorite events can post here....

[Miles Offshore]

Hey Deep- Im not very politically savey but if you wouldnt mind bringing up the plight of the menhaden fishery to those guys from the NMFS and that Va needs to be shut down for being out of compliance (at least i think we still are) - anyways regardless- our chesapeake bay being the main nursury grounds for a majority of fish on the east coast needs help shutting down omega protein instead of giving them limits that exceed what they have caught in the last several years (what the hell kind of limit is that) . most all of that omega 4 oil and stuff can and is now being made in the lab without wiping out all the menhaden on the east coast. And who the hell eats fish meal anyway???

We all feel for the commercial guys in the town of Reedville and I think the state or feds should subsidise retraining and or bringing in some other types of industry to help those folks out and save the main food staple of the gamefish of the east coast. My facts are not perfect but that is my message and thanx for asking for feedback-

craig

[Deep C]

Craig
I will be happy to bring that topic into play. One of the target issues i'm going to address as a major contributing factor to fish stocks declining or leaving areas centers around the merciless beating the forage stocks are taking... Thanks for the input...

[shoefish]

Deep,

Thanks so much for all of your hard work to get the recreational fisherman's voice heard.

If you're taking requests, I have two issues to bring up regarding the Gulf of Maine. Fish stocks in the Gulf of Maine have been hit with a one two punch in the last few years.

The first hit came when they allowed mid water herring trawlers to plunder the near shore fisheries. You obviously understand that herring is the forage stock from everything to cod and haddoc all the way up the food chain to bluefin. There were days this summer that we were out and marked herring top to bottom, so thick you could walk on them, and at the end of the day you would see the shapes on the horizon forming. By the time you were picking up your gear to go in, the trawlers were on top of you, and by the next morning they were completely gone. How can a fishery survive if the life blood is drained so thoroughly?

The second hit has to do with the limits to the harvesting of the spiny dogfish. Limits that were placed because they were on some endangered list, or were slow breeders, or someting to that effect. Suffice it to say if they ever were endangered, that has been remedied. It is so bad, there are so many of these vermin, that you can be a half mile or fifty miles offshore and all you have to do is throw a chunk in the water and you will see dozens of them race up from the depths.

Now I ask you, how can a fishery survive if the lifeblood is being drained out on one end, and on the other there are millions of dogfish eating away?

Thanks again for all of your hard work and dedication to the many people whose passion it is to go out and wet a line. You're the man.

Shoe

[Deep C]

Thanks for that one also... That has been a hot topic of my fellow shark tourney men. Entire vast areas are off my possibility lists due to the doggie density. The amount of forage stock they consume is staggering and they need to be thinned back to acceptable levers post haste... I've heard out of the corner of my ear about the Herring plight. I also didn't know that the dog issue had stretched that far... I'll be happy to forward...

Keep the ideas em comming guys...

[Bluewater Sportfishing]

Shoefish,
I was under the impression that the mid water trawlers were not fishing the inshore waters in the gulf of Maine during spawn. Also I thought that they couldnt fish because of the haddok and yellowtail by-catch wasnt set yet. I go to downeast maine alot (addison) and this summer they had a run of herring in the harbor, they havnt seen that for at least ten years. that was mid aug. I to have been saying that the "bait" fish need a break from the trawlers. The sciencetist need to get a clue and put down real facts not what they think is out there. Do they take into consideration the amount of fish that are eaten by their natural predators?


deep,
I think that needs to be addresed what kind of quota do they hold back for predators, ask them what they are doing about ICCAT. And ask them what kind of research they are doing on the ocean floor after a dragger goes by and takes away all the natrual building blocks for life in the ocean. ask them if they are doing any kind of a long term study on it? Ask them why by-catch,
if its a sellable fish such as a undersized flounder or weakfish, why that cant be sold and held against their quota. Ask them when are they gonna get their head out of their ass and get with the times, and start using real science and stop taking the advice of the mega corps that seem to run the nmfs.
thank you.

[Washashore]

Shoefish nailed the real issue. All the other crap comes second, third and forth. No food, no fish. Also ask old Billy-boy why they're still wasting their time and our money on single fisheries management instead of taking the more intelligent view of ecosystem management. I've asked him, but he generally just gives me that vacant stare that says, "I have no idea how to think outside the BOX". Just curious Deep, when I go to Silver Spring to hear the excuse parade, it often takes days for me to get the stench out of my Sunday-go-to-meeting suit. What product do you find most effective to get rid of the bureaucrat-stink? Thanks and Best Regards,

Washashore

[Deep C]

Well, I barked loud enough that they are comming here instead of me going there. I'll set up the meeting at an outside place along the beach and sit upwind of them... They have enough clue about me not to even try to pull any thing but straight answers out of their mouths when I'm in front of them. Kelly tried that shit with me twice and it failed badly for him. He's squirming and I'm not gonna let either one up. I may just invite them to the two congressmens parties after our meeting...
This is a classic case of "keep your friends close" "keep your enemies closer". I'll be fresh off a day of hunting in the swamp. I can deal with a little stench...

[Washashore]

Kelly's worse than Rebecca Friggin Lent, another numbers cruncher turned bureaucrat in charge of ruining fisheries. Good luck with that bunch of thieves. Be sure to check yout wrist after you shake their hands. You might be missing a watch, so wear your cheapest one. Tell Hogarth the boys from the Gulf of Maine to the Great South Channel said "Thanks for nothing asshole". Best regards,

Washashore

[Bluewater Sportfishing]

HEY DEEP,
do you think you could put the talk on video? that would be somthing to see.