Rec Guys & The Truth

[hotreels jr]

All the fish me and my father have caught I have reported. The boats I work on, they report as well.

[twofinbluna]

Sushi-

You would be mistaken to think that its something that is only done by commercial guys. It does not matter if you have a commercial permit or not- its illegal to sell little tuna and so a rec can do it just as easily as a commercial guy. In fact, in the bust you reference, there was a rec guy involved. All of the people involved got fined heavily and one had to give up their permit for much of this summer and maybe part of next summer (i dont know the details) and they are definitly not doing it anymore. The amount of publicity there was around the story was another part of the punishment those guys got. Stuff like that is not something that only happened here and it is done by bad apples in both the rec and commercial sectors in other places. Since they cracked down here, there has been none of that going on- and to be honest, there was not much of it going on before that. I am not sure what is happening elsewhere. But the point is, there are bad apples on both sides and thats unfortunately the way its always going to be. But with NMFS cracking down on some of the boats up this way I am sure it sent a message and hopefully not many people are doing it.

I am glad to hear that many of you report your catches and I just hope that that is the case around the rec fleet and not just with the handful of guys posting here now. I worry that there are a ton of guys out there who dont even know that you have to report and I am sure there are some who know and dont do it. Hopefully threads like this will make those who dont know more aware of the rules. I also agree with Backman that it would be good if rec boats had a way to report released fish even if they dont land one to bring in. I think that would be a good way to better account for whats happening out there.

[twofinbluna]

My philosophy is that is good karma to play by the rules even if I think most of them can suck at times but if I go around breaking rules or stretching the truth (or the fish) it will somehow come back to haunt me.

Could not agree with you more, silver

[Tuna Meltdown]

8 trips.
3 fish landed and killed. (Harpooned too)
3 fish Reported.
I'll comment on the "It's my boat and I'll do what I want" comment aswell because it was me who said that comment.
The comment was used out of context and in no way mean't that I bend or break any rules when it comes to tuna fishing. I have to much time and money invested in this sport and make nothing back from it to bend or break rules. The comment was said after someone else pointed out that I regularly use a harpoon in the end game on these 65" class fish , as many recs. do, and stated that I was wasting meat? Wasting meat? But if that fish broke off boatside because of a failed gaff shot I bet that person would be one of the bleeding hearts saying that there is another dead tuna laying on the bottom due to a recreational angler breaking it off boatside. We can't win. If I harpoon a fish, I'm doing it wrong. If I loose a fish boat side, I'm doing it wrong. If I use a spinning rod (even if I land the fish) I'm doing it wrong. Well can someone please tell me how to do it right? Because after 10+ years of tuna fishing and putting up decent numbers the past few seasons and doing it all by the books and legal apparently some still think I'm doing it wrong. Well to the "Some who think I'm doing it wrong"......It works for me and I am going to continue doing it my way!
As far as harpooning a 65" class fish goes, I do it because it ensures a clean kill boatside. It is also very good practice for the day that I have to throw at a much larger target or a giant.

[KP161]

For awhile I was preaching that we need to try to protect small bluefin so that they are there to fish for future generations. My stance was that once the rec quota was filled it should be closed becasue the small fish are the future of the fishery and they have not spawned yet. Yes there should be a small fish fishery (rec fishery) but it needs to be monitored and I felt that no way the rec quota should be allowed to be open past Sept 1. The fish are much bigger this year and the quota is based on tonnage not fish count. The rec quota should fill up much faster with 67" fish vs 47" fish like a few years ago. Watching guys (with freezers that are already loaded) bring another 66" fish to the dock for no reason other than to prove they caught it and give the meat away.

Anyways, I'm not sure what I was thinking and some guys showed me the light. Why bother counting. And especially why bother counting if no one is going to do anything about it i.e. close the fishery once the quota is filled. Just relax. It doesn't matter. THERE ARE TONS OF FISH OUT THERE AND THEY WILL ALWAYS BE THERE. GO GET 'EM.

[scottclay]

This year caught 6 fish kept 2 reported both of them, tagged and released the rest. I have tried to report released fish and they have no way of handling the information, SAD!!!! I know rec. and comm. guys who sell short fish, will not speak or associate with either one. I love our fishery and want to do what ever I can to protect it. I hope the tagging I do will help the fishery and for the scientist to find a way to help protect these awesome fish. RipDog

[red herring]

IMHO, to a large degree this is preaching to the choir on this forumn. I gotta believe that most guys (read that: rec, charter and comm) who go through the expense and learning curve to catch BFT are reporting their catch and playing by the rules. Why shouldn't they? There is no disincentive to report your catch if your a rec guy (don't know anything about comm side of equation). Anyways, I also think that there is a core of experienced guys on this site who set great examples for the newbies or transient members to pick up on.

There will always be cheaters. Teabagging scum.

I've killed/retained/reported my one fish for the year and it will feed my family into the spring. If I go again it'll be because I have a long list of friends who want to pop their cherry and experience what we here on this site crave.

[Sea Draggin]

Killed 2, Reported 2.

[sushi42]

[QUOTE=twofinbluna;672536]Sushi-

You would be mistaken to think that its something that is only done by commercial guys. It does not matter if you have a commercial permit or not- its illegal to sell little tuna and so a rec can do it just as easily as a commercial guy. In fact, in the bust you reference, there was a rec guy involved. All of the people involved got fined heavily and one had to give up their permit for much of this summer and maybe part of next summer (i dont know the details) and they are definitly not doing it anymore. The amount of publicity there was around the story was another part of the punishment those guys got. Stuff like that is not something that only happened here and it is done by bad apples in both the rec and commercial sectors in other places. Since they cracked down here, there has been none of that going on- and to be honest, there was not much of it going on before that. I am not sure what is happening elsewhere. But the point is, there are bad apples on both sides and thats unfortunately the way its always going to be. But with NMFS cracking down on some of the boats up this way I am sure it sent a message and hopefully not many people are doing it.


Twofin, I was only using the story as an example. If it sounded misleading then I apologize. Absolutely correct, it happens with both sides! Two guys were popped down my end last year with over 3000 lbs. of striped bass. One guy was a rec. fisherman, the other was a restaurant owner. As for the message that was sent, didn't really work. I have a family member who owns a restaurant in Perkins Cove and he was approached this season from a guy wanting to sell him bluefin tuna through the backdoor! Guy told him he'd sell the tuna for $5.00 p/lb. no questions asked! Who knows, maybe it was a environmental management undercover officer?

[twofinbluna]

IMHO, to a large degree this is preaching to the choir on this forumn. I gotta believe that most guys (read that: rec, charter and comm) who go through the expense and learning curve to catch BFT are reporting their catch and playing by the rules. Why shouldn't they? There is no disincentive to report your catch if your a rec guy (don't know anything about comm side of equation). Anyways, I also think that there is a core of experienced guys on this site who set great examples for the newbies or transient members to pick up on.

There will always be cheaters. Teabagging scum.

I've killed/retained/reported my one fish for the year and it will feed my family into the spring. If I go again it'll be because I have a long list of friends who want to pop their cherry and experience what we here on this site crave.

My guess is that the people posting on this site play by the rules but the thing is that a lot of people read these sites and so I think its good to have this kind of discussion. Like I said, I think there are plenty of guys out there that dont report since they dont know they are supposed to, so having a discussion here may help in getting people like that to report.

And sushi- if that is true that is sickening and while I have no reason to think you would lie about that, it really does surprise me. You would have to be so stupid to do something like that around here, especially after what happened last year. Not only because of the legal aspect but also because fishermen here were not happy by that whole thing and would be really pissed if it happened again. I dont know anyone who would be that stupid.