That Didn't take Long

[Deep C]

Man... The ink is barely dry from NMFS pulling their pants down and opening pandoras box and the baby sword nursery up. Last night there were long lines, and buoy men all over the place. Ironically the bite was well to our south but on our end I even saw sporties leave the riggers on the dock and go chasing the kaching... Not one enforcement boat in sight... I want to puke when I see sights like this one headed out in front of me...

[backman]

nice new one. 500K at least. Owner is a ex-CEO of a dotcom bust.

Never goes south to the canyons; always goes east to bluefin land. Never cleans fish at the dock like the rest of us,

Coolers come off the boat, are carried by 2 people up to the truck and dissappear. By sheer coincidence I ran into the L&H owner in a sushi bar 90 miles inland near work.

he loosened up - he had just sold 3 fish to the restaurant; oh yeah this was during one of the the 1 fish/day cycles. It was OK because he'd been doing it for years off his old boat.

Understand I am not talking commercial fish, 73" or more; I am talking school bluefin 47-67".

the rationale of course from Mr Millions was that it helped pay for expenses.

[Deep C]

I remember the first sword boom... Fish all over the place. In no time at all when the LL gear got in there the fish were gone. There have been a few guys running buoy hand gear all along but when they opened it to the "research long lines" the flood gates opened. I can't tell if thats LL gear or just hand gear on that rig but there were seven comm operations within five miles of me last night and I know I watched several more heading to the south where they did wreck them...

[JonnyD]

That is the old OSPREY. They have been Buoy gear fishing for the past couple years on her. They are totally legit and have all the correct permits. He took the riggers off her about a year ago. The high flyers and strobes you see at night out there are their buoys. I haven't seen a single longline set off Palm beach while swordfishing. I'm not saying that no PLL are fishing off of Florida, but most comm. pressure down here comes from the hand-liners. Off of Palm beach there are only a hand full of buoy guys. You should see'em off Ft.Lauderdale and down to Miami. I am not a proponent of the buoy gear, but just sayin' what you are most likely seeing while swordfishing. More importantly did you have any action last night? We were gonna go tonight, but no one wanted to stand around in the rain.

[Deep C]

Oh I know there are some buoy boys and have been all along, includinmg that one, but yesterday and all this week was a steady parade of em. My radar looked like a runway with high flyers last night and then you could see the buoy sets all over too. I know that that one is licensed thats not the issue. Thats way more gear than I ever saw them toting before. I didn't have the camera with me when they were passing me at the dock but there was a bunch of coils of line in the pit. Its that all of them seem to be turning up the heat since they uncorked the bottle, to take all they can before it dries up. All of a sudden there are a bunch of new faces at it some licensed and some not? When they uncorked it for the "research" everybody and their brother has suddenly showed up. Seven within five miles is some heavy pressure and I know it was heavier off Pompano, lauderdale and Miami than it was up on the north end where we were...

[Jagsare1]

The NMFS only approved 3 long line boats for this so called "research permit" and I believe only 2 can fish at any one time. I would be taking cameras and take pictures if you are seeing alot of long line boats. Each of the "permitted" boats is supposed to have an observer. Trust me, this is step 1. More LLers are coming.

[Capt Larry]

From up here where we can only watch and hope you get a saving grace.Its a shame to see such horrid use of a very fragile resource. It just goes to show we have never learned from past mistakes.
Whats the deal with the law. They turn their head or what. Like Jag says You guys should be taking a bunch of pic's and post them all over the boards. There are a lot of eyes on the net.

[joeksr]

From up here where we can only watch and hope you get a saving grace.Its a shame to see such horrid use of a very fragile resource. It just goes to show we have never learned from past mistakes.
Whats the deal with the law. They turn their head or what. Like Jag says You guys should be taking a bunch of pic's and post them all over the boards. There are a lot of eyes on the net.

the laws out there checking recreational boats coming in the inlet and at the docks to make sure we dont have any non slot fish or making a wake to disturb the flounder fisherman.

Joe

[waterman482]

From what i heard there are only two longline boats with very strict rules on amount of gear and observers on the boat.

[hubris 1]

BUT....... i live in new jersey in the summer anyway. and in the last month all i hear is......if you will even be allowed to fish for it anymore. everything is in dire straits. i have been fishing a while and i dont keep what i cant eat but, is it time for all of us to change? no one wants to be pointed out but it seems like i cant even keep track of who has a right and who has to stop. sportfisherman and i mean that not in relation to this site, think they have all the rights to fish for anything they choose. look at the economic impact they say! commercial fishing is killing us! but we all go to a seafood restaurant and want flounder stuffed with crab, tuna, sushi, scallops, etc. i sent a letter to marlin magazine a while back about all the granders that they reported landing in a magazine. they actually responded to me in the magazine about how the granders were past the prime of their life YADA, YADA, YADA, i dont buy it. there is a major problem in the fishing community today. when i go fishing, i dont need more than i can eat. but if your going to go giant fishing and sell it.....your part of the problem. if your going to go marlin fishing and kill it.......your part of the problem. we as sportfisherman can not continue to blame the commercial guy and not step to the plate ourselves. guy harvey at a tournament taking a core sample out of a marlin for a lab to look at is stupid! who do you think your fooling? maybe im just getting old but i dont need to kill everything anymore to be successful. but to much hinges on anything being done. its a greek tragedy!