This really burns me. Is this overkill! I spend 50% of my fishing time fishing for sculpin. I wonder if they will reduce my license fee.It seems like overkill when other thingsmight work like reduced limits, a short period of no fishing, anything but eliminating fishing to JUNE.
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do they consider a sculpin a rockfish ?
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Hi there aquaman,
Am I going to have to become a tuna angler?! Talking about how generic the term 'rockfish' is...... as far as the enviormentalists are concerned... any fish that ain't plagic is a 'rockfish' and ......... any rockfish is a 'bottom fish'. See where this is going!? No Whitefish, No Sheephead, No Lings...........
If this disaster cannot be stopped, near-shore anglers will able to catch only Sand Bass, Calico Bass, Mackerel, Bonito, Barracuda, and Yellowtail. Sorry, I'm not a Shark fisherman but they're being monitored too. That means that outside of Calico bass, there will be no real all-year species to target by sport anglers.
My next trip is next Wednesday maybe..... if the boat even goes out!!! Hey even the captian needs enough anglers to pay for the fuel!!!
Stormy seas ahead,
JapanRon
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Hi there gvanzant,
As it was pointed out to me by ROMEROFISHERKING, the money we pay for licenses has nothing to do with fish planting, stock enhancement, etc. So I guess we can't take that route to complain! ha ha ha And yet, after I paid for my lifetime license, that's when the ball started to roll on implementing the closures. They might have just been waiting for my money!!!! ha ha ha
50% of your fishing is Sculpin. Quite a blow, but I'm sure you still feel lucky to be able to fish locally 1) on a private boat, 2) go for bass and barracuda at the 'Wall' and 'Shoe' where you fish so masterfully.
We are so lucky to have options. I really sympathize with the guys that depend upon getting the bottomfish to justify going fishing with the family CFO. These guys will become an endangered species if the courts can't put a stay on these closures. If they aren't on the boats, fewer boats will get out and thus 'party boat junkies' like me will have fewer options to even fish the Big Salty.
Everyone's going to bite the bullet on this one.
Do you think anglers would have stood for this sort of thing 30 or even 20 years ago? Voodo science has supported that fish stocks are depleteded, on the water experience indicates otherwise.
Tougher fishing times ahead my friend,
JapanRon
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its too bad the water gets so cold in the winter that not many bass bite, barracuda have traveled south, yellowtail with the cudas, and the bonita are probably going to be gone too. maybe the yellows will come into king harbor by the bubble.[
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joe[pirate]
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[size 2]There's always halibut! Or is that a rockfish[unsure] Just kidding![sly][/size]
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JapanRon: I am fully aware of what the license money pays for.It's just a thing with me, especially when we used to catch 10 trout, 10 halbut and the aggregate limits were about 30 fish. (I think). We caught alot for our $5.00 fishing license. Nowadays all my fishing trips are planned around fishing for sculpin when the afternoon wind comes up because believe me I love sculpin sandwiches. As a matter of fact I used take a sculpin sandwich in my lunch most everyday to work. Not now. We have some places that are so full of sculpin you can hookup every single drop for an hour. I cannot believe that they are being depleted. Yes, I will continue to exploit the local stuff but the desire for a sculpin sandwich will always be on my mind. It's a long way to next July.
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tubinjoe: You are right about that cold water. But if the bait receivers kept a weekend stock of those winter Catalina squid the bass and such would really go off, much more than the summer bite. Those commercial seiners take upwards to 30 tons a night. Too bad they can't bring a few back for the sport fisherman. Fresh dead squid is sometimes better bait than live, especially for the Bull Bass.
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Hi there gvanzant,
Hope I didn't give you the impression that I didn't think you knew the in's and out's of the DFG budget. As you well know and have no doubt studied, they've got the entire budget for 2003 on their website for any of our visitors who wants to really look at what kind of money is being spent for what.
I tried to find out if the stay of closures of rockfish also included your sculpin friends and my whitefish friends.
That would be a real slap in the face if those closures stayed in place not until December 31 but July.
Sheeeh,
JapanRon
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