Alaska Halibut....!!!!

[tmas]

Good thing we aren't talking about Canada
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[LakeDrifter]

I'm one to Pookie! heading up there next monday for a week, and bringing it all home!![]
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[StickChick]

I generally just look at posts rather than comment but I have been reading this on going arguement for a few days now and felt the need to pipe in.
First of all thank you tmas for posting the info for this topic. I received a packet from AK Sportsmans a while back and already sent in my memo for petition against this purposed plan. I can understand a possible need for limiting the amount of halibut taken from AK waters however I don't believe it is right to take from the sportsmen to give to the commercial industry. Your average fisherman already has to sacrafice plenty to the big boats with the nets as it is. River salmon fishing on a day that the commercial guys are locked and loaded at the inlet can teach anyone the lesson of what we give up for commercial fishing. I am not opposed to commercial fishing just don't particularly want to give up any more than we already have for them. Seems to me that the industry is getting very greedy.
Anyway, I fish in the Deep Creeks just out of Ninilchik most every year as far as halibut is concerned and I don't know how Doc Warners or some of the other charter outfits work but I do know that my guide is very particular and plays by the book. He is an amazing guide and makes sure everyone has a great time and a successful catch but he does it without interfering with the laws and their intentions. He is very strict about his log book and the 2 halibut per client per day rule. I feel that some of the things being said on this post are portraying a bad outlook on AK guides in general and I know from experience that what is being stated is not always the case, as a matter of fact most people that I have spoken to whether they be other guides, lodge owners, locals or out of state clients have all had the same report about the guides they have used so I think it is a shame that such reputations are being put on the AK charter businesses. The rules are so strict now to even obtain and maintain an AK halibut guide license that I can't imagine any guide would want to jeapordize their guiding privileges just to send a few extra lbs of fish home with clients they will most likely never see again.
I think one of the things that some people need to realize is when someone brings home 100 lbs of halibut that very well could be from a single fish therefore bringing home hundreds of lbs of fish really isn't that unlikely and surely doesn't mean someone cheated the system in order to be able to possess that much fish. I have been known to come home with 200 lbs of halibut and only caught 2 halibut the entire time I was up there so I don't think the amount of fish someone returns from AK with is a good judge to how it was caught and processed for possesion.
I hope I am not offending anyone with what I have said but I am against this new proposal and I am glad there are other fisherman such as yourselves that are willing to stand up and have a say for the greater good of the amazing sport and serenity of fishing.
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[PACKFAN]

Liked your post, the wife and I, along with her brother and sister-in-law spent a couple days fishing out of the Deep Creek launch a couple years ago and stayed in our rented motor home on top at the camp site. Our guide was great and he preferred you release all halibut over 100 lbs. If you did he gave you a free halibut trip. He put us into alot of halibut in two days fishing. He was originally from Farmington UT. and a great guy to fish with. Posted a couple pics of his boat and the wife with a days catch for the 4 of us.
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[PBH]

[quote PACKFAN] Our guide was great and he preferred you release all halibut over 100 lbs. If you did he gave you a free halibut trip. [/quote]

does it make you curious why he'd want you to release those large, spawning halibut??



Stickchick -- I never implied that what anyone was doing was illegal. Everything that I am aware of is perfectly legal.


What is the reasoning for reducing harvest of commercial and sport fishermen (original topic of this thread)?
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[Fishrmn]

[quote PBH]What is the reasoning for reducing harvest of commercial and sport fishermen (original topic of this thread)?[/quote]

If I remember correctly, the original point of this thread is that the harvest by sport fishermen is going to be reduced, so the commercial harvest can be increased. If the proposal was the reduce everyone's harvest to help the species it would be a no brainer. But the proposal is to take away from the sport fishermen and give to the commercial guys. There was no consideration for the resource.
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[pookiebar]

"does it make you curious why he'd want you to release those large, spawning halibut?? "

Well all halibut over about 75 pounds are female. Scientists are not sure if they undergo a sex change as they get larger, or if the males just do not grow any bigger. Because we do find female fish with eggs smaller then the 75 pound range. But no males above that. And I have personally filleted a few thousand halibut in the past many years.

So I see the point of throwing back the big ones since they are all egg makers. But with that, no one knows much about the halibut breeding process because it happens in the middle of the Berring Sea in December and January, not exactly conducive to research projects.

My genuine thought on this whole thing is to limit residents and non residents to an annual and daily quota. With that rule, you keep the first fish to hit the boat. So for example, you get to keep 2 fish per day, of any size. But they have to be the first 2 fish you catch. SO if you catch chickens that day you get to keep 2 chickens, no putting back the small ones in the hope you get something bigger. Then you could limit non residents to 10 halibut per. So if you go on a 7 day trip, you may not be able to fish halibut the last day of he trip, but that's just the breaks. Give residents the same daily quota, but bump them up to like 50 halibut per year. AND a resident's quota does take into account the long lines they can put down on a subsistance permit. That way you don't get the "subsistance sales" that some residents do as a back door quasi commercial set up. That fish is not even calculated into the fish take numbers.
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[PBH]

[quote Fishrmn ]

If I remember correctly, the original point of this thread is that the harvest by sport fishermen is going to be reduced, so the commercial harvest can be increased.[/quote]

but why does commerce want their quotas increased? Is it because they've already been decreased? Why have commercial fishermen harvest quotas been decreased?

You really don't think any of this has to do with halibut populations??




We'll still have guys sit here and say "but I pay a lot of money, and I only go once every 3 years -- so I deserve to get to bring home everything I catch!".





Pookie -- I enjoyed your post. I agree with your suggestion of daily and annual quotas.
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[Fishrmn]

There is a plan proposed by the commercial fishing industry that was recently published in the Federal Registry, called the Catch Sharing Plan (CSP), that will cut your daily bag limit of halibut by ONE HALF to one fish per day. This is not a conservation measure, it is a reallocation to commercial longline fishermen to give them more fish to catch. This basically reassigns YOUR fish to them.

Robbing Peter to pay Paul won't help halibut populations. If it were a proposal to reduce harvest to protect halibut that would be one thing. This isn't about halibut populations. It's about taking from one group and reallocating to another.
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[PBH]

Fshrmn -- I understand the current proposal, and I understand that commercial fishermen simply want to take from the sportfishermen.

However, why do they want more from the sport fishermen? Why are they currently limited to their current quota?

If it's not about populations, then why not simply increase the commercial fishermen's quota and leave the sportfishermen alone?


At some point, whether they say it or not, it does come down to fish populations. Quotas and limits are based on fish populations. If populations weren't an issue, then they'd simply raise the limit without restricting another group.
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[pookiebar]

Yes BUT the commercial fishery has been cut!!! They were cut down more then 40% of their catch for 2 years running now.

Perhaps you don't buy much halibut in the store, but it is currently $20.00 pr pound. Used to be a flat $10.00 per pound, every day for years! You could be dumb and say, "well demand is up, and the commercial guys are greedy yadah yadah" But the truth is there is close to 50% less halibut on the market, because of that the price is higher.

The REAL problem is the off shore chinese fishing industry. They fish out in international waters and keep everything, flash freeze it on the boat, process it on the boat. Then ship it home. THAT is why your population is really down. But no one wants to look at that dirty little secret.

The state of AK is doing what they can. Sportsmen sometimes take a hit too. Tough $H!T.
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[Fishrmn]

I'm not saying the commercial guys haven't taken a hit. But don't say that this proposal is about halibut populations. It ain't. It's about taking from one group and giving to another. In the final analysis there will still be the same number of halibut harvested. But it will be commercial guys benefitting at the expense of the sport fishermen. The halibut population won't be protected, saved, increased or changed because of this proposal.
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[PBH]

[quote Fishrmn]The halibut population won't be protected, saved, increased or changed because of this proposal.[/quote]

correct -- but why is this proposal being brought up in the first place? Because the halibut population has already changed (going down...), and because the commercial guys have already been restricted. So, now they want the sportfishermen's catch.

Obviously, we don't want to allow that. But what is the real issue at hand? Pookie already gave it to you.
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[Fishrmn]

I agree that there is a problem with the halibut population. BUT robbing Peter to pay Paul, so to speak. isn't the solution. The commercial guys have found that people will pay $20 per pound and they wanna catch more so they can sell more at that price. They don't want the sport harvest reduced to save the halibut. They want is saved so they can catch more, and sell more.

If this were a proposal to restrict the trawlers, or somehow reduce the harvest in international waters and therefore protect the halibut, fine. It's based on greed, not saving a fishery or species.
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[PBH]

Fshrmn -- I completely agree with your last post. You are correct. It is all greed and money. I am against the commercial guys taking from the sport guys. It's all greed.

Which is exactly why I don't like to hear anglers talk about how much money they spend to go catch halibut, and that they should be able to take home more than a possession limit (after it's been processed -- legal) if they want to. After all, they paid for it.

it's all greed. At some point, we need to start thinking about the fish.
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[PACKFAN]

I hope you practice what you preach or do you just like to be heard. I think you have misconscrewed or misinterpreted alot of what has been said on this thread. Tight lines [crazy]
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[fishnutts]

Here is an interesting article on the subject, from the ADF&G. If you believe this article, it sounds like the Commercial guys have been getting the short end of the stick. I couldn't care less, never find me on a halibut boat, i get sea sick. [frown]


http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adf...ssue_id=91
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[monstermasher]

+1!
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