Catch and release

[dragger]

Dick, you hit the finer details of the matter I didn't plan on hitting and did so well, regardless of your career or background. Here is a little more of an understanding I think bass fishermen should consider from a fisheries point of view.

 

Native species like steelhead are significant and need to be protected. Are extremist measures being taken? Absolutely. They have become a pivotal species environmentalists can use to wage their agendas on legislatures and fisheries agencies. They really do not care about the steelhead as much as they say. The amount of money these groups raise in membership fees, donations, and other such avenues is not to preserve a species, but to repeatedly sue and make more money. It is a cycle they fulfill every decade where they find a new, obscure species and sue over it, win, pocket the funds and repeat. Very little of their money does anything in regards to direct conservation the species they supposedly protect by suing agencies established (DFG) that do a pretty good job of taking care of them. As Californians, we should view this as unacceptable to have the minority of people managing our fisheries through legal war.

 

In a very liberal state like CA, you can count of people who know nothing of conservation to pretend they do. They think that by limiting fishermen, reducing trout stockings, and suing fisheries agencies that they will achieve something significant. Fishermen and hunters are the greatest conservationists there are and have been eco friendly and green long before hippies, media, and politicians made it trendy. They are attacking the wrong people. We need to punish farmers, who rob water from migratory steelhead streams and pollute the waters to the point of killing the fish. We need to punish hydroelectric companies for creating large dams with no regard to the well being of the inhabitants of that stream. We need to punish essentially everyone, but the recreational angler, yet we persist to.

 

The marine protected areas are the same thing. The depletion of ocean fisheries stock is not being done by weekend anglers, but commercial fishermen. Read some of the regulations for commercial fishing in CA. Particularly squid seining, market squid is one of CA's top produced products right up there with strawberries, avocados, and recently marijuana. You cannot even fathom the amount of bycatch and destruction that goes on. And to think wardens will issue tickets for fish 1/2" under size when commercial fishermen slay thousands of the same fish in a single day.

 

I left CA because what is going on is absurd on a level I could not even fathom. I feel that no left wing, non scientific based agency has any right meddling in fisheries management when they do not have the slightest idea how the fishery is really managed or even how to ideally manage a fishery. Because they went to Berkley for 6 years on their parents dime and watched an Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore does not mean you a darn thing about the environment.

 

Natural resources is a truly amazing field to be in and I am thankful for where I am and what I get to do every day. The real pain is learning about and studying such fascinating creatures only to realize the amount of crap, doom, and destruction that is currently happening. The best thing to do is resist these negative changes and progress positive changes.

 

I think the best recovery for CA's trophy bass fishery is for increased harvest of smaller bass on these larger reservoirs that are most likely, severely overcrowded. City ponds are not applicable and should not even have bass in them, it is impractical to attempt to manage them. Texas has no trout in there reservoirs and the fishery is doing very well so it is possible to do so in CA with similar circumstances. Less bass would equate to more and larger shad, shiners, and other forage. TX has huge bass tournaments and though they are catch and release, a great number of bass perish from them so whether they know it or not, they are selectively culling many bass and this is good.

 

I feel I could type about this all day long, but it still won't go anywhere.... I'll step down form my soap box and think I'll go fish instead.

[wtrwsel]

I've been a member of another fishing site since the mid nineties. This subject has been brought up throughout the years. There is a very well respected fishing biologist by Ralph Mann's that has many articles that he has written about. He is also published articles for Infisherman, Bassmaster, Field and Stream and others. Just want to put that out there for anyone that is interested to do a little research.

[Ceaser]

Its all about who has the most money in the lobbys. Look at the Delta tunnel project Gov brown just approved. First the diversion canal was voted down 20+ yrs ago by voters, Gov. Arnold bypassed the vote with some executive order and they have scientist on the payroll making crazy claims about conservation and the delta. Not even close to the truth even my 7 yr son can tell its bull. They want to build tunnels that will divert more cubic ft of fresh water then even flows to the delta, and take it before it enters the system. All of this payed for by socal water tycoons... besides the taxpayers chunk of the 53 billion $'s or so the project will cost. previos years when they claimed they were shorted their water due to reduced pumping, they still were selling water below wholesale to AZ because the had a surplus!!! No one cares about us and BIG business has way more money than we do. This delta project will effect not just the delta but every fishery linked to it.