rec. vs commercial

[Warrior]

Can anyone tell me where the Dolphin are? Do you think commercial longliners have impacted the Dolphin stock as much as rec anglers?
The reason this is a hot topic for us is because we get the tail end of all migratory fish up here in Ft.Pierce. It is extremely frustrating to fish our own waters because Ya'll (not pointing any fingers) get to go after the fish before we do. The current population of S. Fla exceeds how many million?
5 years ago, for us all, offshore fishing was better than it is right now. Broadbill was just trying to remind You all down there that whats good and legal today might not be so good for tomorrow. I have lived in Ft. Pierce for over 28 years, and I want to know, what are we going to call good fishing 5 years from now?

[knothome]

LONG RUN???TRY FISHING OUT OF ST. AUGUSTINE,65+AND THEN SOME MORE!!!!!SOMEONE HAD A 100#THE OTHER NIGHT,THEN A BLUE HOOKED UP AND RELEASED AT 8:30 A.M.LONG RUNS DO PAY SOMETIMES :bounce:

[wackme]

warrior ,it was never better dolphin fishing for me 5 years ago and i havent been around as long as you but i can tell that 5 years ago i had no better luck of pompano than i do now for dolphin. i think the dolphin have changed thier route , it doesnt make sense that a person can go to the keys and catch 60 + fish and get the max of 30 off here, most ive ever caught off here anyway.i do have to say that rec fishing does have impact on some fish. take sailfish , when we used to kill all we caught , 80s and earlier, and be lucky to catch a few in tournements , now with the 99% release , fisherman have gone well into the double digits. as for the lights off on the 50 line , sitting boats need to have their lights on as well as running boats, i almost hit one thank god for the lights in their jugs.

[Broadbill-Pro]

one only needs to go to miami international and see the amount of mahi (dolphin) coming in from central america to know what happened to our stocks. handliners line the beach in skiffs loaded to the rails. a few gringos wait there with the ice. the fish are exported so cheap that it is not viable to target them here.

[knothome]

YOU KNOW THINGS ARE BAD WHEN KINGFISH PAYS MORE THAN DOLPHIN

[Another Grand]

Originally Posted by Broadbill

I still tend to believe Rec. fisherman can put a signifigant dent in certain fish populations.

I agree with the "certain fish populations" but I dont think swordfish fall into that category. I mean Kingfish and any fish on the reef certainly do because anybody could and does make it out to the reef. And these fish get hammered everyday as they are condensed into a small area and genrally dont travel to far outside of their "boundaries". Swordfish however could be encountered anywhere from a mile outside the inlet all the way to the Bahamas and anywhere from the top of the water column to the very bottom of the ocean all the way up the coast and all the way down the coast......this is an immense amount of territory for the recreational fleet to cover and taking into account weather and the distance to the stream being out farther N and S of us, I just dont see the rec fleet as having to ability to seriously put any sort of measurable dent in the population of fish

I know not everybody has reported every fish over time........but has anybody reported a fish lately.......what was the number at???? I believe that number represents all recreational kill catches since 2002..........not a very big number considering all the boats that are out there fishing the entire length of the coastline. 1-3 fish per boat is not happening even on the best of nights and even of those 1-3 fish per boat alot of them are released and hopefully swim on to eat a squid on my hook another day. In fact our kill number is so small that prior to the last year or so the governement didnt think we exhist.......until they started seeing the economic side of things and not just the catch data.

Dolphin get absolutely hammered down in S. America and Central America.....there is no mystery to that. Being that they are a migratory fish as well, it goes to show that overfishing an area that a migratory species travels through defnitely does have an effect on the species.

In the end, I believe nature is so complex that it has an answer to alot of what man throws at it. If regulations are put in place in S. Amrica and Central America dolphin fishing would recover in a short matter of time the same as swords, mullet, redfish, ect........and would nearly always be capable of taking the recreational fishing pressure to an extent. It when man comes up with something like Gill nets, long lines, ect that there is a problem.

Anyways.....just my .02. I have enjoyed hearing the other viewpoints, helps me to shape mine.

Johnny

[Rod Chucker]

last time offshore i saw a school of peanut dolphin over a hundred strong. its still early for schoolies and big pairs though. i have seena couple of bad years and a couple of good ones lately for dolphin. Pro is probably right about the cause of decline, i dont really know. minimum size and bag rec. limits now in place, might do some good. no more watching somebody clean 50 peanuts at the ramp. i have heard that some comm. operations are switching to mahi because of the decline of their normal target species.

have you heard that Pro?

Pompano have been coming back here slowly but steady since the gill net ban. i saw the best run ive ever seen on pomps 2 years ago.

[Flatsfish B]

AnoherGrand-

I just picked up fl856 on march 1st.

[Broadbill-Pro]

problem with mahi is shelf life, after 2 or 3 days in the hold they loose all color and become soft. the fish being caught in the carribean are caught daily and shipped daily.

had a friend who LL them between rio and vitoria, brazil. besides the biggest problem of locals stealing your bouys and line before you could haul it, the fish quality just could not survive the journey here and still appeal to the market demand. mahi just do not bring the prices necessary to warrant burning fuel for them.

[RiskTaker]

Johnny:

You commented earlier on the recreational swordfish reporting numbers since 2002. One other thing that I would like to add into the recreational count that is not in direct public view by a simple number count: those are the number of swordfish landings that are from the swordfishing tournaments. This also includes all the fish that have been recorded in the SE Swordfishing club database, excluding a select few that have specific SWO reporting numbers recordered with them.

These fish are all reported to NMFS but they have no specific SWOxxx reporting number tied to them. So there are more swordfish that are reported than an individual public observer may notice by a reporting number alone. As an educated guess, I would say that the number of recreational reported Florida swordfish would actually be two to three times the latest SWO report: say somewhere within 1720 - 2580 since the reporting started.

Agreed, there are still a predicatable percentage range of fish that also go unreported as well. It is important to get these reports in. If you don't do it voluntarily, remember that the Coast Guard and others occassionally will stop you for various reasons and if you have been swordfishing they usually check to be sure you have the fishing licenses and HMS permits among other things. This does not guarantee that you will do your reporting duty but it is worth your while to establish truthful good numbers now so that it is plainly known that recreational interest in swordfishing is alive and active.

[quack quack]

All numbers aside as far as fish caught and hooks in the water the main difference between the two is days fished.This week we sit at the dock if a LLer was fishing they would be out there in just about any weather.That my friends is the difference.I think the rec fleet on a nice night would catch as many fish as 2 LLers working the area.15 to 25 nice fish a night is a good set for a LLer.So 50 fish for two boats plus some dead and throw backs maybe another 10 fish.So 60 fish for 2 LLers.The rec fleet would catch just as many.The difference is the LLers would be doing it every day.Does any one else thing on a nice night the swords hear all the boats running to the 50 and say oh crap here they come again :lol:

[Broadbill-Pro]

LL'ers got their ass kicked yesterday NE of here, damage to 1 vessel. they are heading towards the gulf now. LL boats here are only 50ft. they can not work in much more than 20kts of wind. hauling in bad weather is not so bad, but it is impossible to set gear in bad weather.

[quack quack]

Been there done that no fun :shock:

[CAPTINMITCH]

Originally Posted by Broadbill-Pro

LL'ers got their ass kicked yesterday NE of here

And who said there's never any good news on a Wednesday morning. :mrgreen:

[Broadbill-Pro]

be nice mitch, may be a longliner in the area to save your sarcastic ass someday ??? or maybe not ???

[quack quack]

:lol: :lol: :lol: :roflmao: He was kidding I hope :lol:

[Broadbill-Pro]

next wednesdays news back to normal

[Randy]

Hey guys , Im still gonna stick to the "accumulation of factors " theory. I beleive the pollution, increased water temp, increased technology , increase in population, and increase in fishermen all take a toll on every species. I beleive we should stop comparing catch totals from 5 years ago and compare them to many years ago when the fishery was healthy. I see some beleive the rec fishermen dont have a impact so id like to run this past everyone. Lets just use ONE fish for example , We take one fish , it has a normal litter possibility of say 20 pups through its lifetime (to be conservative , i understand they have much more) but to be conservative lets just say 20. Those 20 have 20 of their own that gets us to 400 swords from just that one generation ! Now that 400 has 20 each thats 8000 swords. Thats from JUST Three GENERATIONS ! Now how many were taken on the winter sword tournament ?
I think we should have research on every species and not take them before they reach at least after their 2-3 litter size. ON ALL SPECIES ! Im gonna stick to the "accumulation of factors" theory . I think all these factors affect our ocean . The water temp THIS winter hasnt dropped below 72 degrees ! Does anyone expect large schools of mullet to come south if the water doesnt get cold and push them out bringing the predators ? If we dont have cold water and then a warm water season does everyone expect Dolphin to have a Dolphin run when the water gets warm (when its been warm all winter ) ? The gill nets have been gone many years ago now, Where's the giant Kingfish rebound ? Only environment and rec fishermen affect it at all now so where do we look ? I just hope because of this warm water again this winter we dont spike to 90+ degrees again this summer like a couple summers ago and bleach all the reefs again. Im gettin kinda tired of lookin at all the barren dead rock down there now. Someone explain to me when we have no appreciable commercial fishermen pounding our King fishery here for many years now only environment changes and rec fishermen why we havent sprung back at least close to pregillnet numbers ? I keep comin back to the same thing. Environment and fishing pressure. Im a weird bird guys , I have the ability to change my mind if someone can prove something different so if anyone has logical proof these arent the controlling factors im all ears . Right now 1+1 is equaling 2. I hope im wrong as i dont see it getting BETTER . The population grew today. Randy

[Disco Lady]

Conjo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :shock:

[CaptKen]

Randy
You ever dive around or near the stink hole in Hollywood ? You notice how everything is dead around it ? you have to get off Dania before the reef comes to life and then only in a few small spots, same for Pompano.

I believe it has to do with baitfish, The Keys dont have the dumping grounds We do, They have clean water,baitfish,and dolphin.

bahamas the same , clean water,baitfish ,dolphin
Ken