# Breaking news!!!new speck regs to take effect immediately!!!



## speckhunter80 (Oct 3, 2011)

Ok, here is the rundown on what happened in regards to the new SPECK REGS. I am going to leave out the Striped Bass and Limted Entry Fireworks.

*Motion by Anna Beckwith*=3 fish at 14" with a Dec. 15-Jan 31 closure for Recs. and a 75 fish trip limit witha closure from Dec. 15- Jan 31 + weekend closure for comms and gear could remain in water, to be effective Feb. 2014
*Amendent by Allyn Powell to Beckwith Motion*= change to 25 fish trip limit and no closure for comms; *AMENDED MOTION PASSED*

*Motion by Anna Beckwith*= If DMF Director issues a cold stun closure then season will reopen on June 1 with a 4 fish rec limit and a 75 fish trip limit for comms; *MOTION PASSED*

*Motion by Chris Elkins*= Implement immediate interim measure of 4 fish for recs and 75 fish for comms; *MOTION FAILED 4-3*

Dr. Daniel requested guidance on when he could issue a closure for cold kill/stun; none given/we trust your judgement

BREAK TAKEN WHERE DEALS DISCUSSED

*Motion by Anna Beckwith*=remove all commercial gill nets and RCGL gill nets out of Joint Waters on weekends; *FAILED FOR LACK OF SECOND*

*Motion by Joe Shute*= 4 fish 14" for recs, 75 fish trip limit for comms, all gill nets must be removed from Joint Waters on weekends including RCGL excluding Albermarle Sound on net removal; totake effect immediately *PASSED 4-3*

*Last word I was given by Dr. Daniel is a proclamation will come out Friday afternoon and take effect on Monday changing rec rules to 4 fish 14" UNLESS THE MFC CHANGES THEIR MINDS TOMORROW MORNING*


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## speckhunter80 (Oct 3, 2011)

It should be corrected to read 75 fish per day for comms instead of 75 fish trip limit. I was corrected by Capt. Shute last night.


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## Garboman (Jul 22, 2010)

Motion by Anna Beckwith=remove all commercial gill nets and RCGL gill nets out of Joint Waters on weekends; FAILED FOR LACK OF SECOND


I guess Ms. Beckwith's family are not commercial fishermen and as such she was not worried whether or not they packed out on Monday


"Garbo Motion" where all Rec Specs are photographed and released


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## gshivar (Aug 29, 2006)

At 5 pm Friday no proclamition has been issued. best - glenn


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## speckhunter80 (Oct 3, 2011)

Proclamations came out but not the speck one and now Loius has gone on vacation for a week so I don't expect it to come out until the 14th.

Glenn, do you know Steve Everhart.


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## JAM (Jul 22, 2002)

Lets see more mis-management.... Clueless Regs.. Clueless Folks, with an agenda...

Lets see I am allowed:

1 Gray Trout 
1 Puppy Drum
and now 
4 Specks.. 

I have had the best spring and summer season in the Pamlico Sound off of Hatteras(Specks and Grays)... How can that be didn't they all freeze to death last year, I even caught Gray Trout up to 3 pounds... The people in charge, are agenda based.... I no longer believe in the RULES... all they are doing is turning everyday folks into criminals... Fools..

Some of our best Beach Trout Fishing is from December on, and now they want to shut it down, I say BS... Just another way to DENY access, if ya can't keep anything maybe they will stop coming, has to be their thought process... Cause there is not a thing wrong with the fish stocks... Caught 350 myself this season... Yeah they all died in the freeze, I guess you can believe what ya want, but I am the one that is on the water EVERYDAY....And I raise the BS FLAG..

JAM


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## KB Spot Chaser (Nov 19, 2009)

These regs will not take effect until 2014, no changes were made for this year.


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## speckhunter80 (Oct 3, 2011)

The voted on regulation of 3 fish with a seasonal closure will not take effect until at least Feb. 2014 and I highly doubt they will at all. A new research study may come out in 2013 that indicates that specks are not in as bad a shape as the assesment done in 2008 indicates.


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## JAM (Jul 22, 2002)

*Then Why call it a Proclamation????? They are normaly an imediate thing.. Somethin Fi*



speckhunter80 said:


> The voted on regulation of 3 fish with a seasonal closure will not take effect until at least Feb. 2014 and I highly doubt they will at all. A new research study may come out in 2013 that indicates that specks are not in as bad a shape as the assesment done in 2008 indicates.


shy here.. 
Something that is maybe 2 years out, I believe they were just floating an Idea to see how it goes over.. 
Again I raise the BS Flag.. So they are basising this off a 2008 study (what study) Cold Stun happened last year (so they tell us) I say Fish stocks are fine, its a cycle, its the fish managers that are smokin CRACK... Pushin their DOI AGENDA.. 

JAM 

JAM


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## hokieboy (Jan 19, 2006)

i agree with JAM here i believe fish stocks are fine, correct me if i am wrong but dont we have trout that die off every year due to cold weather? I know i fished nags head the third weekend of oct and we were bailing 13" trout as fast as we could get a line in the water. Question for you guys how many trout are being killed as by catches in nets?


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## JAM (Jul 22, 2002)

*Bout as many that are Killed by the Almighty CnR Folks*

DogSharks and Comerants are the true enemy, but they were protected..... What everyone fails to realise is that there are 80 percent less comercial fishermen today then 15 years ago, they have been run out of business by the DMF's.. So why are stocks still in peril, Mis Management plaine and simple.. 

If there is not an emergency in Fisheries, then there is no work, hence they would be out of a job, lot easier to make an emergency, and keep your job.. Heh..

JAM 

JAM


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## speckhunter80 (Oct 3, 2011)

Sorry but not going to go thru the entire history of what has transpired over the last two years since the first ever speckled trout assesment was done in NCand it was determined at that time that speckled trout have been overfished for 18 years. You can search NCW and find where it has been discussed ad nauseum. Threatened lawsuits, legislative committees, attorney general decisions, BS propaganda by NCFA and NCWU have delayed regulations for the last two years that should have been implemented then and now they have found yet another way to delay it another two years.


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## speckhunter80 (Oct 3, 2011)

speckhunter80 said:


> Sorry but not going to go thru the entire history of what has transpired over the last two years since the first ever speckled trout assesment was done in NCand it was determined at that time that speckled trout have been overfished for 18 years. You can search NCW and find where it has been discussed ad nauseum. Threatened lawsuits, legislative committees, attorney general decisions, BS propaganda by NCFA and NCWU have delayed regulations for the last two years that should have been implemented then and now they have found yet another way to delay it another two years.


BTW, not trying to be an Ahole but to try and explain everything that has transpired over the last two years would take hours of typing. It involves so many individuals, groups, legislatures and was the basis for the "Gamefish" attempt. Contrary to what some believe it was not the Striped Bass debacles last winter that led to the "Gamefish" movement. Striped Bass was only added at the suggestion of certain legislators. Way to much time spent in meetings, miles riding in a car and sitting listening to outright lies. As I said this has been beat to death on NCW and you can go there and research.


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## JAM (Jul 22, 2002)

No ned for research I live it, I see the lies everyday, as I am on hte water, not making up BS Models with BS Assessment Numbers..

Leave nature alone it will do fine without us, its only when we get INVOLVED that things get screwed up..

JAM


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## KB Spot Chaser (Nov 19, 2009)

"There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance- that principle is contempt prior to investigation" Herbert Spencer


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## JAM (Jul 22, 2002)

*Having lived at the Coast My entire life,*

I tend to believe more in cycles, there are 80 percent LESS coimercial fisherman these days so how is it OVERFISHING.. I'll tell ya its not OVERFISHING..Its MIS-Management, the dogshark ban in hte late 70's early 80's desimate the Trout population, not neters..


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## drumchaser (Jan 14, 2003)

The seabass laws are recent proof the system is flawed. Makes no sense whatsoever.


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## GreenFord (Apr 11, 2009)

JAM said:


> Leave nature alone it will do fine without us, its only when we get INVOLVED that things get screwed up..
> 
> JAM


Amen when will we ever learn. Mother nature is a wonderful thing if we stop screwing with her.


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## speckhunter80 (Oct 3, 2011)

JAM said:


> I tend to believe more in cycles, there are 80 percent LESS coimercial fisherman these days so how is it OVERFISHING.. I'll tell ya its not OVERFISHING..Its MIS-Management, the dogshark ban in hte late 70's early 80's desimate the Trout population, not neters..


I have never once claimed that comms were wholly responsible for overfishing specks. Quite the opposite from the mid 90's thru the the mid to late 2000's the split for harvest of specks was roughly 52% recs and 48% comms...so for the sake of argument we will say 50-50. Since it has been 68% recs and 32% comms but this abnormal split does not discount that a million fish are harvested a year. What DMF has said is that eliminate the overharvesting then a reduction by each user group needs to be made of 57.1%. There are many ways for each group to reduce their harvest by 57.1% and that is where the 3 fish 14" limit and closure from Dec. 15-Jan 31 for recs and 25 fish per day limit for comms comes in.


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## uncdub13 (Aug 9, 2003)

GreenFord said:


> Amen when will we ever learn. Mother nature is a wonderful thing if we stop screwing with her.


You mean everyone stop killing so many fish?


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## KB Spot Chaser (Nov 19, 2009)

The bottom line is there are too many fish being kept thus reducing the stock. Most on here don't even know what a good trout bite is, definitely not 40-50 fish. The trout were once so plentiful that you could spot the schools off Topsail the way we fish the reds today. 3 lb. grey trout don't meen shi* and bailing 13 in. is a far cry from a healthy fishery, but some on here feel that makes the stocks healthy b/c that is all they have seen. Gotta go back 25 yrs to know what I mean, not just 10 or even fifteen. I've seen 400 fish days and they were not small specks, what I would call cookie cutter 20" fish. Whoopy doo you had a 350 fish season, Ive seen that in a 3 hr. bite, and grey trout big enough to eat your little 3 lber. Stop blaming the netters, sharks, birds, environuts and except some of the responsibility for the decline. There are far too many CNR folks out there who will continue to catch undersize fish without barbs pinched, dry hands who do far more harm to the stocks than mother nature, but then again brag about how great a bite they were in. That is what I call BS, not the new regs.


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## uncdub13 (Aug 9, 2003)

KB Spot Chaser said:


> The bottom line is there are too many fish being kept thus reducing the stock. Most on here don't even know what a good trout bite is, definitely not 40-50 fish. The trout were once so plentiful that you could spot the schools off Topsail the way we fish the reds today. 3 lb. grey trout don't meen shi* and bailing 13 in. is a far cry from a healthy fishery, but some on here feel that makes the stocks healthy b/c that is all they have seen. Gotta go back 25 yrs to know what I mean, not just 10 or even fifteen. I've seen 400 fish days and they were not small specks, what I would call cookie cutter 20" fish. Whoopy doo you had a 350 fish season, Ive seen that in a 3 hr. bite, and grey trout big enough to eat your little 3 lber. Stop blaming the netters, sharks, birds, environuts and except some of the responsibility for the decline. There are far too many CNR folks out there who will continue to catch undersize fish without barbs pinched, dry hands who do far more harm to the stocks than mother nature, but then again brag about how great a bite they were in. That is what I call BS, not the new regs.


Bingo.


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## Drumdum (Jan 6, 2003)

*There is part of this that I don't understand and seems totally unreasonable...*

3 or 4 fish a day for recs ain't crazy,isn't that bad of a reg and don't see where it will clamp down on anyone,but that is just an opinion.. Course the other opinion I have on this possible new reg is WHY would you close the season from mid Dec through Jan?? That is the ONE TIME when I like to go to the surf and catch a couple of fish to bring back and eat... Is thier thinking only for thier side of the sound and not the surf,as in Hatteras?? Are they just looking at where thier bread is buttered on by worrying about cold freezes in the sound on thier side?? I could be looking at it all wrong,but I doubt many of the guides,like the "Beckwith's" fish for specks at that time of year,or that ruling would not have been proposed.. It's just a guess,but that ruling sure hurts us here on Hatteras for our winter fishing... jmho...


I would like to ask Jam to lay out a plan that he thinks reasonable other than just allowing mother nature to stop folks from filing coolers of undersized trout like I have heard is happening in NH area this year... Some folks are just going to rape what is there com or rec if allowed and there are no rules,do you not agree Jam??



KB Spot Chaser said:


> The bottom line is there are too many fish being kept thus reducing the stock. Most on here don't even know what a good trout bite is, definitely not 40-50 fish. The trout were once so plentiful that you could spot the schools off Topsail the way we fish the reds today. 3 lb. grey trout don't meen shi* and bailing 13 in. is a far cry from a healthy fishery, but some on here feel that makes the stocks healthy b/c that is all they have seen. Gotta go back 25 yrs to know what I mean, not just 10 or even fifteen. I've seen 400 fish days and they were not small specks, what I would call cookie cutter 20" fish. Whoopy doo you had a 350 fish season, Ive seen that in a 3 hr. bite, and grey trout big enough to eat your little 3 lber. Stop blaming the netters, sharks, birds, environuts and except some of the responsibility for the decline. There are far too many CNR folks out there who will continue to catch undersize fish without barbs pinched, dry hands who do far more harm to the stocks than mother nature, but then again brag about how great a bite they were in. That is what I call BS, not the new regs.


 I remember those days as well,had many 50plus and even one 100plus day catching specks 10yr or so ago.. Best day recently was 38 some in excess of 5lb with most in the 3lb bracket when taking a party out,and that wasn't that recent,maybe 8 yrs ago.. Since then,talking 5 or so years ago had days with 20 or so,but it has been downhill enough since I haven't even fished for them hard in the sound for the last 5 years.. I believe if you ask the guides down here in Hatteras they will also tell you that the specks have declined...


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## speckhunter80 (Oct 3, 2011)

In order to reach the 57.1% for recs there has to be a closure of some sort unless they went to a 2 fish limit. The closure could have been a seasonal closure or a 48 hour closure sometime during the week.


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## uncdub13 (Aug 9, 2003)

Limit trout to one per day in a slot just like red drum for all I care. I'll still fish for them just the same as I do when you can keep 10. I'll keep a few every now and then, but I'd much prefer to have healthy populations and great fishing experiences. It's not like I can't go fill up a cooler with some other easy-to-catch, plentiful, and tasty fish like sea mullet if I'm having the craving for fish. I'd rather have a photograph of the mama gator trout I released than a cooler full of cookie cutter 18-22" fish to take home and clean. The populations are in serious decline if you take a look at history, and anyone who fails to realize that is delusional. People can point fingers and blame different groups, but it's man as a whole that is having an impact and people need to start taking personal responsibility if they give a **** about the resource. Just because you can still "catch your limit" here and there does not mean the population is fine.


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## drumchaser (Jan 14, 2003)

I would much rather see a trout swim off just like a spot tail. I have no intentions of keeping either. Now flounder is a different ball game. I'll keep one or two of them for the grill but that's it. And yes between man and the www, it has definitely made an impact.


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## JAM (Jul 22, 2002)

speckhunter80 said:


> In order to reach the 57.1% for recs there has to be a closure of some sort unless they went to a 2 fish limit. The closure could have been a seasonal closure or a 48 hour closure sometime during the week.


To use numbers like this one has to know the amount of trout in the trout population, so I ask this simple question: What are the total number of Specks in NC waters????
I know you do not know, I know they do not know.. Then how can you use or base anything off of nothing??? And if you can't put a number on it neither can they so everything else from hence forth is speculation, plaine and simple... Smoke and mirrors..

Kenny I would start by putting DogShark recipticals at every ramp, every doggie caught is killed, feed the homeless with them. Second open season on Comerants, with a kill them all limit. That would be a good start.. Self policing is the answer to poaching, if you knew you were gonna get a beat down (like in the old days) if someone saw you stealing fish you would not be too likely to do it. We all rely too much on the government, and some think they have our best intrest at heart, I will tell you this government has no heart, and has no intrest how we do.. 

DMF's have only been at fish management for the past 40 years, comercial fishing is down over 80 percent in that same time frame, how in the hell can it be overfishing, its complete and total mis-management, where one bad decesion leads to another, its easy for me to see that they have no idea what they are doing and blame everything else but the true cause, Themselves....



The Green Agenda has breached over into fisheries management, wait to u see the map for substaintial habbitat areas, in includes all of the Pamlico all allong Hatteras.. What they are trying to do is make it not worth your while to fish so maybe you will just go away... Little to no beach access, mpa's in the ocean, SHA's in the Sound... They want all of us to go away... Without a constant emergency they have no way to justify there existinance...

JAM


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## Drumdum (Jan 6, 2003)

uncdub13 said:


> Limit trout to one per day in a slot just like red drum for all I care. I'll still fish for them just the same as I do when you can keep 10. I'll keep a few every now and then, but I'd much prefer to have healthy populations and great fishing experiences. It's not like I can't go fill up a cooler with some other easy-to-catch, plentiful, and tasty fish like sea mullet if I'm having the craving for fish. I'd rather have a photograph of the mama gator trout I released than a cooler full of cookie cutter 18-22" fish to take home and clean. The populations are in serious decline if you take a look at history, and anyone who fails to realize that is delusional. People can point fingers and blame different groups, but it's man as a whole that is having an impact and people need to start taking personal responsibility if they give a **** about the resource. Just because you can still "catch your limit" here and there does not mean the population is fine.


 Drum law is something many dissagreed with here on Hatteras at the time,many are still jacked out of shape still.. NCDMF lost many people that would have been in thier camp had they put solid regulation down,instead of listening to some with and agenda,c&r guys that don't care if a person harvest a fish or not,they just want to c&r,to hell with the rights of those that want one for the table.. The year that law on big drum came out,many including myself were having catches with some of the biggest numbers of red drum ever,both pups and big ones.. But "Point fishermen" had sucky numbers during the time span just before the ruling went down,so they were sure population had dropped to the bottom... It was somewhere in the middle,going by tagging data didn't cut it as far as accurate numbers,but these "scientist" went along with tagging data to form new regs.. Not totally against the drum laws,but they were extreme and did not have to be.. Stop haulsieners that were harvesting tons at a time of pups,and half the game would have been over.. They could have allowed a one fish a year harvest in conjuction with a tag,and a two or three pup a day harvest and you'd have seen the same numbers you folks think you are seeing right now... All this imho is true,even though I have caught and released big drum since mid 70's,kept maybe 5 all total,and they went to good use..*I am a c&r guy if you consider 99.99% of my fishing..*

Like I said earlier,this new reg is fair,and you can keep enough to have a meal if you want a meal.. I don't keep limits of anything very often,c&r most of the time,although unlike you I feel folks have the right to harvest a legal limit for the table if they desire.. As I said earlier,*I am a c&r guy if you consider 99.99% of my fishing* and feel it selfish,not nobel that many c&r guys feel it is unfair to have regs that allow catch for the table,in a fair way not to destroy the resource.. Imho,a 3 to 4 trout limit would attain this,maybe even add that only one fish over 4lbs can be caught and kept with this limit.. But to set an agenda,(just guessing as I posted before) like a guide from w pamlico would set by totally closing a season during a time when Hatteras will be catching from the surf (to many like myself it is the one time I go for specks to eat),while they are to the south vacationing anyway,is kinda feeshy don't ya think???





JAM said:


> To use numbers like this one has to know the amount of trout in the trout population, so I ask this simple question: What are the total number of Specks in NC waters????
> I know you do not know, I know they do not know.. Then how can you use or base anything off of nothing??? And if you can't put a number on it neither can they so everything else from hence forth is speculation, plaine and simple... Smoke and mirrors..
> 
> Kenny I would start by putting DogShark recipticals at every ramp, every doggie caught is killed, feed the homeless with them. Second open season on Comerants, with a kill them all limit. That would be a good start.. Self policing is the answer to poaching, if you knew you were gonna get a beat down (like in the old days) if someone saw you stealing fish you would not be too likely to do it. We all rely too much on the government, and some think they have our best intrest at heart, I will tell you this government has no heart, and has no intrest how we do..
> ...


 Sha and mpa's are what I have been warning of for the past 10 years.. No one believes this can happen,but is slowly coming down.. When the hammer comes it's gonna s*ck for all,including c&r folks.. This may be the one and only thing we agree upon,John,because I do believe in regs,just not those set by folks that have thier own agenda to serve and aren't looking out for those that truely fish and catch to eat once and a while... Those fish out there are our resource and should be looked after at all cost for c&r,coms,and those that want a couple for the table.... jmho.....


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## JAM (Jul 22, 2002)

*We Agree on more then that*

the CnR guys are gonna be used like a fiddle, first to get the regs in place, then they will be left holdin their johnson, and denied access to fish.. 

JAM


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## speckhunter80 (Oct 3, 2011)

New Spotted Seatrout Regulations to Take Effect Next Week

MOREHEAD CITY – *New regulations will go into effect Nov. 14 for those who fish for spotted seatrout in coastal waters of the state.*
The N.C. Marine Fisheries commission adopted these measures at its meeting last week as short-term measures to address overfishing in the spotted seatrout fishery. The regulations will:
•	Reduce the daily recreational bag limit from 6 fish per person to 4 fish per person
•	Implement a daily commercial trip limit of 75 fish per operation
•	Prohibit the use of gill nets on the weekend in all joint fishing waters of the state, except Albemarle Sound

Joint fishing waters are the brackish upper creeks that are managed jointly by the Marine Fisheries Commission and the Wildlife Resources Commission. Maps showing boundary lines can be found on the Division of Marine Fisheries website at http://ncfisheries.net/maps/coastal_inland/index.html. 

The prohibition of gill nets applies to both commercial and recreational nets, large mesh and small mesh nets, set and runaround nets.

The action eliminates a commercial weekend closure on possession of spotted seatrout outside of joint fishing waters. It also eliminates a recreational provision that no more than two of the fish may be greater than 24 inches.

The current 14-inch size limit remains in place.

The Division of Marine Fisheries plans to issue proclamations implementing the new regulations Thursday. They will be posted on the division website at http://portal.ncdenr.org/web/mf/proclamations.

The commission also tentatively approved long-term management strategies for a draft Spotted Seatrout Fishery Management Plan. These regulations will go into place in February 2014 unless additional data becomes available before then that indicates reductions are not necessary. State law requires the commission to end overfishing within two years of final adoption of a fishery management plan.

The long-term measures will:
•	Reduce the daily recreational bag limit to three fish per person.
•	Implement a Dec. 15 through Jan. 31 recreational closure.
•	Reduce the commercial trip limit to 25 fish.
•	Eliminate commercial closures.

The long-term measures are needed because the new short-term regulations represent a 40 percent reduction in spotted seatrout fishing mortality. According to a 2010 stock assessment, a 57.1 percent reduction in fishing mortality is needed to end overfishing of spotted seatrout within two years of final adoption of the plan.

- More -


2

The draft long-term management measures now go to the secretary of the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resource and the Joint Legislative Commission on Governmental Operations for review.

In other actions, the commission:
•	Postponed discussion on establishing a limited entry system for the commercial ocean striped bass fishery until its August meeting. The commission asked Louis Daniel, director of the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries, to pursue statutory changes to give the commission more flexibility in the state law that authorizes it to establish a limited entry system for fisheries subject to a federal fishery management plan that imposes quotas. The commission would like to change the current requirement that participation in a limited entry fishery be limited to those who landed a minimum number of pounds of fish in two of three license years.
•	Selected preferred management options for an amendment to the Estuarine Striped Bass Fishery Management Plan. The plan now goes to the secretary of the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resource and the Joint Legislative Commission on Governmental Operations for review.
•	Approved taking a draft amendment to the Blue Crab Fishery Management Plan out for public comment.

###
nr-54-11


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## Drumdum (Jan 6, 2003)

JAM said:


> the CnR guys are gonna be used like a fiddle, first to get the regs in place, then they will be left holdin their johnson, and denied access to fish..
> 
> JAM


 That part we do fully agree upon..... Take note that the closure of fish from dec 15 through jan is still on the table.. This will all but kill all wintertime fun we have in the surf,aside from a few flounder and some pups now and again... Wish I could go on vacation waaaay down south like the "rulemakers" do.... Why not make the closures same as last year,then EVERYONE will be affected and we can all bear the burdon???


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## drumchaser (Jan 14, 2003)

So the closure In dec - jan means we can't target the trout for catch & release either??


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## uncdub13 (Aug 9, 2003)

Drumdum said:


> Like I said earlier,this new reg is fair,and you can keep enough to have a meal if you want a meal.. I don't keep limits of anything very often,c&r most of the time,although unlike you I feel folks have the right to harvest a legal limit for the table if they desire.. As I said earlier,*I am a c&r guy if you consider 99.99% of my fishing* and feel it selfish,not nobel that many c&r guys feel it is unfair to have regs that allow catch for the table,in a fair way not to destroy the resource.. Imho,a 3 to 4 trout limit would attain this,maybe even add that only one fish over 4lbs can be caught and kept with this limit.. But to set an agenda,(just guessing as I posted before) like a guide from w pamlico would set by totally closing a season during a time when Hatteras will be catching from the surf (to many like myself it is the one time I go for specks to eat),while they are to the south vacationing anyway,is kinda feeshy don't ya think???


I never said that I don't feel like folks have a right to harvest a legal limit for the table. However, I do feel like many people are greedy and abuse that right. I'm not gonna label myself a "C&R guy" or try to use that label as noble or superior. Hell, the main reason I release most of the fish I catch is that I rarely feel like going through the trouble of keeping and cleaning them. Rinsing off my gear is enough of a chore most days. At the same time, I realize that by releasing a large percentage of my catch, I'm doing my part to help preserve the resource. I enjoy the satisfaction of eating my catch as much as anyone, but I also know that the less we take away from the resource, the healthier it will be. I'd much rather lay off harvesting for a while and see fishing return to how it was "back in the day". You can't have your cake and eat it too. I mean fish, not cake....


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## speckhunter80 (Oct 3, 2011)

ONCE AGAIN, THE PROPOSED REGULATIONS THAT ARE PART OF THE FMP WILL NOT TAKE EFFECT UNTIL FEB. 2014. THESE ARE THE REGULATIONS THAT INCLUDE A SEASONAL CLOSURE. It is my personal opinion that before Feb. of 2014 Chris Ellis' study will come out and it will be determined that the specks are no longer being overharvested with the current 6 and now 4 fish limit to take effect on Monday and therefore the 3 fish lit and seasonal closure is not necessary. THERE WILL BE NO SEASONAL CLOSURE THIS DECEMBER AND JANUARY unless the weather conditions mimics last winters and then there would be a closure for cold kills.


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## savfish (Mar 10, 2005)

Implementing a 25 fish trip limit on commercials? Have they ever seen a beach net pulled in? I have numerous times and all the specs I have seen come up are already dead. Just like the previous rockfish regs this will encourage high grading and the waste of numerous dead fish. The Dec 15 - Jan 31 rec closure is bs. Spec fishing is about the only option for rec beach fishers that time of year since the stripers have become almost non existant.


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## Drumdum (Jan 6, 2003)

savfish said:


> Implementing a 25 fish trip limit on commercials? Have they ever seen a beach net pulled in? I have numerous times and all the specs I have seen come up are already dead. Just like the previous rockfish regs this will encourage high grading and the waste of numerous dead fish. The Dec 15 - Jan 31 rec closure is bs. Spec fishing is about the only option for rec beach fishers that time of year since the stripers have become almost non existant.


 That is the first thing I thought also,knowing specks would be dead or close to dead.. Maybe they will permit sharing,as with rockfish..That would at least stop the waste,and would more than likely mean less sets when a com can wait and see what the other com caught,knowing he can share to get his quota.. One guy sets,sticks 100,shares with 4 coms to stop any possibility that they would have to set.. At least that is the way it should work...


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