And so it begins: Insanity on the beaches ...

[rip316]

My question is how many bass got netted along with the bunker?

[DarkSkies]

My question is how many bass got netted along with the bunker?

Bass are often under the bunker, Rip, good point. They're supposed to toss them back, but many times they're tossed back dead. Maybe Fin wants to answer that one.

[DarkSkies]

I have a good friend who's able to fish a lot. Sometimes as much as 7 days a week. He's all over the place, he never keeps a bass, and fishes all types of surf zones.

We were talking about the mass hysteria going on now to not only kill every bass you can, but also document every single bass with tackle shop or video weigh ins. He's lived through the moratorium when there were no bass. We admit our bass fishing is like an addiction for us, and have intense discussions about anything today that could affect tomorrow.

He's given up trying to sort it out. He said to me:

"Rich, I hope they kill all the bass. That's the only way we'll ever be able to fish in peace. Then all the dillydocks will stop fishing because they have no clue how to catch a fish. "

I don't know if I agree with his opinion. It seemed a little harsh. Thinking about it, I could definitely understand where he's coming from.

In the past I've talked here about the difference between "wanting" to fish, and "needing" to fish. He, I, and a host of others out there "need" to fish.

We would be miserable if we couldn't. The possibility of catching, the hunt, the challenge, is what drives us. So we would still fish for them even if 90% of all bass were gone. Because we know that 90% of the people would then stop fishing for them.


"Those who do not remember the history of the past are doomed to repeat it."

[surfstix1963]

Well that just shut down a good day more likely days of fishing.

[DarkSkies]

^^Absolutely, Surfstix, but everything was done legally, except for the spotter plane. One of the sad effects of the elimination of the factory bunker boats in NJ.

*******************


I didn't want this to be a thread where all we do is talk about how people suck. There was a thread in the past where I was trying to describe to Jake of Stripercoast the most common way surf guys in NJ fish for "bunker bass". That method is to sit on a bench, lean against a railing, or hang in your truck with binocs to wait till the bunker and bass are close enough, and then start fishin.

Whatever happened to blind casting?
Well you won't find much of it in NJ during the bunker blitzes.

Last week I found a guy on some rocks who knows what it is to blind cast. He was far away from the crowds, doing his thing, without a bunker to be seen, trying to catch a bass anyway.

There are those who would say what he was doing was a waste of energy without seeing pods of bunker.
I say to those people:
How can you be sure ONE 20, or 30, or bigger, isn't swimming by at this time of year, when the fish are migrating north and there are fish within 1/2 mi of the surf zone? You can't be sure, and this guy was out working his plugs to give it a shot.








Hat's off to this unknown fisherman.
If anyone knows him, tell him to contact me and I'll send him a free plug.

[DarkSkies]

Rant:

People so happy and caught up in the moment with their fish that they can't understand that posting an internet or tackle shop pic with houses or key buildings in the background will clue untold amounts of surf fishermen into the last place where you were fishing.

I'm sick of hearing that fish move. Tell that to the smartest club guys who don't even chase them anymore, they just hang around in their vehicles and on ocean sidewalks waiting for those fish to come in every day.

If you're posting a pic and it has identifiable background, it's a little hypocritical if you then whine like a baby how many people were casting over your head.

Food for thought.




Rave:
For the guy where I was yesterday, hooked his finger in the morning, went to the hospital, and was back an hour later, trying for his shot at a fish... hardcore.

[speedy]

Bass are often under the bunker, Rip, good point. They're supposed to toss them back, but many times they're tossed back dead. Maybe Fin wants to answer that one.

i just got off the phone with my freind from fish&game he needs pics of this they have to c&r the bass not kill them he said

[DarkSkies]

It's kinda hard Speedy, but not impossible. They told me they want specific proof. I spent a few afternoons last year taking video footage of a Comm, but the best I could do was document some minor violations. Not worth it for them to prosecute.

A lot of the boats Fin is talking about have proper permits. The only way to make them disappear is for fishermen to get organized like they did in the 1980's, when guys like Finchaser, Joe Melillo, Surfwalker, and a host of others and Fishing clubs out there all got together and kept at it.

I don't mean to sound cynical, but to get that level of invoilvement from fishermen today might be next to impossible. We Recs can't even make a good % showing at the March on Washington. There are millions of Rec anglers on the US's Coastal Zones, yet only a few thousand showed up to protest regs that affect the rules for everyone.

Today, at this moment, many fishermen are more concerned about when the next wave of big fish will be close and how they can get one. That's the way it is. I don't see that changing much until the majority see the cause and affect between netting the bunker in close and the immediate decline in the fishery after.

Many fishermen out there today aren't old enough to remember what life was like back then, nor do they care. That's what were working with here, although I have many thanks and praise for those who DO care.