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

[DarkSkies]

Since the big girls are officially here, and have been announced in detail in internet tackle store videos with catches, times, dates and locations of every big fish now taken, from IBSP to SH. I felt someone should document the insanity and poor behavior, past and present.

I believe we have other threads talking about this, I'll try to link them when I get some time.

Basically, it's a sad story of human behavior.

All talk about conservation and respecting the property of others has gone out the window in the last 24 hours.

Most every surf fisherman has big 50# bass on their minds, and no other topic seeems as important as getting that 50 or 60.

God bless, and especially bless those who have the understanding to C&R some of the big girls.

This thread is meant to document some of the insanity, without naming current fishable spots.

If you post up here with a gripe, please try to be general in description if people still are allowed to fish there.

[DarkSkies]

1. St Alphonse's, Long Branch
This story has already been posted here, I'll try to link it when I have time.
Basically we all used to fish down there, and the priests were very nice about it. Then a true gentleman of a fishermen ook a crap in the priests' bathroom, got caught, and instead of apologizing, argued with the priest. That access is now closed or restricted to us. Guys cleaning and leaving racks of fish in the trash there might have also angered the priests a little, maybe...


2. Pullman Ave, Elberon -
Parking restricted because some idiots thought it was OK to park in homeowner driveways, and also leave racks of filleted fish in the homeowner trash there. Homeowners got a little angry over those abuses and went directly to the Mayor, as I understand it.

There are several more, these are the first 2 that come to my head when I thought about them.

[DarkSkies]

I predict that either one of the popular bridges that people fish or several of the streets leading to oceanfront access will be either restricted from people fishing there, or parking will be eliminated from a street that hasn't had an issue before.

I predict that this will happen by June 1, 2010.

I'm hoping I'm wrong.

I don't want to be right on this one.

However what I and others saw today was sheer insanity. People, especially the fishing public, should have a general sense that you just don't behave that way. Triple parking on a residential street is not an acceptable way of you getting down to the beach to fish.

About 1000 fishermen driving along 25 miles of NJ Coast with binocs, all for one or 2 afternoon pods of bunker that didn't have many fish on them today.




If I were any of those homeowners, I would not be simply calling the Mayor. I would be visiting him tonight at his house and asking him what I am getting for the high taxes I pay to live there, when there is so much riff-raff parking in my street, that I nor my children, can get to my driveway.

And I can assure you fishermen out there that these conversations will be had in several towns tonight. The next step will be for them to contact the police and enforce the property rights of the homeowners.

Mark my words on this, this will come true.

And then people will whine about it on the internet.

[DarkSkies]

If you're down there and see either problems littering, parking, disrespecting property, culling fish, or anything that may affect your fishing access in the future....


Speak up!

You have a voice, use it.

Or call the police and report what you saw over the phone if you don't want the hassle or confrontation.

Don't just talk about it, do something.

[DarkSkies]

Feel free to post up any examples to add here, as long as you can describe them generically without being too specific. Thanks.

[DarkSkies]

There were a few Commercial bunker boats that allegedly killed the action for the Rec guys today. I understand Comms have rights and need to make a living, but in some cases today they came in and interfered with the operations of the party boats. Some others allegedly pushed close enough to some Recs to intimidate them into moving.

That's not fair, right, or good for the reputation the Comms are trying to cultivate with the public. Behavior like this allows the public to point to Comms as greedy, selfish, and not concerned with anything but the dollar. All else be damned.

I also was told by several eyewitnesses that one of the bunker boats out there had a spotter plane it was working with. This is blatantly illegal, but very hard to prove.

The Coast Guard was notified, and for the most part the behavior of the bunker boats was within the statutes. However, that doesn't prevent us from exercising our rights of free speech in pointing out the examples of bad behavior.

Here are some pics Fin took and sent in.














I'm not making any assessment as to what happened as I wasn't there. However, I invite anyone who's OTW and witnesses poor behavior to take pics and post them up. We can at least try to document some of this stuff for the future.

[DarkSkies]

More pics