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

[plugginpete]

Who would be happy never to see a spring bliitz again?
Running, casting over each others shoulders, cutting lines, hoo boy!

[fishinmission78]

That's the only way some dudes will get their trophy fish.

[DarkSkies]

Let's talk about some of the insanity that's going on, or will be going in, in the ocean areas as people get that "trophy fish fever" in their heads. I don't imagine we can change it, but it's good to talk about it to raise awareness.

[DarkSkies]

Example 1:
Within the last 4 days, someone took a dump on the lawn or driveway of a Pullman Ave house. I didn't see this personally, but it came from a reliable source.

I don't blame those homeowners for being angry and disgusted with us fishermen. Even though the Public Trust Doctrine
http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/...ead.php?t=1044
protects our access to some degree, that's no excuse to disrespect the property of others.

I see things geting worse. They closed that street to parking last year, that's one of the ways for town officials to legally restrict our access in the future. A few days ago I saw police cars giving out tickets to those who disregarded the signs.

If you got examples or stories of people doing stuff like this, put em up.

[vpass]

It kills me to see all the garbage on the beach that is brought on by fisherman. I think to myself that any day now we're going to lose access.

If it was easy to bring the bag of bait on the beach it should be easier to take the empty bag to the nearest garbage pail. We need to practice respecting our environment, and people that can voice their opinions that could cause us to lose our access.

[surferman]

Example 1:
Within the last 4 days, someone took a dump on the lawn or driveway of a Pullman Ave house. I didn't see this personally, but it came from a reliable source.

I don't blame those homeowners for being angry and disgusted with us fishermen. Even though the Public Trust Doctrine
http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/...ead.php?t=1044
protects our access to some degree, that's no excuse to disrespect the property of others.

I see things geting worse. They closed that street to parking last year, that's one of the ways for town officials to legally restrict our access in the future. A few days ago I saw police cars giving out tickets to those who disregarded the signs.

If you got examples or stories of people doing stuff like this, put em up.

Things will continue to get worse IMO if we don't let it be known that disrespecting others property is condoned by us. The guy would did the dirty deed should have his MO plastered all over the net. Maybe he'll think twice if people start to slam his behavior.

[GeoffT]

Yes, it's pretty disgusting the behavior of some of these so-called "fishermen". The worst part is that I don't consider bunker blitzes to be real fishing but more like shooting into a barrel.

[madcaster]

You can’t blame just fisherman .There are beach goers’ out there that litter the beaches and park in restricted areas as well.
My friend and I were preparing to head out on Memorial Day to fish when we saw 6 of 7 bags of garbage lying around the parking lot left by beach goers.

[stripermania]

I find that the beach bathers are far worse than the fishermen. We need to keep promoting clean-ups.

Another item to be brought to the forefront is that of keeping shorts. Can't tell you how many times you see guys trying to walk off the beaches with shorts. Is it just because they are ignorant and don't know the rules. I think they don't care and would walk off with more if they could.

[fishinmission78]

You can’t blame just fisherman .There are beach goers’ out there that litter the beaches and park in restricted areas as well.
My friend and I were preparing to head out on Memorial Day to fish when we saw 6 of 7 bags of garbage lying around the parking lot left by beach goers.

It's about time someone said something that wasn't only about us on the beach. This weekend on the Island I saw a mother change her baby's diaper and leave it on the beach, ***?

[clamchucker]

Yes, it's pretty disgusting the behavior of some of these so-called "fishermen". The worst part is that I don't consider bunker blitzes to be real fishing but more like shooting into a barrel.

What would you consider 10 boats chasing after a pod of 100 bunker to be, and none of them catching anything because they all overran them, putting it down? I saw that yesterday, and have seen that repeated over and over again in the last few days. I have a boat, and will not take it out on the crowded weekends.

[GeoffT]

What would you consider 10 boats chasing after a pod of 100 bunker to be, and none of them catching anything because they all overran them, putting it down? I saw that yesterday, and have seen that repeated over and over again in the last few days. I have a boat, and will not take it out on the crowded weekends.

I'd call them brainless hacks, especially if it was obvious no fish were harrassing the small pod.

[c4charlie]

I saw a boat do the same on Saturday morning. All of the boats were staying away from the pod but then this one Mako boat decided it needed to get to the other side and went right through the edge of the pod and they went down not too much later. I am sure the other boats were pissed.

[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