Quote Originally Posted by CharlieTuna View Post
You touched on some good points. I know 5 guys with commercial licenses. 3 of them openly brag how they are selling outside their license to restaurants and mom and pop fish markets, so it doesn't go on their total. This is more widespread than you think. These abuses have to be stopped with higher fines and better enforcement.

As for the out of state guys, I don't think you can stop them from fishing, as you said. What you can do is make their license cost 10x what a resident pays. Or prove that 50% of their income came from commercial fishing. This is not without precedent. Alaska, Florida, and many other states have license fee differentials for in-state vs out of state. This seems like the fairest in the long run.
CT is right on the $$ about this. Way too much abuse in the commercial permit area. 30 fish a day is too much of a temptation for the sleazebags who want to cheat. Another solution is to cut the commercial harvest/day, down to 10 or 15 bass. This would give the hardworking MA fishermen a longer season. Then, once quota is reached, shut it down.

That might make it harder for the out of state guys who come up here trailering their $50k boats to make their $20k in a months time. I'm not looking to get into a war of state vs state, but you can tell who these guys are. It's like a gold rush for some of them. And I'm sorry if anyone is offended by this, but I don't like them. They come up here to rape our resource.