Jake I'm sorry I won't be able to come up and give you guys a hand. I have no usable vehicle now and have been relying on the kindness of others until I line one up. The car I'm driving now has a safety range of about 100 miles, I can't push it too much more.
Originally Posted by jigfreak
If you were giving away 50lb bass you might get a better response.Good luck, hope it turns out well.
Jake, it really is a shame that this is what it comes down to, but I've seen this is human nature with many fishermen.You're probably right about the free 50's. It's a shame that is what it would take to get people to stir.
Gooseberry and the surrounding area has given up it's fair share of 50's and 60's in recent years. It's events like this that will help to ensure access to fishermen remains open. WAY too many folks take access for granted, b!tch and moan when access gets shut down somewhere, yet don't lift a finger when opportunities like this present themselves.
* I saw it in Mass when I drove up to report on the Striped Bass Gamefish bill. Many more Comms than Recs managed to find a way to attend that meeting.
* I saw it in Washington when we drove down for the Fishermens March and Rally. Again, more Comms than Recs showed. There were lots of guys who had to work, I understand that.
* However, there were countless guys who called in sick for the hot N England cod bite. Boats were filled on the weekends, but they were railed on the weekdays as well. Sure some of those guys are retired, but some aren't.
* There are tons of guys now taking off from work to get in on the hot bass bite in S Jersey, and the Susquehanna, Delaware, and Hudson Rivers. Some of these guys would be angry if you suggested that they give up one day of fishing for a good cause.
* There are still more who will never attend a fisheries management meeting because they have no interest or no inclination to learn how these issues could eventually affect them.
* There is a great group in NJ called SSFFF that has done a lot of things to help not only fluke fishermen, but all fishermen by raising awareness that some stats are wrong. Yet some people only think about helping SSFFF when they're going fluke fishing and ignore them at other times.
Even with that, there is a small subset of guys who always give of themselves, the 10% of the guys who do 90% of the work and activism.
We have similar problems with cleanups in NJ, Jake. There are hundreds of guys who fish the backwaters of Raritan Bay daily or nightly. Only a few dozen could be coaxed into attending a cleanup we had last year at NJ's Cliffwood Beach when the fishermen trash pushed the towns to start restricting parking.
So I understand your frustration, and I agree with your sentiments. Also, forcing or guilting people into doing something that they "should" be self-motivated to get involved with is tough.
That's why I think it's best to concentrate on the volunteers you do have, and ask them to help spread the word.
One thing I've learned in the past few years is you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink. Raising awareness is what we must do, Jake. Eventually, people do come around, one at a time, on their own terms.
As for the ones who complain when they lose access and they have done nothing to try to preserve access, oh well.
I've stopped focusing on reaching people like that, and continue to focus on some of the people who can be reached and are willing to at least listen.
Good luck with the clean up.
Take lots of pics, feel free to post some up here. You can post them in this thread or an additional thread to give our Stripercoast club some more internet links.... I'm thinking a kind of "before" and "after" would be a nice touch.
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