I got no issue with people keeping fish. I eat them too. However I have been getting call after call from members, friends, and acquaintances the last few days, ranting about all the big fish that are being killed, and weighed in at tackle shops.

If you never caught a big fishin your life, and you catch a 40, of course you're probably going to keep it.You want to bring it home, show it to your family and friends, maybe brag a little.

It's human nature to be proud of something like that. That's understandable.

So I didn't start this thread to point the finger at people keeping fish, per se. Nothing wrong with it, I do it when I want one, and most importantly, the law allows us to keep 2, every trip.

What I want to focus on here is the people who feel the need to keep their limit every time, no matter what the conditions, and no matter how big the fish are. I would like to ask them publically why they do it?

Or, why would you get 2 big bass in the morning, bring them home, and come out on the beach in the afternoon, fish next to me, brag about your morning catch, and tell me that you you're back out to get 2 more keepers?

Is the self-esteem of people that low that the defining point of your life is to weigh big fish after big fish at the tackle shop? Is your life that empty that the only way to get recognition from your fishing peers is to weigh in fish after fish, so you are "fishing King of the jungle"?

These fish are hammered every year from Virginia, where they can keep 18" fish, to Mass. Guys say: "What's the big deal, we're only taking a few for the short time they're here"

Multiply that "short time" by a few weeks......

in Hatteras, a few weeks in Virginia, a few weeks in Albemarle Sound, a few weeks in Maryland and the Susquehanna flats, a few weeks in Delaware, a few weeks in Delaware Bay, a few weeks in the Delaware River, a few weeks in Cape May, a few weeks in Brigantine, a few weeks in LBI, a few weeks in IBSP, a few weeks in Long Branch, a few weeks in the Hudson, a few weeks in Rockaway, a few weeks in Fire Island, a few weeks in the Western sound, a few weeks on the North shore and South shore of LI, a few weeks in Montauk, a few weeks in Connecticut and the rivers where some fish still spawn, a few weeks on the rocky shores of Rhode Island, a few weeks off Block Island, a few weeks in Cape Cod, a few weeks off Plum Island, a few weeks in Martha's Vineyard, and many other places that I didn't get to mention.





I hate having I start threads like these. I have difficulty sometimes deciding how to present these issues for discussion. I know that angering or offending people for doing what they're legally alowed by law to do is not a good strategy.

So I apologize ahead of time if some are offended by my words here. But if you are offended or disturbed by what I'm saying, I would encourage you to honestly ask yourself "Why?" my words are offending you?

There's a guy on another site, comes in all the time to tell people they shouldn't be keeping fish, rants about it ad nauseum. I remember that guy, wonder if he's still causing the trouble he used to?

The thing about that guy, is that even though his intentions might be honorable, he goes about it the wrong way, and people tune him out. He has gotten so offensive that whenever he posts, people look at as an opportunity for an argument.

I don't want to be that guy, his message gets nowhere because he tries to push it on people.

My biggest question here is: just because the law allows us to keep big breeder fish, are we within our moral rights to do so? Is it the smartest thing to do for our fishing future to take our limit every time?

Why would some of us need to bring in fish after fish to the tackle shops, even when we have achieved our personal best, and gotten to a good level of competence in our fishing skills?