Quote Originally Posted by rockhopper View Post
Don’t blame commercial fishermen
Recreational fishermen do take more fish; 4.9 million pounds in 2006 versus 1.3 commercial, although Caldwell contended the split was closer to 50/50 due to under reporting.
“Nobody in this business wants to see these fish go away so we’re all extremely careful not to over fish or abuse it,” said Farrell. “Unfortunately, it’s the recreational fishermen who get greedy and can slip fish under a blanket and cover it or filet them before they go in.”

“There are 10 to 12 commercial fishermen fishing Cape Cod Bay,” reflected Farrell. “They can fish three and a half days a week and take (30) fish per day. Very rarely do they get their limit. But what people see is a guy coming in with two crates of fish and say, ‘Those guys are killing the stock.’ But there are 30 recreational boats out there every day and they each get two fish.”
According to the DMF, if you include the mortality of released fish, recreational fishing consumes 7.3 million pounds a year. But Patrick and Caldwell point out it is a much greater economic engine than the commercial side.

Sport fishing equals big business

A study sponsored by Stripers Forever estimates recreational fishing added 1.16 billion to state economy versus 24.2 million from commercial fishing (in 2003) and created 10,986 jobs to 524 in commercial fishing. Only 23 fishermen caught 6,000 pounds ($18,000 worth) of bass.
Keough was concerned about too much management.
“Over protection of one species leads to the depletion of small species like shad, poagies and other fish that are used as bait,” he ventured. “Look at what they (protected bass) did to shad in the Connecticut River. They totally decimated the shad population.”
But bass were once decimated themselves. In 1987 the recreational catch was just over 10,000 fish, compared with a healthy 345,000 in 2006.

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Some good points were made here, the most important that we as recreational fishermen catch most of the bass. I think I have seen figures somewhere that put out totals around 80-90% of all bass caught. There are planty of guys in my marina whose main objective is to catch their limit every time. There is not much talk of conservation. Yet people want to blame the commercial and party boat guys, that perception is not always true.