Team B-Faithful MSSA Tournament

[reds]

Tournaments may be suspended after this year. Make them count.

[mlag]

Congrats man. I'm sure Brennan had a blast fishing with dad............Mark

[B-Faithful]

Brennan had a blast but was ready to skip fishing today.

Reds, as long as there are open seasons I will fight for tournaments. Tournament anglers are subject to the same regs as any other fishermen whether they are fishing a tournament or not. No special priviledges are given to those fishing a tournament. Some tournaments have tighter regulations than (MSSA tournament has a 36" min).

[reds]

Originally Posted by B-Faithful

Brennan had a blast but was ready to skip fishing today.

Reds, as long as there are open seasons I will fight for tournaments. Tournament anglers are subject to the same regs as any other fishermen whether they are fishing a tournament or not. No special priviledges are given to those fishing a tournament. Some tournaments have tighter regulations than (MSSA tournament has a 36" min).

It didn't take much to move the tournaments back to May. A mandatory 50 percent reduction in catch will move them back to What? December.

[Hockleyneck]

Originally Posted by reds

It didn't take much to move the tournaments back to May. A mandatory 50 percent reduction in catch will move them back to What? December.

I like to eat rockfish but would support a 50% reduction in the total catch. Lets hope they do it for all states and address the menhaden fleet as well. More C&R and non kill tournaments would be great for the long term health of this fishery.

[reds]

Originally Posted by Hockleyneck

I like to eat rockfish but would support a 50% reduction in the total catch. Lets hope they do it for all states and address the menhaden fleet as well. More C&R and non kill tournaments would be great for the long term health of this fishery.

C&R will take a hit also. The stress on C&R fish is well known. Never mind the great handling act some do while picture taking. The user groups will be pointing fingers and nobody wins

Get a new hobby guys, by Chesapeake Bay user groups trying to screw each other, the northern boys will reign.

[B-Faithful]

If that is the case then we need new representation at the ASMFC...

[B-Faithful]

Originally Posted by reds

It didn't take much to move the tournaments back to May. A mandatory 50 percent reduction in catch will move them back to What? December.

The topic of tournaments was brought up at a fall SFAC meeting. Appeared that most said that the DNR shouldnt even monitoring tournments given that anglers are fishing within regulations. See page 79 here for transcripts: http://dnr.maryland.gov/fisheries/ma...Transcirpt.pdf

I will start now by saying that I believe DNR should strongly consider the no-take slot from 2007 to effectively achieve a reduction if necessary. It proved to be very effective as despite an increase in participation in 2007 over 2006 that the harvest was reduced by half even with a 33" min in 06. Tow hurdles to climb in Maryland though. 1. Charter boats capts claimed all those fish died, which I believe to be untrue unless they were not handled properly. 2. DNR complained about the number of recreational violations of the no-take slot. To me this was more of a problem due to a lack of consistancy in regulations from year to year. The first year level of violations would decrease with consistancy to the next year.

[der Fischadler]

Originally Posted by reds

Tournaments may be suspended after this year. Make them count.

Reds is right on.

[B-Faithful]

Funny how a tournament is deemed greed when the vast majority of people pay lots of money to participate, yet very few win.

One would think that greed would moreso be not wanting others to be able to participate in recreational fishing the way they want or not wanting high levels of participation in fishing so they can have more of the resource to themselves.

Tournaments are celebrations of recreational fishing season in a competitive setting. Anglers participating in tournaments are fishing under the same regulations and guidelines as every other angler on the bay whether they are tournament fishing or not. The state management creels and size limits are not liberalized for those participating in a tournament. The MSSA tournament even has a much larger min size and tighter creel than those not participating in the tournament. (Maybe the state regulations should match those of the tournament - 36" min and max 2 fish per boat per day).

Lets face it, most anglers are competitive whether they are in a tournament or not. The competitiveness can be the simple trash talking on a boat between anglers over who caught the larger fish, or even those over internet boards who want to be recognized as superior fishermen than others based on the way they enjoy to fish. Tournaments are merely organizing the competitiveness of anglers into a controlled event. No one is forced or even obligated to participate should they not enjoy the setting or the rules of a particular event.

To make others feel good, according to a conversation with the MSSA yesterday it was confirmed that less than one fish for every two boats entered was weighed-in in the name of the tournament despite the tournament being 3 days long. Yes, The number of fish weighed was less than half as many boats entered. My bet is that those not fishing the tournament this past weekend were more likely to keep a limit of fish than those who did participate. I know the most fish we kept in one day of the tournament was 2 despite a crew of 5 and one of the fish was only kept because we believed that it would not have survived the release (hook in the gills). We didnt want the fish to go to waste and it will be consumed.