Tog survey

Everyone, and I mean, everyone should be voting for a slot on this - if you have any common sense at all.

I think they got the whole idea of a slot wrong, just like all the striper slot proposals I've seen, because the issue they are trying to address is reduction in pounds retained, not improving the fishery.

There are lots of small blackfish around. I catch more number of blackfish than I ever have. However, I catch far fewer large blackfish compared to the past.

These small fish swarm the food supply. Selective harvesting of large fish damages the gene pool. Based on what I have seen in freshwater lakes, If they went to 3 fish at 14-19, reduced the numbers of small fish (even if that reduced total biomass) and let the breeders with good genes reproduce, I am convinced we could get the large fish to small fish ratio back to where it should be, while keeping anglers, and the industries they support happy.

Same thing with sea bass. I've never seen so many sea bass nor so few over 15 inches.

However, that type of management is not possible if all the regulators care about is total biomass and pounds retained.