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SUBJECT: # 3573: Mass Commercial Striper Season to go all summer
Submitted by Mike Y (155.91.6.20) from NEW JERSEY on 4/7/1999 8:59:00 AM
I have been told that the new fishing regs are out for Mass and the Commercial fishing will go ALL SUMMER, four days on three days off. Bass must be 36" to sell. I was also told that the fish can be sold in NY.
Can someone confirm this and/or point me to a site for the regulations?
Sounds like if you can ship and sell to NY that will put a pretty large demand on the fishery. Prices will be high and participation will be large.
Mike Y
- 4/7/1999 10:10:00 AM
Submitted by
Jeff H (204.60.9.220) from CONNECTICUT says Mass Bass
Although you indicate the season will go all summer, I'm sure that this is still subject to the state quota. It wouldn't surprise me if they close it on Friday, Saturday and Sunday to keep out-of-staters from sharing in the take.......isn't greed great!
- 4/7/1999 10:57:00 AM
Submitted by
TimS (209.191.48.168) from NEW JERSEY says Selling the fish...
Even if you weren't allowed to sell them in NY....what's to stop you? Hell, you can even sell them in NJ if you don't mind the drive. You can sell them pretty much anywhere you want, all you need is a buyer....and there's no shortage of them, even in NJ where the sale of stripers has been illegal for years...you can't even barter for a striper or striper part in NJ....but the sale goes on!The only difference, they count the ones that are sold legally...they come off the quota...the rest, well....they just don't count...unless you're the guy lining your wallet with 'em.
It's only illegal if you get caught, and the odds of that happening are just a little better than hitting the Pick 6.....
TimS
- 4/7/1999 1:34:00 PM
Submitted by
Saltheart (192.94.94.33) from RHODE ISLAND says New Mass Regs
The new regs are aimed specifically at the weekend commercial guys. No sales of fish Friday , Sat , Sun. They hope to reduce the number of guys who sell their weekend catch but don't make there living all week fishing. Anyway , thats what they are trying to do.
- 4/7/1999 1:49:00 PM
Submitted by
Mike P (207.97.160.48) from NEW YORK says Mass has a quota.
Mike, this is nothing new. Every year since they re-opened the issuing of licenses, Mass has scheduled a season opening July 1 and running until either the end of September OR until their quota is reached. In actual practice, the quota has always been reached prior to Labor Day. Last year the season was open the first 3 weeks of the month and closed the remainder. So this year they are apparently tweaking that to make it 4 days on, 3 days off. The rationale for this, according to DMF, is to try to extend the season so that more people can benefit from it and to try to keep the market price from collapsing due to a flood of bass on the market.I would estimate that 95% of the "commercial" license holders in Mass are Rec guys who sell their catch. 4% are charter capts. Only 1% are true commercial fishermen. This is not based upon any hard data, just my gut impression from the years I've spent up there.
On the sale in NY, I am pretty sure that this reg does not allow individual license holders to transport fish outside of Mass for sale. What it may do is allow the markets and wholesalers to sell bass caught out of state in NY while our commercial season, which doesn't open until Sept 15, is closed. All such fish will have to be tagged with the state of origin in order to be legally sold in NY markets, and only the wholesalers and markets in Mass have these tags. But, before I sound like a flack for the commercials, let me say that I am not so naive as to believe that large scale cheating doesn't go on.
- 4/7/1999 2:33:00 PM
Submitted by
Saltheart (192.94.94.61) from RHODE ISLAND says Fish in coolers all weekend
i think you will find a lot of guys will be keeping fish in coolers a long time now waiting for the markets to open after aweekend of fishing. A fish caught Thursday night is going to be pretty shitski after sitting in a cooler for the weekend. Sounds dumb but I bet that's what will happen.
- 4/7/1999 6:23:00 PM
Submitted by
Mike, Cape Cod Tackle from ALABAMA says don't belive it till i see it in print
all the meetings for the DMF for the striped bass regulations were illegal . they were to give 21 days notice before having a meeting their news letter with the dates were sent out only 5 days prior to the meetings. don't know what will happen with this. but i know it's not over. the size is fine with me, but it's they way they rigged it i don't like.Mike
- 4/7/1999 10:56:00 PM
Submitted by
Capt. Johnny B (209.51.226.13) from MASSACHUSETTS says Bass Season
The hearing dates were released to the public by DMF well over a month before they occured. I do not think that the hearings were illegal simply because the dates were not put in the newsletter until the closest issue to the hearings. The DMF news is published quarterly so it was probably impossible to put the dates in a previous issue because that would have meant the scheduling of the dates had to occur in December. At any rate, every conservation and commercial group I know of was well aware of the hearings. Anybody who did not know of them simply made no effort to find out about these yearly hearings. I do not know exactly what was approved but I can give some insight into the logic behind the proposals. The proposal was to raise the minimum size limit to 36" and have a 4 day on 3 day off schedule. The fishing days proposed were S,M,T,W- days off T,F,S. The days off are strategic in that they help stem the Monday glut of fish in Boston. What was happening was that Fish caught on Friday,Saturday, and Sunday would could not be moved by the Boston Companies until Monday because the fish pier is closed on the weekend. It is obvious to see the proposal would improve both the price paid to the fisherman and the product in the distribution chain. The change to 36" was again designed to slow the flow of product to a more appropriate level. I do not recall if there was any proposal to change from the post 4th of July weekend opening back to the July 1 opening of 4 years ago. The people who put forth these comprimises were representatives of many groups who took a great deal of time to reach a consensus. They deserve a whole bunch of respect for the way they worked together. A 28 day commercial season like we had in '98 does not make sense for anybody.