I think that, " Catch and release," as far as stocked trout go, has gotten a little out of hand. The spots I fish here in eastern Mass., do not suport holdover fish as far as I can tell. Every fish I catch is a freshly stocked fish. I feel that if I throw
it back, it'll either be caught by someone else or die anyways. I'd rather throw it in the frying pan. There are ponds here, like Little, and Long Ponds, in Plymouth which support hold-over populations. Even here though, these fish get so much fishing p
ressure, that if you throw them back, they're probably going to get caught by the power bait crew from Dorchester and Roslindale. I'm just not going to feel guilty about keeping these trout.
In Vermont this year, I kept a number of wild Brook Trout. Vermont has a fishery which is probably very similar to what the pilgrims found in Mass. when they arrived. There are simply too-many fish and not enough fishing pressure to hurt the population. B
rookies are prodigous breeders, and tend to overpopulate the streams they inhabit, to such a degree that none of them can grow very large due to lack of food. I think keeping some of these little brookies, actually helps the population. I won't have the o
pportunity to catch enough of them to make a difference anyways.
As far as the stripers go, the more I hear, the more convinced I am that slot-limits are the way to go. If the state won't do it, we can limit ourselves like Larry has, keep fish between 28-32". Keeping the prime breeders is surely not the way to maximize
the fishery.
I'd still like to see some convincing evidence that recreational fishermen are taking more fish than commercials. I fished about 100-times this year, and only saw three keepers, none of which was mine. I'm beginning to suspect that recreational charter fi
shing is having a bigger effect on the population than I previously realized.
I agree with bob g., also that the lack of bait inshore is a serious issue which has to be addressed. Look at the blueback herring counts from Caleb's post. It's scary. No herring, no pogies, no squid. What are the big bass feeding on? Probably juvi polla
ck and cod, and lobsters. That can't be good.
Stop feeling guilty. Eat a fish or two.
Jay