ATTENTION GUYS!!!!

[roadwarrior]

The Feds are NOT putting rstrictions

on recreational fishing. PLEASE refer to ESPN's

apology for posting an op-ed as hard news.

We have removed a number of threads over

the last few days. PLEASE, do not start another

thread on this topic.

In a March 9 piece on ESPNOutdoors.com, Robert Montgomery wrote that the "Obama administration will accept no more public input for a federal strategy that could prohibit U.S. citizens from fishing some of the nation's oceans, coastal areas, Great Lakes, and even inland waters." ESPNOutdoors.com executive editor Steve Bowman later posted the following acknowledgement on the site:

    ESPNOutdoors.com inadvertently contributed to a flare-up Tuesday when we posted the latest piece in a series of stories on President Barack Obama's newly created Ocean Policy Task Force, a column written by Robert Montgomery, a conservation writer for BASS since 1985. Regrettably, we made several errors in the editing and presentation of this installment. Though our series has included numerous news stories on the topic, this was not one of those -- it was an opinion piece, and should clearly have been labeled as commentary.

    And while our series overall has examined several sides of the topic, this particular column was not properly balanced and failed to represent contrary points of view. We have reached out to people on every side of the issue and reported their points of view -- if they chose to respond -- throughout the series, but failed to do so in this specific column.

____________________

-Kent a.k.a. roadwarrior

Global Moderator

[SPEEDBEAD.]

That is good news.

I follow fish/game laws but I have to say they would have been prying the fishing rod out of my cold, dead right hand.

Why the right, you ask?

Because the other one is holding the pistol...   

[Shad_Master]

I applaud the moderators for taking the position to stay away from politics.  We had this same discussion come up on our local club forum - unfortunately it was one of the moderators that first introduced the subject and did it in such a way that it was immediately a political debate rather than an investigation of the facts - once the facts were able to filter through we were able to head off what could have become a real ugly scenario.

[DINK WHISPERER]

Good to hear, i was just getting ready to list my boat for sale.............LOL

[CWB]

That is good news.

I follow fish/game laws but I have to say they would have been prying the fishing rod out of my cold, dead right hand.

Why the right, you ask?

Because the other one is holding the pistol...

Well put, Speed.

[roadwarrior]

Several posts on this thread have been deleted.

I posted this as a "Heads-Up", not to resurrect

additional discussion. This thread will remain open

so other members will see it, but the "topic" is

closed.

-Kent

[Fishing Rhino]

At present, they "are not" putting restrictions on recreational fishing.  If they were, it would be too late to do anything about it.

The question should be, are they considering the possibility of putting restrictions on recreational fishing.  If they are, now is the time to act. 

Any actions, to be effective, have to take place before the fact.  Once something is enacted, legislated, or regulated, it's nigh onto impossible to get it rescinded.

Always keep in mind, politicians legislate, bureaucrats regulate, and their regulations have the force of law.

[BigEbass]

Wow, thanks for clearing that up - as I recall too there were 2 articles - one in Bassin and one is Bassmaster that alluded to all of this "concern" about possible restrictions on recreational fishing.....I guess someone took this pretty far.  Although I suppose all of us weekend warriors should always be ready to fend off such....but I just cannot see them stopping many of us from fishing - it would be extremely politically unpopular!!

And I agree that we should keep out all of these discussions from these sites because it always turns into a political food fight IMO.

[Hooligan]

Kudo's.  I just feel bad for Montgomery, he's been dragged through the mud because of an OP ed piece that was politicized.  People taking what they want, and making it into something it isn't.  Bum deal for the guy.

[J Francho]

[Paul Roberts]

I applaud the moderators for taking the position to stay away from politics.

Absolutely. Very well done. Can't say that about some other boards that decided to let such an inflammatroy piece go unchecked. And thank you for the update.

8-)

[J Francho]

Here's the interesting thing to me.  This was open for input starting back in October 2009.  The document was a charter for starting a task force on the oceans and Great lakes fishery management.  The part that rankled anglers was that there was no distinction made between commercial and recreational fishing.  I can't help but to think that even though the the time to express our views about the task force had expired, that public outcry actually elicited an official response.

Now, when this comes up again, and surely it will....

Will this event finally be the wake up call for bass anglers to organize and express their opinions to elected government officials?  We are the most disorganized of all the angling groups, yet represent the majority, by a long shot, if you include crappie and panfish anglers into the mix, yet other groups seem to get anything they want, simply because they are organized, and have a unified voice....Trout Unlimited....ahem....

We need a unified voice.

[Paul Roberts]

A unified voice requires some tolerance. That just doesn't seem to be part of today's voice.

[J Francho]

Trout guys here in NY get a fin clipping machine.  We got ramp closures in August.

[Fishing Rhino]

Trout guys here in NY get a fin clipping machine. We got ramp closures in August.

What's the purpose of a fin clipping machine?

In Maine, lobstermen v-notch one of the segments of the tail of egg bearing lobsters.  It marks them as fertile females, and they cannot be harvested.  They must be returned to the sea.

The notch disappears after a few moltings.  It makes sure that the lobster gets a few more times to reproduce before she can be legally  harvested.  Unless she gets v-notched again.

[J Francho]

So they can look up what year the fish was stocked.... $1.2 million :

[Paul Roberts]

I gave up on TU when they gave up on public access legislation. Those that has -gets.

[Glenn]

Ok guys, this post was started for informational purposes only. 

I'm sorry to say, but we need to end the discussion, as there's no way to keep politics out of it.

Final warning.

[J Francho]

What is "political" about telling people to speak up for themselves?

[Shad_Master]

At the risk of being the one who puts the final nail in this coffin - if you read the actual report that was referenced in the ESPN article (you can find it on-line) it actually says that the purpose of this whole study is to study how best to preserve fishing along the ocean fronts and the in-land waterways for both commercial and recreational fishing.  There is nothing in the report about restricting recreational fishing at all.

The problem is politics evoke emotions - facts provide information.  It is good to study these things in case they do take a wrong turn somewhere, but getting all jazzed up over something that hasn't happened only leads to misunderstanding and a break down of communication.

[Tin]

So they can look up what year the fish was stocked.... $1.2 million :

  Wow, I can't believe that is it. I remember there was a lot of ticked off people a few year back when it came out RI was spending between 5-7 million a year in stocking. We were second or third in the country.

[J Francho]

That's it, Tin.  The "masses" asked for it, and they got it.

[Paul Roberts]

At the risk of being the one who puts the final nail in this coffin - if you read the actual report that was referenced in the ESPN article (you can find it on-line) it actually says that the purpose of this whole study is to study how best to preserve fishing along the ocean fronts and the in-land waterways for both commercial and recreational fishing. There is nothing in the report about restricting recreational fishing at all.

The problem is politics evoke emotions - facts provide information. It is good to study these things in case they do take a wrong turn somewhere, but getting all jazzed up over something that hasn't happened only leads to misunderstanding and a break down of communication.

Excellent post SM. And why Glenn's and crew's job is tricky.

[Paul Roberts]

That's it, Tin. The "masses" asked for it, and they got it.

Yeah, but, and I haven't looked at it in recent years but the salmonid fishery interests have dominated NYS fisheries for a long time. It was developed, brought money from Albany and Feds for economic development and has clout.

Bass fishing is marginalized. Maybe that's changed? I am not surprised how money is earmarked there. Probably, ramps are probably under a different line than fin-clipping machines.

[J Francho]

We are a bigger group of anglers in NY, and yet when you go to meetings, bass get about 5 minutes of time. The dollars and cents that go into trout management and conservation is grossly disproportional to the dollars and cents bass and panfish anglers generate in revenue.