cheapdate
Eight Pointer
Why on earth would you defend inside shrimp trawling (unless you are a shrimp trawler), when it's those boats that are putting local mom and pop comms out of business? There is a boat working our sounds right now that is from Texas! There is another one from Georgia! Why are they here? Because they can't trawl inside in their home states anymore. I have no sympathy for anyone who would defend to the last a type of commercial fishing that is putting their own ability to commercial fish out of business.Oh no, we agree on some things but it's never gonna be enough for you until every rec in the state can go limit out every single time he hooks up his boat. YOU made it comms vs recs by excluding other possible influences. YOU wanted to limit the discussion. And when you do that, what's left? Recs and Comms. Well let's do it!
You're research oriented, how about researching how many regs have come down in the past ten years on each side, none of which, if I listen to you, have made one bit of difference or else we wouldn't be having this discussion. When was the last time a rec was forced to have an "observer" on HIS vessel to monitor HIS catch? It's getting like gun control, "just pass one more law and that will make it wonderful and safe for everyone and unicorns will return, yippee!" Horse hockey.
Wasn't that many years ago they wanted all trawls, long or short, narrow or wide, out of the creeks. They got it. Now you want them out of the sounds and rivers. Then we'll ban gillnetting. What's next, a "rec only" month every year? Only people from west of I-95 can fish?
And please, don't come at me with "it should be fair for everyone", that's laughable and not at all what you after. Never has been.
Listen up. These waters don't give a rat's behind about how far you drove or how much you paid for your boat and they don't pass out trophies at the dock for coming in last OR first. Only one thing matters: Either you can catch fish or you can't. That applies to recs and comms alike and it's always been that way. And that's about as fair as it gets on the water....