23mako
Ten Pointer
How good the fishing was? We have been pounding the founder this year. Limits every day. All depends on where you fish. Several crabbers have been getting a good amount of keepers in their pots. That is saying something. People are not seeing as many when they go gigging at night. Much of that has to do with pressure. Gigging has gotten popular with bow fishermen. I see tons of camo boats rigged out with big lights. Many from the western part of the state. We see people gigging most every night behind the house. Fish learn to stay away from those lights.
I think there are only 1400 pound netters left in NC. Six years ago there were 4,300. NC has a lot of water and people want to eat native flounder. Most of my friends are only rigging out half of their pound nets this year. They are expensive to rig and people are tired of being regulated to death.
Guess the goal is for everyone on the water to work for the government. Hopefully the Park Service, NC Ferry Department and Cherry Point will have more jobs in the near future. People need to spend some time on the water before they go making assumptions.
Is it not reasonable to assume that the flounder fishing this year is good because the harvest over the last 3 years (2016-2018) has been a lot less than what it was in the preceding 3 years (2013-2015)?
Does this not prove the point that if we harvest less there will be more in the future? And that to truly rebuild stocks will require less harvest than what has been done in the past?